A discussion about corporate and business podcasting with tips and guidelines

I've talked about the Long Tail concept in terms of podcasting before. I won't go into it again because it's a topic all unto itself, but my background on it is here.

There's a growing market of authors who are podcasting their books either as the only distribution medium, or as a supplemental medium to a traditional book. That's established and growing. What I haven't seen before now is an author podcasting a book that has already been on the shelves for a while. That's what John Farrell is doing with his book "Doctor Janeway's Plague" published in 2000.

“Once you get people listening, it creates a buzz and gets people interested,” he said. “It’s as much about getting the work out there as marketing it and pushing it in hopes that you can break in.”

I hadn't considered podcasting as a method of extending the life of an already existing book, but why not? One of the strengths of podcasting is the "time shifted" thingy where people can choose to listen to content when its convenient for them. For me, books just aren't convenient at all, but a podcasted book - new or old - is.

I guess the idea isn't new. Books on tape have been around forever, but it's interesting to see what publishers and authors are doing with it.