Since launching my podcast, I’ve recorded and released 36 episodes of the Reading and Writing Podcast - a podcast where I interview writers and authors about their books and their writing habits. I’ve interviewed primarily commercial fiction writers – thrillers, mysteries, science fiction, etc. I also recorded and released four episodes of the Book Marketing podcast – a podcast that I’m in the process of reviving as both a video and audio podcast.

I’ve had several people ask me about the specific steps that I follow in recording and producing a podcast. Here they are.

Recording – I use my MacBook Pro to record my podcasts. I conduct the interviews via Skype using eCamm Call Recorder software to record the interviews. My preference is that the author use Skype as well, and we do a Skype-to-Skype call – the audio clarity on Skype-to-Skype calls is much, much better. However, most authors don’t use Skype, so I end up using Skype’s call-out feature to call the author’s phone. I use an Alesis USB microphone for recording, but I’d love to get a higher quality microphone – maybe a Heil PR-40.

Post-production – When I finish the interview on Skype, I have a .mov file. I use a piece of software that comes with eCamm Call Recorder to split the conversation/interview into two files. I end up with two .mov files. Next, I use video conversion software to convert those two .move files into .wav files – files that Garageband will recognize and use. After I’ve converted the files into. wav format, I then run both files through The Levelator – free software that automatically cuts out the high and low volumes. I’m not an audiophile, and I may not be explaining The Levelator correctly. What it does simply is eliminate the volume increasing and decreasing dramatically on my audio interviews. I’ve listened to many podcasts who needed to use The Levelator badly. I constantly have to adjust the volume on my stereo because one person’s voice is very loud and the other person’s voice is lower. The Levelator eliminates all that.

Garageband – Again, I’m using a Mac, so I use Garageband for editing. I usually open the previous episode’s Garageband file, rename the file for the new episode, and then drag the two .wav files into Garageband. I reuse the previous episode’s file, because I reuse the segues and various sound files from episode to episode. My other Garageband editing consists of – cutting off the beginning and end of the audio files of the interviews where I’m talking to the author and explaining how the podcast works, etc. I also record a new intro each episode, and I do that recording from directly within Garageband using the USB mic.

MP3 - When my editing is complete, I export the file from Garageband as an MP3. Then, I use MP3 ID3X to edit the MP3 file’s metadata  - I add a JPEG image of my podcast’s logo, I write Title, Artist, Album, and all the metadata that will eventually show up in whatever device or software someone is using to listen to the podcast.

Uploading – When I finish editing the MP3′s metadata, I upload the file to Libysn – the service that I use for hosting my podcast’s MP3 audio files. Once, I’ve successfully

It’s alive – Once I’ve successfully uploaded the MP3 file to Libsyn, I open WordPress for my podcast’s website – www.readingandwritingpodcast.com – and I write a new post describing the podcast’s content, links to the writer’s website, and, of course, links to the MP3 interview files hosted by Libsyn.

Feedburner - The final step. I ping feedburner. At one time, I also followed the feedburner ping with pinging the iTunes store (basically sending the iTunes store a signal that a new episode of my podcast was available for people who had subscribed to the podcast via iTunes.) However, in the past several months Apple has eliminated the pinging ability for iTunes. Yet, it doesn’t take long before the new episode is showing up in iTunes. (iTunes crawl’s my podcast’s feed and whenever it sees a new podcast, iTunes lists the episode in their directory and to anyone who had previously subscribed to the podcast.

With that, I’m done and the podcast is available for listeners.

What’s your podcasting post-production process?

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I was talking to someone on Saturday who had been thinking about starting a podcast, but for whatever reason hadn’t reached a point where he was ready to pull the trigger. He did mention that he thought podcasting would be more comfortable for him, because he had tried writing a regular blog, and he was very self-concious about his writing ability, and he eventually lost steam on blogging due to his self-consciousness about his writing abilities. I can relate to that feeling of self-consciousness – not necessarily about my writing ability but more about revealing myself to anyone who should stumble across my blog online.

There have been numerous articles, including my blog posts ironically, about the importance for companies to participate in social media. It’s not all that hard to participate in Twitter – responding to people’s tweets, forwarding or retweeting other tweets, and posting links to interesting stories. In many ways, Twitter is akin to a high-volume broadcast version of truncated emails. And, ever since I got into PR in 1997 or so, I’ve lived and breathed email every day.

And, It’s not all that hard to participate in Facebook either. Posting photos, commenting on other people’s photos, posting links to interesting news articles, commenting on other people’s posts, and, of course, deleting over and over and over again people’s weird icons, sheep, mafia wars updates that come my way[this is not a sentence – I would reword this to make it into a sentence].

However, blogging, for me has been different. Over the years, I’ve often avoided writing a regular blog. Sure, I have had plenty of thoughts and opinions about public relations, technology, the impact of digital media on book publishing, etc., but for some reason a crippling modesty – or even shyness -– has kept me from blogging about my ideas. I’m certainly confident about my professional abilities – working with companies to identify the stories that they want to tell about their business and products, then distilling that information into timely, news worthy announcements designed to garner news coverage. And, I’ve always felt very comfortable stating my opinions to clients, giving them unvarnished feedback about their PR ideas and campaigns.

Yet, despite that confidence in my professional abilities, blogging felt foreign to me. I would try, and it would never feel “right” to me. The self-revealation aspect, posted online so that any one in the world could read what I’d written, constantly inhibited me.

Possibly it’s generational. I’ll be the first to admit that I consider myself on the cutting edge of technology and gadgets. I waited in line for an Xbox 360, a Wii, an iPhone, and other brand-new gadgets. Yet, the first computer I ever owned was a Radio Shack color computer – hooked up to an old television for a monitor.

While I’ve always embraced technology, the self-revalatory nature of blogging – while natural for digital natives – has felt awkward and presumptive to me.

Finally though, I realized I needed to join the online conversation more overtly by blogging on a regular basis. I can’t remember a specific watershed moment for my decision. It has been more of a gradual change and a constant process of reminding myself that I do have ideas to contribute (not to sound too much like Al Franken’s Stuart Smalley character on Saturday Night Live).

With all this personal background and info, I think it’s something to definitely think about as social media grows – some people for whatever reason are self-conscious about their social media participation.

Christopher S. Penn, one of the co-founders of Podcamp Boston, just blogged about a somewhat similar issue – breaking the shackles of your potential. It’s a great blog post that I recommend you take a look at.

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