Getting Contacted/Paying for an Interview

May 13, 2020 1:38 PM

I do interviews. But I've also recently written a book and am trying to promote it. So, I was happy to get contacted by the Enterprise Podcast Network to be interviewed. Thing is, I've never heard of it before now.

What gave me pause was that they charge $49.95 for an interview. But that is much cheaper than the $4K+ Playback Producers would charge me for an interview (I've worked with them, interviewing people they are seeking interviews for to put on their network). I want to know if EPN is legit?

posted by CollectiveMind to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

Legit, in terms of whether they'll produce a podcast episode interviewing you and made available to the public, or legit in terms of getting your voice out there?

On the one hand, I see they have only half the number of Twitter followers that I do, and I've never heard of them. On the other, nine people of the people whom I follow (granted, Taye Diggs and President Obama follow everyone) follow EPN.

The question seems to me to be less if they are legit than if they are effective. I listen to podcasts, not podcast networks, so the fact that my favorite podcast used to be on Panoply and is now on Stitcher is meaningless to me. I'm a business owner and a published author, so I am in the (general) target audience, and I am in your shoes for promoting writing. So...what specifics do you know?

What actual podcast(s) would you appear on, and do their audiences match your target audience for your book? Who would be interviewing you and what kind of audience/following does that person have?

What kind of promotion do they do? Do they do network-wide promotion, or will your specific podcast be promoted on their social media accounts? Do they only promote via social media, or also via direct email?

$50 is practically nothing (and I'm frugal!) if there's no add-on fees after that, and you can promote the professionally produced podcast yourself, linking to it wherever YOU promote. And if you can embed the interview on your author site, all the better.

A few of their podcasts (the one for musicians, the green one, the one on fitness) either have no shows are only a handful over the last couple of years. Even their e-commerce channel seems a little thing. The main entrepreneurial channel is more regular. So, if your book is for entrepreneurs or the kinds of people who follow entrepreneurial news, the ROI is going to be better than if your gig is green manufacturing.

Finally, you should know that depending on your audience and topic, and organizing podcast interview experience shouldn't necessarily be costing you anything. I guess on podcasts (and local television), including major corporate podcasts, and have never been charged. The business models definitely vary, but the question always comes down to, a) are you reaching your target audience and b) are you reaching enough of them for it to be worth your time (and in this case, a bit of your money).

Good luck, and let us know if you end up doing the interview!
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 2:30 PM on May 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

Would you pay $50 for a practice interview? That's not an unreasonable price to pay for a practice interview with someone that's done with homework to the point they can ask you real questions and will post a quality edited interview with you. They don't have much listener engagement so I doubt it would translate to any increase in sales for you and the interview with a random recent example I selected didn't show up within the first five Google pages for their name, which means it might as well not exist unless you forward people a link to it and they're interested in you outside of the podcast. Do the interviews show enough prep time and work on the production side to be worth doing it as a runthrough for you?
posted by Candleman at 9:02 PM on May 13, 2020