Publicists flood my inbox with pitches to feature their authors on my True Crime Reporter® podcast. Authors can reach 40,000+ listeners on my Webby Award-winning podcast and more through my newspaper stories and audiobooks.
Unfortunately, most authors are not ready for prime time. Poor-quality audio and video reflect poorly on their professionalism and credibility.
When a recent guest logged in for our interview, they were in a squeaky chair directly in front of a window. The harsh backlight streaming through the glass washed out their facial features. Thus, we could not put the interview on our YouTube channel.
Every time the author moved, the chair squeaked. My editor had to cut out excellent soundbites about the book and employ noise reduction.
Today, audio and video podcasts complement traditional in-person events. Over half of all Americans are regular podcast consumers.
Shows fit into times of day or activities where visual media can’t reach, like driving, doing chores, or exercising. When people listen to podcasts, they’re usually not multitasking on another screen. You have a rare opportunity for undivided attention.
A single well-produced interview can reach thousands of potential readers. Podcasters select clips from author interviews that can be sliced into short videos, quotes, and social posts that circulate long after the recording ends.
In the age of AI search and recommendation algorithms, those recordings become durable signals of credibility. They are the raw material that machines and people use to decide who is worth paying attention to.
And yet, too many authors treat these appearances like Zoom calls from a cluttered room.
When the sound is noisy, echoey, or thin, the brain has to work harder just to decode the words. The effort feels disproportionate to the reward. People do not say, “This guest sounds like they do not take this seriously.” They simply stop listening.
Tinny audio from a built-in laptop microphone, buzz from a cheap headset, the constant scrape of a chair, or a clicking keyboard sends a subtle message that the guest is not prepared for the interview.
This is not uncommon and holds true for the video.
A backlit face reads as distant and unreadable. Harsh overhead lighting carves unflattering shadows under the eyes. A messy background distracts from the person speaking. Viewers may not consciously say, “This looks unprofessional,” but they feel it. The story loses some of its force before the substance is even tested.
Your voice and your presence are part of the book you are selling, whether you acknowledge it or not.
For the author, an interview often feels like a one-off event. For the podcaster, it is one episode in a pipeline that must be recorded, edited, published, and promoted on a schedule.
Guests who arrive with clean audio and clear video make that process easier. They require less surgery in the edit. Their episodes generate better clips. They fit the show’s overall sound and look without special handling.
Authors with bad sound and muddy pictures do the opposite. They push the podcaster into salvage mode.
The more effort required to make an episode passable, the less incentive there is to feature that author again.
If you can survive structural edits, rewrite chapters, and design a book jacket, you can handle this. Technical quality is no longer somebody else’s job.
When you step into a podcast interview, you are, for that hour, your own broadcaster.
You do not need a network studio. You do need to clear a basic threshold of quality if you want your ideas to land with the authority they deserve.
You’ve poured your life’s work into a book. You owe that work a fighting chance when you carry it into the world of audio and video.
The tools to make you shine are within reach. The choice to use them is yours.
I do not receive any form of compensation for these. The recommendations are based on my experience advising people who need simple, affordable solutions.
Robert Riggs is a former television news reporter who received a Peabody and three Alfred I. du Pont awards during three decades of journalism.
In recent years, Riggs created the Webby Award-winning True Crime Reporter® Podcast and, as executive producer, created Freed To Kill, a Telly Award-winning streaming five-part TV documentary series about an infamous serial killer. He is the author of Texas Crime Stories: Blood and Betrayal and is working on more books in the true crime and military history genres.
Robert also works at the forefront of artificial intelligence, advising personal injury law firms on integrating AI into their practices. He gave an acclaimed presentation on “AI Assisted Writing For Storytelling” to the MAICON 2025 conference, attended by 1,600 people from 22 countries.
