But I’m an “outlier” in my 55 and older age group.

Only 20% of us in this age category in the U.S. listen to podcasts. (The rest don’t know what they’re missing, including some great true crime stories like Sweet Bobby, the one I listened to on a road trip last weekend.)

Do your readers listen to podcasts?

What matters the most to you as an author, though, is whether your book’s target audience listens to them.

How do you know if they do? That starts with basic research into your category or genre’s demographics. (Learn how to do that with my “Who Will Buy Your Book?” video.)

Then you match your reader demographics with those of people who listen to podcasts.

Who listens to podcasts?

Fortunately, now that podcasts have grown in popularity, it’s not hard to find information about who does and doesn’t listen to them. The challenge is digging through the facts that aren’t relevant to you to find what is.

I’ve done that for you here.

Here are key statistics from Edison Research’s “The Infinite Dial 2022,” the longest-running survey of digital media consumer behavior in the U.S.:

• 79% of Americans — 226 million people — are familiar with podcasting.
• 38% of the U.S. population listened to a podcast in the past month.
• 53% of monthly listeners are male, 46% are female, 1% are nonbinary/other.
• Almost half — 47% — of monthly listeners are between the ages of 12 and 34.
• One-third — 33% — of monthly listeners are between the ages of 35 and 54.
• One-fifth — 20% — are 55 and older.
• 68% use Facebook, 64% use Instagram, 45% use TikTok; of those, Facebook is used most often by monthly listeners.
• Most monthly listeners are white at 68%, followed by African-American, 14%; Hispanic, 10%; Asian, 3%; other, 5%.
• Most — 21% — listened to four or five podcasts in the past week.
• At 59%, most listen to podcasts at home, with only 20% listening in their cars.

And here are global podcast facts from other sources:

• Globally, listenership reached a new high in 2020 with 485 million listeners worldwide. (Statista)
• Norway leads with the highest percentage of frequent listeners, followed by the U.S. and UK. (Statista)
• 27% of Canadian listeners tune in to three episodes a week. (Statista)
• Podcast listenership is growing the most in Chile at 85% followed by Argentina, 55.28%; Peru, 49.1%; Mexico, 47.84%. (MusicOomph)
• In the UK, 12% of the population listens to podcasts weekly. (MusicOomph)

Most popular podcast categories

What are the most popular podcast categories? Edison Research says these are the top 10 during the second quarter of 2022:

1. Comedy
2. News
3. Society and Culture
4. True Crime
5. Sports
6. Business
7. Arts
8. TV and Film
9. Education
10. Religion and Spirituality

Why should you care?

More and more people are listening to podcasts. According to Acumen Research and Consulting, the podcast market is expected to grow 31% yearly between 2022 and 2030.

Insider Intelligence reports that by the end of 2025, more than 144 million people in the U.S. will be listening to podcasts. And, this year, adult listeners will increase the time they spend listening to podcasts daily by 16% to just over 23 minutes.

That means that it’s increasingly likely that being interviewed on podcasts or hosting one yourself can help you build that essential author platform that ensures there’s an audience waiting to buy your book.

There are other options, too. Could you turn your book into a podcast the way Kate Hanley did with her nonfiction book, How to Be a Better Person?

If your book’s content lends itself to a podcast format, consider pitching a podcast series to one of the many organizations creating them, as well.

Use podcast facts as a guide

As you think about what role podcasts might play in your book marketing, keep in mind that statistics never tell the whole story.

For example, while those 55 and older make up the smallest percentage of podcast listeners, there are many retirement wealth and lifestyle podcasts. That tells me that there are podcasts specifically for people in that age range.

Whether or where podcasts fit into your book marketing goals depends on your interests and skills, too. Podcast interviews and hosting aren’t for everyone, even if your readers love them. And that’s okay. But if they are, these podcast facts might just nudge you closer to taking action.

Let’s do a little authors and podcasts research of our own! In the comments: Do you listen to podcasts? Please add your gender and age. Yes/no, age, gender.

(Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2016. It has been updated and expanded.)

Because many of her friends have influence with people the course is designed to help, I suggested she start by asking those friends to help spread the word. It’s a quick and easy way to begin moving forward.

But piggybacking onto someone else’s platform can – and should – involve far more than asking friends for support. The process is all about cross-promotion and collaboration.

How to leverage someone else’s network

It’s a smart strategy if you want to sell more books or other products, build an email list, or increase your social media follower count.

Here are eight ways to use the power of someone else’s network to reach your book marketing goals.

1. Do an Instagram takeover.

With an Instagram takeover, you literally take over someone’s Instagram account, posting your content instead of theirs. Create Instagram Stories and posts, or go live.

Keep in mind that this needs to be a mutually beneficial opportunity. Your host – perhaps another author in your genre – wants to know that you:

• Have an engaged audience that you’ll bring with you
• Will deliver quality, relevant content
• Will promote the takeover to your network

Keep the momentum going by arranging for your host to take over your account the following week.

2. Propose a newsletter swap.

A newsletter swap is a smart way to leverage someone else’s network while building relationships with others who reach your ideal readers.

With a newsletter swap, you and the influencer agree to promote each other’s books, programs, or products in your email newsletters.

I’ve got the how-to details in “How to do an author newsletter swap.”

3. Be a podcast guest.

Being any kind of guest is a great way to expand your reach, but I consider a podcast interview to be one of the easiest. Just show up and talk about something you know a lot about.

You’ll want to be thoughtful about what you say, of course. I always recommend working to communicate two or three key messages when you’re interviewed. Write them down ahead of time, and find ways to work each in at least once during the conversation.

Be sure to read “Message development: Know what you want to say and how to say it” first.

Support the podcast by promoting your appearance to your network so this is a win-win for all – you reach the podcast’s audience, but you also introduce your connections to the podcaster and their show.

4. Guest blog.

If you been hanging around here with me for a while, you know I’m a fan of guest blogging for several reasons.

When you write an article for someone else’s site, you’re providing an opportunity for your ideal readers to sample your writing.

via GIPHY

In addition, your host will most likely include a link to your book on Amazon or another retail site as part of your short guest blogger bio. (Learn the other reasons I love guest blogging in “4 reasons to embrace guest blogging.”)

Be careful to deliver a quality article that you’ve edited and carefully proofread. This isn’t an opportunity to “phone it in.” This should be a showpiece, not something you did so you could cross it off a list.

Get tips for being the best guest blogger ever in my free Guest Blogging Cheat Sheet.

5. Speak at a virtual or in-person summit.

via GIPHY

I do this once or twice a year, and I’m increasingly particular about the events I speak at so that I can maximize my time and reach.

I like to speak at events featuring other presenters who I’m fairly confident will promote the event to their networks.

When all speakers share summit news with their followers, everyone benefits. When they don’t, people in their networks aren’t exposed to helpful presentations and speakers, and other presenters don’t expand their reach and influence.

Speaking at a summit and offering free downloadable tips to attendees is one of the best ways I have for building my email list.

I usually create a new advice-packed “lead magnet” related to my presentation topic and require people to provide their email address to download it. They get bonus how-to information and my free, weekly, book marketing newsletter, and I can help more authors with articles like this one.

(Get fiction lead magnet ideas here and nonfiction ideas here.)

6. Bring well-connected people to your audience.

Do you have a blog or a podcast? Do you love using Facebook or Instagram Live? Invite influencers and others who share your audience to be your guest.

This helps you create quality content your followers will appreciate while your guest brings their audience to you, even while they’re connecting with yours.

Expand the impact by providing your guests with event text and images they can use to promote their guest appearances both before and after the events.

7. Get publicity.

Publicity – news media exposure – is the OG of audience leveraging.

Pre-social media, using publicity strategies to reach news outlets’ readers, viewers, and listeners was one of the only ways you could piggyback onto another’s platform.

Why should you work to reach audiences served by newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations, and content sites? Publicity will help you:

• Get discovered
• Be seen as an authority and expert
• Sell more books
• Appeal to libraries and bookstores
• Expand your platform

Because I’m a national award-winning former publicist, I’ve written about publicity quite a bit on this site. Scroll through the articles here, and be sure to register for my author publicity course, “Get Quoted: A Journalist’s Strategies for Using HARO to Snag Book Publicity.”

8. Propose a joint venture.

The dictionary defines a joint venture as “a commercial enterprise undertaken jointly by two or more parties which otherwise retain their distinct identities.”

For us, it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement where you partner equally with someone else to achieve a common goal.

Let’s go back to my friend’s situation. If her course is designed for people like you – my audience – she could propose that I host a free training with her that teaches something helpful and previews the course.

We agree that in exchange for access to my audience, we will split the income she earns from course registrations generated by our joint event. She expands her reach, I provide you with useful free training, and we’ve both earned something in the process.

That’s a solid joint venture.

Which of these options works for you?

You’re better suited to some of these than others, right? If you don’t have a blog or podcast, you won’t be inviting people to write for you and you won’t be interviewing them on air.

But if you’re killing it on Instagram, a takeover there might become your new best tactic. Love talking about the writing craft or your book’s topic? Look into being a podcast guest.

It doesn’t matter how many of these you’re willing to explore. What matters is that you pick at least one – just one – and learn how to make it happen. You’ll move in the right direction – forward!

Which of these works best for you already? Which one are you going to try now? Please tell us in a comment.

I was surprised by a recent email from someone who provides book marketing advice to authors.

“Do you want to sell more books?” the marketer asked in a message sent to subscribers. “Then create a daily or weekly podcast.”

They make their case for this approach to podcasts and authors by citing statistics about the increasing popularity of podcasts. The numbers are compelling.

But for the majority of you, creating a daily or weekly podcast doesn’t make sense.

Here’s alternative advice: Become a podcast guest.

Let me explain why.

Hosting a podcast is a lot of work

There are two big deterrents to hosting a daily, weekly, or even monthly podcast: time and technology.

Let’s start with time.

One of the biggest complaints I hear about book marketing in general from authors is, “It’s hard to find the time to do it.”

via GIPHY

Many authors have full-time jobs that make it difficult for them to find time to write their books, even. Eking out time for book marketing is equally challenging.

Others struggle to write a weekly blog post, send a monthly email newsletter, or maintain an effective social media presence. “I just don’t have enough time for it,” they say.

Even the authors I coach who are writing in retirement tell me they don’t want to spend all of their time writing and marketing. They need and want time away from a computer screen.

Which leads to the next obstacle for podcasts and authors.

Podcasting requires tech skills.

Any author who needed help setting up their book on Amazon will understand this immediately.

If you haven’t yet embraced email marketing because you’re intimidated by the technology involved, you get it.

Hosting a podcast requires you to be comfortable working with technology. You need to use the right equipment (recording via telephone or your webcam microphone won’t cut it) and edit audio files. You’ll also have to:

• Upload your recordings to multiple podcast platforms so you get the reach you need to make it worth your effort.
• Create and maintain a website that hosts the recordings and show notes.
• Promote your podcast so people know it exists (as with books, this isn’t an “if you build it, they will come” situation).

Which loops us right back to the time issue. If you don’t have enough time to write and market your books, how will you find time to host a daily or weekly podcast?

Become a podcast guest instead

It’s a whole lot easier to be a guest on somebody else’s show than to host your own. That’s why it makes sense for you to take advantage of the growing interest in podcasts by becoming a guest, not a host.

via GIPHY

The numbers support that strategy. A recent survey of 2,000 monthly podcast listeners by podcast platform Acast revealed that:

• 52 percent say they increased the amount of time they spent listening to podcasts in the previous six months
• 45 percent started listening to podcasts in the past year
• 70 percent enjoy listening to guest interviews
• 65 percent are focused on the show’s content when listening

It only makes sense if your ideal readers are podcast listeners, though. So who’s listening to them? PodcastHosting.org reports that in the U.S.:

• 51 percent of podcast listeners are male, while 49 percent are female
• 48 percent are ages 12-34
• 32 percent are ages 35-54
• 20 percent are ages 55 and older
• 63 percent are white
• 41 percent have household income greater than $75,000
• 25 percent have a four-year college degree

In addition, there are podcasts for nearly all topics and interests, so you’re likely to find shows that can help you connect with your audience.

How to become a podcast guest

Now that you see why becoming a guest rather than a host makes sense, you might be curious about how to do just that.

Here are resources that can help:

• The ULTIMATE Guide to Getting Booked as a Podcast Guest from The Content Factory
• How to Become a Podcast Guest from Digital Marketing Lab
• How to Get Booked as a Guest on a Podcast from The Podcast Host (and be sure to read the site’s guide to being a great podcast guest)

Once you see what your hosts do to schedule and promote your podcast appearances, you’ll have a better sense of the effort required to host your own show.

And . . . you might decide that it’s exactly what you want to do.

Thinking about hosting a podcast?

If you decide that hosting a podcast is a solid book marketing strategy, consider taking a course on how to start a podcast before fully committing to the concept.

Just as you became educated about how to write a book, get it published, and market it, you’ll want to learn how to create and sustain a successful podcast.

I often turn to Udemy for this type of training. A quick search reveals plenty of options. (User ratings and course curriculums can help you make a solid choice.)

Finally, as with all marketing tactics, whether you hope to be a host or a guest, first determine whether the people you want to influence listen to podcasts (the stats above are a good starting point). If they don’t, podcasts don’t belong in your book marketing plan.

Do you host a podcast? Have you been a podcast guest? Please tell us about your experience in a comment.