E. M. Rowan’s Field Notes

Ever thought about reading your novel aloud and then breaking it down into free podcasts?

I hadn’t, until I read this interview with author Seth Harwood on Editor Unleashed. You’ll have to read it for the full effect, but here’s an excerpt from Harwood:

So in July of ‘06, I started podcasting Jack Wakes Up. I figured it would be a fun experiment, and that it would help me move on from that novel and start writing something else. But pretty soon, listeners actually started writing in to say they liked what I was doing and that they wanted more, and my numbers started growing fast. Suddenly I felt like I was getting a little bit of exposure—and, more important, for the first time in my writing career I was actually getting consistent positive feedback from an audience, which was an amazing feeling.

Eventually I hooked up with a small press to put out Jack Wakes Up as a print on demand release. On the first day out, it hit #45 in books on Amazon and #1 in crime/mystery, all on the strength of my podcast listeners going out and buying it. After that, I heard from an agent right away and we were sending the manuscript to New York editors later that week!

How interesting! And kudos to Harwood for taking a risk that paid off. Maybe it didn’t feel like a risk to him … but it would feel that way to me. What if my efforts backfired somehow? Still, I can’t help but find the idea intriguing; I wonder if I might try it someday in the far future. 

But first, I want your opinion. Which would you prefer:  listening to a novel via podcasts, or reading progressive bits of text on a blog or website? If you didn’t personally know an unpublished author, would you take the time to listen to her novel-podcasts? If you liked it, would you tell others about it?

Anyone have ideas or opinions about podcasting novels? I’d love to hear them!