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Adventures in Self-Publishing: Radio Interviews

Being published in a newspaper is a fantastic way to reach your readers, both locally and state/nationwide, but never can it be compared to that of a radio interview. Yes, people will have the opportunity to reread the article written about you or your book at their convenience, but listening to news is completely different. National Public Radio, for example, speaks to millions of American citizens throughout the United States on a daily basis and receives a greater and quicker response than any other magazine or newspaper during any given time period.

When I wake in the morning and get into my car to drive somewhere, I immediately tune into my local radio station and wait for them to tell me about what’s happening around me. No matter if I hear something devastating about the government or even which highway is congested with the most amount of traffic, news is still news and since it’s thrown at me only once, I tend to listen more carefully compared to if I was reading about it in the morning paper.

Poet Aaron OzeeFinding a radio station that will interview you about your book or success in the publishing industry is not as difficult as it may initially come across. Getting in touch with a major radio station such as NPR is not impossible, but receiving a reply to your story submission from a specific show or any show for that matter is a bit rough around the edges.

If you have accomplished enough and are notable to a point where someone will recognize who you are just by hearing your name, then maybe you’ll get the call, but let’s be realistic here and assume that call will never make its way. Acquiring an interview with an internet station is more reasonable than targeting well-structured channels in the mainstream media. It’s not that your accomplishments aren’t great or don’t have comprehensible worth, it’s just that you need to start small and slowly build your portfolio in order to be seen as an expert in your field or at least be viewed as an individual that knows what they’re talking about.

When I decided to venture into radio, it was very difficult to find a hit radio station that was willing to interview me about my success in the self-publishing industry and actually consider me as an expert, but that is when I discovered AMCPress Live. Uncensored radio is a form of broadcasting that allows both the station’s hosts/co-hosts and the interviewees to be open about various topics and utilize profanity to express their opinions. I didn’t have a desire to swear or speak out against anyone, but I did see that AMCPress was open to hearing what I had to say about both myself as an author and the publishing industry as a whole.

One of the biggest advantages was that the owner and founder of the station gave me her direct phone number so that I could contact her if I had any questions about my interview or the questions that would be asked during the interview itself. Thankfully, as soon as the day of the interview came to pass, the entire process was smooth and didn’t show any signs of distress, for when the show began, I was able to call the station via Skype and speak freely as I wished.

Following the initial interview, I negotiated a deal with the owner that allowed me to be invited onto the show every month to be questioned about entrepreneurship and self-publishing. Every episode that I participated in was automatically published on multiple websites such as Youtube, Sticher and BlogTalk Radio, which immensely contributed to my rising fame as a renowned author/poet. The search results that are generated once you search my name on any popular search engine such as Google, Bing and Yahoo tripled within weeks of every episode’s publication.

My author pages on Facebook and Goodreads received more visits than ever before, ultimately due to the effects brought upon by AMCPress’ distribution of both my initial interview and every interview that followed. Not only did the total number of readers reading my works doubled, but AMCPress greatly benefited by gathering more listeners than they could possibly imagine from the popularity of a single special guest.

You don’t have to feel left-out of an industry just because no one within it is allowing you to enter, for all you need to do is look close enough and you will eventually find your way.

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Article is Copr. © 2013 by Aaron Ozee and originally published on PublishersNewswire.com (a publication of Neotrope) – all commercial and reprint rights reserved. Reproduction or republication in whole or in part without express permission is prohibited except under fair use provisions of international copyright law. Article cover illustration is Copr. © 2013 Christopher Simmons (derivative work based on clip art sourced via Microsoft Office ClipArt).