It’s the first Wednesday of the month and time for another posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

I’ve found that the best way to get good at doing something is to practice. A lot. So I decided that I would have a podcast so I’ll learn to navigate all the things surrounding audio production.

It was so much different from taking singing lessons at a professional studio – though there have been similarities.

Let’s start with what you need to figure out when deciding to do a podcast.

Questions to ask yourself:

• What do I enjoy talking about?
• What will be sustainable? E.g. I won’t get bored after a couple of episodes.
• What ties in with my writing so this can be a content marketing avenue?
• What have I already done that can work in audio?
• How long will each episode be? (This determines if you will do an in-depth type of episode that runs for an hour, or something people can just dip into while drinking coffee but gives a proper overview of the topic in ten minutes.)
• Will this be a weekly podcast or will it be broken up in seasons that only go out a specific time of year?
• Will I do interviews?
• Will this be a solo podcast or one with different presenters?
• Who will the sponsors be?

This will help you whittle down to the core of what your podcast will be about.

Personally, I decided to go with folklore. I’ve written a bunch of folklore posts, but decided to keep it short, so I wrote the folklore in a nutshell bit for each so it will be a quick, yet thorough overview of each topic in every episode. I also decided to keep similar creatures/topics together so listeners have an idea of what to expect. At first, I only published every second week. Then I moved it to every week, but not in the months of the Solstice or Equinox. And then it became weekly, but it also became bilingual as every other week the podcast is in Afrikaans, beginning with the first episode.

As the podcast changed and grew, so did my listenership. Now I’m technically serving two audiences with the same content but in their language of choice. I won’t be doing the podcast in more languages as these are the only ones I’m fluid in and I don’t want to use AI or overextend myself.

Each episode is around ten minutes in length – sometimes shorter or a bit longer, depending on the topic. I stick to one faery per episode.

Personally, I sponsor my own podcast by mentioning a book or series. I also encourage listeners to buy me a coffee. This is mainly to help with the hosting fees. But you can get corporate sponsors or other authors, use the ads marketplace on your hosting provider, or whatever you feel like doing – just make sure it fits with your podcast.

So once you’ve figured all of this out, you need to answer a few other questions.

• Which podcast hosting service will I use? (There are several, but I decided to use one a friend uses that is pocket-friendly and allows international podcasters to use it.)
• What do I need my hosting service to provide? (This will help you choose which hosting service is the best for you.)
• What will my podcast’s name be? (Look at similar ones in the niche you’ve chosen to get an idea of what listeners expect.)
• What will my brand be for the podcast?

I decided on Podbean as their basic paid plan (Unlimited Audio) works within my budget and covers everything I need. I use a local company for my domain name as I already use them for my website and know that they are reliable. (domains.co.za)

As for the name, I decided to go with something that will tell the listener exactly what they can expect: faeries, folklore and me.

This ties into the brand. I talk about the original folklore of a faery creature and how I use it in my writing.

You can make your own podcast cover on Canva. They have several templates if you’re not great at designing and you can change the colours, images, etc. to fit your needs.

I also include a transcript to each episode – hosted on Google Docs. It is repeated in the blog post I publish each Monday after an episode goes live on Thursday with all the necessary links where you can listen to it.

And though episodes are published widely through Podbean, I also make a little video on Canva to publish it on YouTube. It’s basically a static image with the audio. It works for me. But you can always do a video version of your podcast and then rip the audio and edit it for the audio-only channels. (Check out the Self-Publishing Show for a visual of how this looks.)

Now for the recording part.

The tech

There are several recording programs you can use, paid or free. I like Audacity. It’s free, it’s functional, and it’s user-friendly – meaning it works with my brain. You can disagree here, but this is what works for me.

Everyone has their own favourite microphone. I decided on Samson Q2U dynamic microphone as its specs work perfectly for what I want to do (has USB to connect to computer, has inbuilt stereo headphone jack for no-latency monitoring during recording, and many other features). Add a pop-filter, a table stand, headphones and I’m set.

Yes, this set-up works with a laptop. You don’t need much more. If you want to go for something more high-tech and a lot more expensive, I’m not standing in your way. You do you.

I also use my tablet for the episode notes as paper makes noise.

How do you record?

Well, you go into your booth, open the program, press record and begin talking.

That’s the easy part.

Then you have to edit what you’ve recorded. You have to cut the hemming and hawing. You have to normalise the sound. You have to reduce the noise. You have to add a limiter so the sound doesn’t go too high or low. You have to add the recurring elements of your podcast (intro, sponsor, outro).

My first couple of episodes didn’t have the sound normalisation, noise reduction or limiter, so the sound isn’t as good as it can be. But I learned so much by experimenting. You live and learn, right? And Audacity has some great tutorials on everything you can possibly do with audio. And there are other podcasters who make YouTube tutorials for whatever you specifically need help with, too.

I still have some minor issues, but with each episode I catch something new and learn about it (why it happens, how to fix it – or how to replicate it).

It’s a fun adventure.

Do you have a podcast? Do you listen to podcasts? Do you have a favourite topic you like listening to/read about? You can find more author-centred posts here.

I have a book out to help authors with various parts of this audio journey:

Adventures in Audio: Audiobooks, Podcasts and More for Authors by Ronel Janse van Vuuren

Remember that you can request all of my books from your local library!

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