One of the best ways to keep up with developments and trends in the world of books is by tuning in to some really good podcasts for writers.
We recently wrote about using podcasts as a marketing tool for writers, but they are also a great education resource.
Podcasts are becoming a primary source of niche-specific information for more and more people and continue to surge in popularity across the globe.
By the end of 2022, 424 million people will be listening to podcasts, according to research from DemandSage, a data insight provider in Boston, Massachusetts.
How many of these listeners are writers is impossible to tell, but we do know there’s no shortage of shows about writing.
Do a quick search for the word on Spotify, the world’s second most popular podcast platform, and you’ll find 1000 different shows!
Most of them are for general audiences, like “How Writers Write,” while others are extremely specific, such as “The Sisters in Crime Writers’ Podcast” for women working in that genre.
Vetting podcasts can be a commitment with the average episode running longer than a half hour, so finding the best one for you is time taking to say the least.
To help, we’ve made the list below of our top five with a longer resource directory on the Valley of Writers website here.
DIY MFA
DIY MFA is more than a podcast, it’s a community. It all started in 2016 when host Gabriela Pereira wrote a book for Writers’ Digest under the same name, a do it yourself guide to a master of fine arts in creative writing.
Since then, she’s created classes, connection hubs, and other programming that helps around 21,000 participating writers learn how to build community, read with purpose, and write with focus.
This includes the podcast, where Pereira chats with well known authors about craft in a very approachable way.
Vox Vomitus
The Vox Vomitus podcast isn’t just insightful — it’s downright hilarious.
Hosts Jennifer Anne Gordon and Allison Martine welcome serious writers like Charlane Harris and SA Cosby, but they also aren’t afraid to have a little fun.
Listening, it’s easy to forget the show is a podcast; it feels more like eavesdropping on a conversation with friends.
The program is part of Authors on the Air, an international network that produces dozens of podcasts on writing.
Desideratum
Another Authors on the Air show, Desideratum focuses on desire, be it the desire we have to write or the desire that moves characters and narratives forward.
For a podcast that’s so tightly focused, host Theresa Bakken is able to cover a remarkable berth of ideas as she chats with authors about how the concept manifests in their most recently published books.
Bakken’s day job is as a professional audiobook narrator, a talent she brings to each episode, making the podcast not just informative, but also quite comfortable to hear.
Beyond the Zero
Beyond the Zero is tops if you’re into the indie scene — smaller literary presses, that is, not self publishing; although, there are plenty of podcasts on that too.
While other programs tend to host guest authors from largely the Big 5, this Australia based podcast welcomes writers from up and coming houses like Flexible Press, Rare Machines, and Whiskey Tit.
By hosting a wide diversity of authors, Beyond the Zero episodes tend to focus more on literary than commercial writing.
Across the Pond
Taking its title from the popular nickname for the distance between the United States and the United Kingdom, Across the Pond looks at how books are received in one country versus the other.
With the fading line between American and British publishers and book sales, it can be helpful for writers to know how the two audiences can read the same book, yet receive entirely different messages.
What makes your title a best-seller here but a flop over there? That’s what cohosts Lori Feathers, an American bookseller, and Sam Jordison, a British publisher, discuss.
Author: Terena Bell
Terena Bell has reported on books and writing for The Boston Globe, The Guardian, Smithsonian Magazine, and others. Her debut short story collection, Tell Me What You See, published with Whiskey Tit in 2022. A Sinking Fork, Kentucky native, she lives in New York. Learn more at terenabell.com.
