Podcast interviews for self-published authors, without pitching a single host.

Why podcast interviews suit self-published authors

Readers buy books from authors they feel they know. A podcast interview is one of the few formats where a reader can spend ten minutes hearing you think aloud about your book, in your own voice, before deciding whether to spend their money and their evenings on it.

For a self-published author the hard part is getting booked. Established book shows receive far more pitches than they can accept, and an author without a publicist is pitching alone, often for a book that has few reviews yet. Dozens of pitches for a handful of appearances is a normal result, and the appearances often land months after launch week.

AIHosts.fm removes that step. The shows are ready to record, the host prepares from your book and your bio, and you can have a finished interview the same week you decide to do one.

Choosing the right show for your book

Choose a show by who listens to it, not by whether the word "books" is in its name. Novelists and poets usually belong on a books show. Nonfiction authors often do better on the show for their subject, because its listeners are already interested in the problem the book addresses.

Where different books usually fit

• Literary and general fiction: Writers Talking, which is about the craft of writing, or The Reading Room, which is about the ideas behind a book.
• Science fiction and fantasy: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, for world-building, series planning and genre craft.
• Poetry: Poetry Hour.
• Memoir and personal stories: the personal journal shows, such as Second Acts, The Immigrant Story and Loss & Grief.
• Business, self-help, history and other nonfiction: the show for your subject, for example Founder Floor, Habits & Behavior Change, Parenting Honestly or History Now.

If you are unsure, the fit suggestions in your dashboard compare your profile with every show in the network and explain each match. You can also browse all the shows by category.

Briefing the host with your book

The booking form asks for your bio, your links and the angle you want the interview to take. It also accepts up to three reference files of up to 15 MB each, as PDF, Word (DOCX), EPUB, plain text or Markdown. Most authors upload the book itself or a sample of it.

The host does not read a whole book before a nine-minute interview. It prepares from the opening of each file, plus the passages that match your topic angle, taken from roughly the first 7,000 words. If the part you most want to discuss sits in chapter nine, upload that chapter as its own file, or add a one-page summary of the points you want to reach.

Use the angle box to say what the interview should cover and what it should avoid. For a novel, that is the place to write "no spoilers past chapter three". For nonfiction, name the one idea you want listeners to leave with.

Talking about your book without sounding like an advert

Listeners drift away when an interview turns into a sales pitch, and they lean in when an author tells them something true and specific. A book sells best when it is the evidence for a good conversation rather than the subject of a long plot summary.

Before you record, prepare

• A ninety-second answer to "what is the book about?" Start with the question or problem behind the book rather than the plot, and practise it aloud until it sounds like you talking rather than reading.
• Three short stories. Why you wrote it, a moment in the writing that surprised you, and a reader's reaction or a scene that shows what the book does. Stories are what listeners repeat afterwards.
• One reader in mind. Describe who the book is for so precisely that the right listener recognises themselves.
• One mention of where to find it. Say the title clearly and give one place to buy it, usually near the end. The links in your profile also appear on the episode page.

Wear headphones and record in a quiet room with soft furnishings. Speakers cause echo that editing cannot fully remove, and that matters more than the price of the microphone.

Using the episode for your book

Every episode is published on its show's public feed with its own episode page, show notes and transcript. Some shows in the network are also listed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music and some are not, so the episode page is the link to share, because it always works.

Ways authors use a published interview

• Send it to your newsletter list with one idea from the conversation, rather than simply saying you were on a podcast.
• Add it to a media or interviews page on your author website, where readers, reviewers and event organisers can get a sense of you.
• Post the short clips and quote graphics from the marketing kit across the weeks around your launch, rather than all on one day.
• Use it as your sample link when you pitch human-hosted podcasts, bookshops, libraries and festivals. A host who can hear you speak clearly is far more likely to say yes.

Be realistic about what one interview does. It rarely moves a sales chart by itself. Its value is that it keeps working: the page, the transcript and the clips stay useful long after launch week.

What this is, and what it is not

The host is an AI interviewer, and every episode's show notes say so. You are a real person answering in your own words, and nothing you say is scripted for you. The interview is a live conversation, so the questions follow your answers rather than a fixed list.

It is not a substitute for an appearance on an established show whose audience you particularly want. For that, a well-researched pitch is still the way in, and our guide on how to get on podcasts as a guest explains how to write one. Many authors do both: they record here first, then use the episode as proof in their pitches.

Getting started

Create an account, write your author profile, and pick a show. Your first interview is free, so the honest test is to record one and listen to the result. You can add the clips, graphics and social copy for that episode as a one-time promotion kit, or choose a paid plan for more interviews with the kit included. Both are in the pricing table below.