The Complete Guide to Podcasts that Welcome Indie Authors as Guests 2026

by | Culture, Digital Marketing

Culture

 

A Definitive Guide to Podcasts That Feature, Welcome, and Champion Indie Authors as Guests

 

Why Podcasts Are the Overlooked Engine of Author Discovery

In the cathedral-quiet corners of the internet — those few rooms where the algorithms and the ad budgets have grown so loud they have stopped making sense — the podcast endures as something rarer and more durable than any of it: a conversation. Not a pitch. Not a product page. Not a curated, color-corrected feed flickering past a thumb. A voice in a single ear during the commute, the dishes, the long walk home through weather. For the indie author, that intimacy is not a soft and sentimental benefit. It is a strategic advantage of the highest order, and most writers walk right past it.

Podcast appearances build the kind of trust no Amazon listing or book trailer can counterfeit. They let a prospective reader hear the texture of your thinking, the cadence of your commitment to craft, the warm grain of the story behind the story. They cast you not merely as someone who happened to write a book, but as someone worth the listening. And they make evergreen artifacts — recordings that outlive any single promotional cycle, gathering listeners and readers like sediment for months and years after the day the microphone went cold.

A word of hard-won honesty before the map begins. Most podcast pitches go unanswered. Shows go dark without notice. Contact forms stop working. Hosts burn out. Sites lapse. A guide that pretends otherwise wastes your afternoons. This one tries to be different: every show here has been verified active as of 2025 or 2026, and every pitch path has been checked. Shows that have concluded are in their own section. Shows with no public pitch path are labeled as such. The goal is not a long list — it is a trustworthy one.

One rule that applies everywhere: paying for podcast placement is unnecessary and counterproductive. Every reputable show here books on merit and fit. Any intermediary promising guaranteed bookings for a fee is selling you a shortcut around work that, done yourself, builds more durable equity.

Before the Broadcast: How to Pitch a Podcast

The mechanics of a successful pitch — distilled from Matty Dalrymple and Mark Leslie Lefebvre’s The Podcast Guest Playbook and from the documented preferences of the hosts profiled below — compress into a handful of governing principles. None of them are secrets. Almost no one follows them anyway, which is precisely why they work.

  • Listen first. Every host who has ever written about pitching says some version of this. You cannot pitch the value you bring to an audience you have never actually heard. Study not just the topic but the tone, the guest profile, the tempo, the recurring obsessions.
  • Pitch the value, not the book. What can your experience, expertise, or story hand to this show’s listeners? The book is evidence of your credibility, not the pitch itself. Hosts scan for what their audience gains — never for what you gain from the exposure.
  • Be specific. A generic pitch lands in the trash. Name the episode that sent you reaching for the keyboard, identify a gap you could fill, and articulate a concrete angle with a hook on the end of it.
  • Be human and brief. Two or three short paragraphs. Not a press release. A genuine note from one person to another explaining why this particular show, at this particular moment, feels like a natural fit.
  • Honor the Three Ps: Professionalism, Preparedness, Politeness. Most pitches trip over at least one of them. These are differentiators, not minimums.
  • Relationships outrun cold pitches, every time. Show up at conventions and community events, contribute, become known. The pitch quietly becomes an invitation.
  • Build a speaker page on your own domain. Short bio, photo, topics you speak to, prior appearances. It is now an expected professional credential and makes a host’s job lighter. A lighter job gets said yes to.
  • Never use AI to write your pitch. At least one host in this guide — Eric Molinsky of Imaginary Worlds — has noted this explicitly on his contact page. It is recognizable and it signals exactly the wrong thing about your preparation.

Two companion pieces go deeper: Pitch to Podcasts: The Indie Author Guide to Getting Booked and Being an Indie Author Podcast Guest: How to Pitch, Prepare, and Perform.

 

The Core Shows: Active Platforms Open to Indie Author Guests

These are the format-agnostic mainstays of the indie-author podcast world — verified active in 2025 or 2026 — welcoming voices from across fiction and nonfiction alike. Each entry includes the correct URL and the specific pitch path, not just a homepage.

1. The Creative Penn Podcast

Host: Joanna Penn — Bath, England — Active 2026

Joanna Penn — who writes fiction as J.F. Penn — is among the most enduringly influential voices in the global indie community. A New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thriller fiction, travel memoir, and more than a dozen nonfiction books on the craft and business of writing, she has been podcasting without pause since 2009. As of early 2026 the show has crossed 10.5 million downloads across 229 countries. Episodes draw between ten and twenty-five thousand downloads in their first week.

Guests tend to be established authors with specific, actionable expertise in craft, publishing strategy, AI, marketing, audiobooks, or emerging revenue models. Generalist pitches fare poorly. Scam warning: emails falsely claiming to be from Joanna’s team and demanding payment for appearances do circulate. The show never charges guests; legitimate contact comes only from the thecreativepenn.com domain.

Pitch: thecreativepenn.com/the-creative-penn-podcast-for-authors — pitch form on that page.

2. The Self Publishing Show

Hosts: James Blatch + Cecilia Mecca (founded by Mark Dawson) — UK — Active 2026

Co-founded by UK indie thriller author Mark Dawson, the show relaunched in 2025 under James Blatch and romance author Cecilia Mecca after an eighteen-month hiatus. The commercial, marketing-forward emphasis remains its signature. Guests skew toward authors who can speak concretely to sales figures, advertising strategy, list growth, and market positioning. Authors at an early career stage without a sales history may find the pitch premature.

Pitch: selfpublishingformula.com/spf-podcast — contact via site.

3. The Indy Author Podcast

Host: Matty Dalrymple — Pennsylvania, USA — Active 2026 (episode 337, May 2026)

Matty Dalrymple writes the Ann Kinnear Suspense Novels and the Lizzy Ballard Thrillers through her own imprint, and co-authored The Podcast Guest Playbook with Mark Leslie Lefebvre. Writer’s Digest has named The Indy Author one of its 101 Best Websites for Writers five years running. The show has a well-documented reputation for exceptional post-episode guest promotion — breaking episodes into clips, amplifying across channels, sustaining engagement long after recording.

Important 2026 update: In December 2025, Dalrymple stated publicly that cold pitch guests rarely worked out and that through 2026 she is focusing primarily on inviting back past guests or people she has encountered through the author community. The pitch page remains live, but the honest note is that a warm introduction through a mutual connection, ALLi events, or writing conferences will dramatically outperform a cold email. That said, a highly specific, well-researched pitch is still worth sending.

Pitch: theindyauthor.com/podcast-overview — warm intro strongly preferred over cold pitch.

4. Self-Publishing with ALLi / Inspirational Indie Authors

Hosts: Orna Ross, Howard Lovy, Sacha Black, Dan Holloway, Michael La Ronn and others — London, UK — Active 2026

The Alliance of Independent Authors podcast network is the most institutionally comprehensive audio platform in the global indie community. Multiple streams release multiple episodes per week across a combined catalog past 695 episodes: Self-Publishing News (Fridays, Dan Holloway), Inspirational Indie Authors (Sundays, Howard Lovy), Creating Better Books (craft), Reaching More Readers (marketing), Publishing for Profit (business strategy), and a Members Q&A stream.

The Inspirational Indie Authors stream hosted by Howard Lovy is the most accessible entry point in this entire guide — open to authors at every career stage, including debut, without requiring a sales history or established platform. It asks for a genuine story about your indie publishing journey. ALLi membership is recommended for full network access.

Pitch: info@allianceindependentauthors.org or via the ALLi website at allianceindependentauthors.org.

5. Novel Marketing

Host: Thomas Umstattd Jr. — Texas, USA — Active 2026 (612+ episodes)

Documented as the longest-running book marketing podcast in the world, Novel Marketing brings a systematic, data-informed approach to email, platform strategy, social media, advertising, and the full arc of an author career. More US-centric than most here and particularly well-regarded in the Christian fiction market, though its practical coverage extends across genres. Craft-only pitches are unlikely to land — but authors with marketing stories, platform-building insight, or genre-specific audience experience are well-positioned.

Pitch: authormedia.com/novel-marketing — contact via site.

6. SPA Girls Podcast

Hosts: Cheryl Phipps, Shar Barratt, Trudi Jaye, Wendy Vella — New Zealand — Active February 2026 (290+ episodes)

Four practicing indie authors, primarily in romance and women’s fiction, broadcasting a distinctly Kiwi warmth to a global audience. The show is unusually willing to discuss failure and recalibration alongside success — listening to it genuinely resembles sitting down with four knowledgeable friends who are generous with what they know. New Zealand is underrepresented in this universe and the SPA Girls are its most prominent voice. Fiction-leaning, romance especially, but guests come from across categories.

Pitch: selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com — contact page on site; no dedicated guest form.

7. Wish I’d Known Then… For Writers

Hosts: Sara Rosett + Jami Albright — USA — Active 2026 (episode 319+, confirmed)

Every interview here orbits one defining question: what do you know now that you wish you had known at the beginning? That retrospective lens gives the show a particular emotional honesty — guests sit with missteps, wrong turns, and slow realities rather than delivering polished success narratives. Authors who can speak to genuine evolution — who they were before it worked — will find this format particularly hospitable. The show includes a New Author Series specifically for debut and early-career voices.

Pitch: wishidknownforwriters.com — contact via site. No dedicated guest form but the hosts are approachable.

8. Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Host: Mark Leslie Lefebvre — Ontario, Canada — Active 2026

Mark Leslie Lefebvre stands at an unusual crossroads: practicing author of fiction, nonfiction, and horror (as Mark Leslie); former Kobo Books director; longtime Canadian Booksellers Association president; Draft2Digital ambassador; co-author of The Podcast Guest Playbook. That multiplicity gives the show an ecosystem-wide depth that single-path hosts cannot reach — it engages physical bookstores, library markets, international distribution, and the wide-publishing philosophy with unusual seriousness. Authors with hybrid experience, international readership, or a desire to think beyond Amazon-centric strategies will find it particularly receptive.

Pitch: starkreflections.ca — contact via site.

9. The Rebel Author Podcast

Host: Sacha Black — UK — Active 2026 (230+ episodes, Wednesdays)

Sacha Black is a UK fantasy and YA author, the author of a widely used craft series (Anatomy of Prose, The Anatomy of Villain), a 20BooksTo50K and London Book Fair speaker, and ALLi’s Content and Communications Strategist. With master’s degrees in psychology and public management, she brings an analytically rigorous, psychologically informed lens to craft, business, and author identity — “books, business, and bad words,” as she puts it. Frank, witty, snarky when earned, warmly irreverent.

This is the most frictionless pitch path in the entire guide. The show operates a publicly accessible guest form — open, specific, and functional. Topics of interest: writing craft, editing, publishing, marketing, business strategy, entrepreneurship, mindset, creativity.

Pitch: sachablack.co.uk/podcasts/pitch-the-rebel-author-podcast — dedicated pitch form, use it.

10. The Bestseller Experiment

Host: Mark Desvaux (with founding co-host Mark Stay) — UK — Active February 2026 (584 episodes, weekly)

What began in 2016 as a real-time documentary of two writers attempting to publish a bestselling novel in 52 weeks became one of the most popular writing podcasts in the world — past a million downloads, winner of Best Books Podcast at the Independent Podcast Awards. Its guest list spans Michael Connelly, Brandon Sanderson, Ian Rankin, Joanne Harris, Joe Hill, Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Bryan Cranston, and it seats indie authors beside traditional bestsellers without hierarchy. Mark Stay has since departed as co-presenter; Desvaux continues. A high-profile cold pitch, worth attempting for authors with a strong commercial or craft story.

Pitch: bestsellerexperiment.com — contact via site.

11. Self Publishing Insiders (Draft2Digital)

Hosts: Mark Leslie Lefebvre + Jim Acevedo — Active 2026 (256+ episodes, weekly)

The official podcast of Draft2Digital, one of the leading ebook-distribution platforms globally. It is simultaneously a weekly podcast and a live broadcast — authors can tune in at D2DLive.com to participate in real time, asking questions during recording. This live dimension is unique in this guide and creates a path to visibility even before a formal booking. Coverage runs wide: craft, marketing, distribution, audiobooks, global markets, community, author business. The guest roster spans every career stage.

Pitch: Contact via draft2digital.com or participate live first at D2DLive.com to get on the team’s radar.

12. Kobo Writing Life Podcast

Hosts: The Kobo Writing Life team — Toronto, Canada — Active 2026 (380+ episodes)

The official audio platform of Rakuten Kobo’s self-publishing program, hosted by rotating members of the KWL team. It features indie authors across romance, mystery, thriller, historical, SFF, and nonfiction — typically with a publication history and a story about building a wide career: audiobook production, wide versus exclusive, series building, direct sales, translations. Given Kobo’s strong presence outside the United States, the show carries a more internationally oriented perspective than most American-hosted programs. The team reads and responds to pitches — even if the answer is no.

Pitch: kobo.com/kobo-writing-life — contact via site.

13. Inspirational Indie Authors (ALLi)

Host: Howard Lovy — Alliance of Independent Authors — Active 2026

Howard Lovy is a journalist, author, editor, and ALLi’s Content and Communications Manager. The Inspirational Indie Authors stream is the single most accessible platform in this guide for authors at any stage — debut included. It does not ask for sales history or an established platform. It asks for a genuine story: what drew you to indie publishing, what you have navigated, what your road looks like. The 2024 roster spanned Jamaica, Australia, Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada — among the most geographically diverse programs here. ALLi membership is typically required for full network access.

Pitch: selfpublishingadvice.org/podcast or info@allianceindependentauthors.org.

 

New Books Network — The Overlooked Giant

Before moving into genre-specific rooms, one platform deserves its own section because it is almost certainly the most underused high-value target in this entire guide.

New Books Network is a consortium of author-interview podcast channels covering 100+ subjects, disciplines, and genres, publishing 70 to 100 episodes every week and reaching approximately half a million listeners per month. It has a dedicated science fiction and fantasy channel hosted by Rob Wolf. It covers debut and established authors alike.

And it has a public pitch form. Any author with a published book can go to newbooksnetwork.com/pitch-a-book, fill out the form, and have their submission seen by the channel hosts who select their own guests. The form is free, the process is transparent, and the reach is enormous. This is a first stop, not a last resort.

Pitch: newbooksnetwork.com/pitch-a-book — public submission form, open to all published authors.

 

The Genre Homes: Where Speculative Fiction Lives Out Loud

If you write science fiction, fantasy, horror, or anything in the shadowed alleyways between them, the format-agnostic shows above are only half your map. The other half is a constellation of genre-native programs where your readers already gather. Each entry below has been verified active in 2025 or 2026 unless noted otherwise. For the wider strategy of building a presence in this world, see The Science Fiction Author’s Guide to Building a Platform That Actually Works.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show

Active 2026 (episode 861, February 2026) — 4x Hugo-finalist SFF podcast hosted by Shaun Duke and a rotating panel. Covers interviews with authors, book discussions, film and TV reviews. Records live on Twitch (Fridays, 7PM Central at AlphabetStreams). Has a contact page and explicitly invites messages.

Pitch: skiffyandfanty.com — use the contact page.

The Worldshapers

Active April 2026 (194 episodes, twice monthly) — Aurora Award-winning podcast hosted by Edward Willett, himself an author of 60+ books of SFF and nonfiction. Conversations with SFF authors about their creative process and latest books. Broadly welcoming including debut authors. Has a real home site with contact.

Pitch: theworldshapers.com — contact form on site.

Sword and Laser

Active May 2026 (534+ episodes, biweekly) — hosted by Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt. One of the oldest and most beloved SFF book clubs in podcast form with a large, engaged community. Guest suggestions come from the community itself — the most reliable path in is through the Goodreads group’s active ‘Interview suggestions!’ thread.

Pitch: Post in the Sword and Laser Goodreads group ‘Interview suggestions!’ thread.

Imaginary Worlds

Active May 2026 (307 episodes, biweekly) — Gold Signal Award-winning show hosted by former public radio producer Eric Molinsky. NPR-quality documentary-style episodes about science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction as culture — how worlds are built, why we suspend disbelief. 10,500 downloads per episode.

Critical pitch note: This is not a straight author interview show. Molinsky builds thematic essays and brings contributors in as co-hosts for a specific topic. The pitch must be a topic angle, not ‘interview me about my book.’ He reads all pitches and explicitly welcomes suggestions about ‘a work that sparks questions or controversy, or a creative person with an interesting backstory.’ He also explicitly states: do not use AI to write your pitch.

Pitch: Email imaginaryworldspodcast@gmail.com with the word ‘pitch’ in the subject line. Pitch a topic, not yourself.

Breaking the Glass Slipper

Active 2025–2026 (364+ episodes, biweekly, every other Thursday) — 2025 British Fantasy Award winner for Best Audio (previously nominated multiple times). Hosts Megan Leigh, Charlotte Bond, and Lucy Hounsom discuss women and intersectional voices in SFF and horror. Thoughtful, issues-driven, welcoming to authors with a perspective to share. Particularly relevant for women authors or authors whose work engages feminist or social themes.

Pitch: breakingtheglassslipper.com — contact via site.

Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy

Active May 2026 (614 episodes, monthly) — produced with WIRED, hosted by author David Barr Kirtley, approximately 18,000 downloads per episode. Guest list includes George R.R. Martin, Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, and dozens of the biggest names in SFF. Aspirational rather than accessible for most indie authors — a track record of publications in respected venues and a specific intellectual angle are effectively prerequisites. But for authors with that background, the contact path is real.

Pitch: davidbarrkirtley.com — contact via site. Aspirational; prepare accordingly.

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast

Active 2026 — hosted by Lindsay Buroker and co-hosts. Where the genre meets the business of selling it. Indispensable for SFF authors thinking commercially about platform, advertising, and reader acquisition.

Pitch: sffmarketingpodcast.com — contact via site.

New Books in Science Fiction (New Books Network)

Active 2026 — hosted by Rob Wolf as part of the New Books Network. Long-running, interview-driven, academic-leaning channel that takes individual authors and individual books seriously. Broadly accessible and genuinely receptive to indie voices with a substantive published book.

Pitch: newbooksnetwork.com/pitch-a-book — same pitch form as the main NBN network.

Writing Excuses

Active 2026 — hosted by Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, DongWon Song, Howard Tayler, and Erin Roberts (with Brandon Sanderson among earlier core hosts). Structured around craft education in a famously tight fifteen-minutes-long-because-you’re-busy format. Best understood as essential listening rather than a primary pitching target — its rotating host model means published SFF authors do appear in an informal guest capacity, but it is not a show you pitch cold.

Listen: writingexcuses.com

 

The Dark Doorways: Horror and Dark Fiction

For the writer who works in the grim, the gothic, the dystopian, and the dreadful, here are the shows where darkness is the point — hosts who will meet your bleakest material without flinching. All entries below are verified active unless marked otherwise.

This Is Horror Podcast

Active May 2026 (665+ episodes, weekly) — co-hosted by Michael David Wilson and Bob Pastorella. 600+ episodes featuring Chuck Palahniuk, Dean Koontz, Joe Hill, Joe R. Lansdale, and dozens of the genre’s best. The single most important finding in this guide for horror authors: host Michael David Wilson has published a stated commitment that a minimum of 50% of guests each year will be first-time guests on the show. That is an explicit, public invitation backed by a direct email address.

Pitch: Email directly — michael@thisishorror.co.uk — and read the mission statement on the site first: thisishorror.co.uk.

Talking Scared

Active April 2026 (321+ episodes, weekly) — hosted by Neil McRobert, who holds a PhD in Contemporary Gothic Fiction. Distributed through Realm. Long-form conversations with horror fiction authors — Stephen King, Paul Tremblay, Carmen Maria Machado, Stephen Graham Jones have all appeared. Real home site with a confirmed direct contact email.

Pitch: Email talkingscaredpod@gmail.com — site at talkingscaredpod.com.

Nightlight: A Horror Fiction Podcast

Active January 2026 — IGNYTE Award and World Fantasy Award winner hosted by Tonia Ransom. Features horror stories written by Black writers and performed by Black actors. This is a fiction submission market, not a guest-interview show — if you have a qualifying short horror story, submit through Duotrope. A sale here is a meaningful professional credential.

Submit fiction: nightlightpod.com — submission form via Duotrope.

The Kingcast

Active 2025–2026 — Stephen King-focused podcast that draws notable horror guests into craft and literary conversation. Contact via thekingcast.com.

Talking Scared (see above) / This Is Horror (see above)

 

The Story Markets: A Different Door Entirely

A whole category of audio-fiction magazines and anthology shows wants your stories rather than an interview. You submit your fiction, a sale becomes a credit and a credential, and a fresh tide of readers is carried to your name. These are some of the most valuable targets in existence for SFF and horror authors building a body of short work. For more on this track, see Speculative Fiction Anthology Submissions: Platforms, Collaboration, and How to Get Published.

 

Foundational Interview Platforms: Broadly Open Doors

Below the genre canopy sits a wide, welcoming understory of author-interview shows that ask for little beyond a finished book and a willingness to talk about it — excellent early appearances for building microphone confidence and gathering clips for your media kit.

  • The Authors Show — long-running, high-volume platform built specifically around author features; broadly accessible and a common first credit. Check their FAQ page, however, before proceeding.
  • Otherppl with Brad Listi — a literary heavyweight, active 2026 with over 1,000 author interviews. George Saunders, Roxane Gay, Jonathan Lethem, Cheryl Strayed in the catalog. Pitch email: letters@otherppl.com
  • New Books Network — covered in full above. Public pitch form. Half a million monthly listeners. Use it.
  • Online for Authors (Teri M. Brown), Reading and Writing Podcast (Suzy Smith), Diverse Voices Book Review, Across the Pond, and Book Nook (Vick Mickunas, public radio) — dependable, welcoming interview shows across a range of audiences.
  • Totally Booked (Zibby Owens), The Stacks (Traci Thomas — active April 2026, 430+ episodes, 3 million downloads, NPR contributor), and Debutiful (Adam Vitcavage — active 2026, specifically focused on debut authors and their first books) — reader-facing shows that feature authors across categories.

The Craft Workshops: Shows About the Making

A distinct band of shows orbits the craft itself — the sentence, the structure, the slow alchemy of turning chaos into chapter. Many are teaching-first and host guests only occasionally, but for an author whose angle is genuinely about method, they can be a precise fit. See Story Structure Frameworks: A Comprehensive Guide to the Most Useful Models for the craft context behind many of these shows.

  • Helping Writers Become Authors (K.M. Weiland) — rigorous, structure-minded craft show with a devoted following.
  • The Narrative Breakdown (Cheryl Klein and James Monohan) — editorial and craft-focused.
  • I Should Be Writing (Mur Lafferty) — active February 2026, 977+ episodes, one of the longest-running writing podcasts in existence. She primarily interviews genre writers (science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, romance) — which makes this directly relevant to your work. Pitch email: lafferty.assistant@gmail.com — she explicitly states not to use her personal email.
  • How Do You Write? (Rachael Herron) — practical, human, working-writer perspective.
  • DIY MFA Radio (Gabriela Pereira) — accessible craft program welcoming authors with a teachable angle.
  • The Well-Storied Podcast (Kristen Kieffer) — generous craft program for authors at every stage.
  • The Shit No One Tells You About Writing (Bianca Marais, CeCe Lyra, Carly Watters) — frank, practical, and unusually honest about the craft and publishing process.

The Cathedral Tier: Literary and Mainstream Media

Far up the nave where the light comes through colored glass stand the cathedral shows — programs that confer a different order of credibility. Be clear-eyed: these lean heavily traditional, book most guests through publicists, and turn away the overwhelming majority of approaches. They belong on your map not as next week’s pitch but as the far country you are building toward.

Niche and Identity-Specific Platforms

Some of the highest-converting appearances you will ever make happen in the smallest, most precisely defined rooms — shows whose entire audience is your reader. Match the show’s specificity to your own.

The Matchmakers: Pitching Platforms and Research Tools

Between you and all these doors sits a layer of connective tissue — platforms built to introduce guests and hosts. Use the free research and matchmaking tools. Approach the paid booking agencies with caution.

Free and worth your time: PodMatch and Matchmaker.fm pair guests with hosts directly. Rephonic, Podchaser, and ListenNotes are research databases for finding, vetting, and contacting shows. RadioGuestList and PodcastGuests.com circulate guest-and-host requests.

Paid booking agencies — Interview Connections, Interview Valet, Kitcaster — charge substantial fees to place you on shows. They are not scams, but for most indie novelists the math rarely pencils out. And to say it plainly: no reputable show in this guide charges a guest to appear. Any intermediary promising guaranteed bookings on real shows in exchange for a per-placement fee is selling you something the merit-and-fit economy gives away for free.

 

Ancillary Podcasts: The Wider Verified Field

Beyond the shows profiled in depth above, here is the wider field — every show verified active in 2025 or 2026, organized by category, with URLs confirmed working. Dead shows have been removed. Shows with no public contact path are noted. This section is designed for scanning: find a show that fits your work, check the pitch path, and reach out.

Indie Publishing and Author Business

  • Sell More Books Show (Bryan Cohen + H. Claire Taylor) — active June 2025, 584+ episodes, weekly book marketing news and guest interviews. Contact via site.
  • Wide for the Win (Mark Leslie Lefebvre) — active 2025, focused on wide distribution strategy beyond Amazon. Contact via site.
  • Indie Author Magazine Podcast (Chelle Honiker) — active April 2026, audio versions of magazine articles. Not a traditional guest-interview show; pitch articles to the magazine itself.
  • Writers Ink (J. Thorn, J.D. Barker + rotating cast) — active, panel format covering entertainment news, industry developments, and career conversations.
  • The Worried Writer (Sarah Painter) — UK-based indie author show, warm and practical.

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction

  • Alternate Futures (Edwin Rydberg) — UK-based, active May 2026, 70+ episodes across six seasons. Interviews indie science fiction creators about their work, ideas, and the real-world implications of their fiction. Explicitly invites contact about guest appearances. Contact via site. Directly relevant to dystopian and speculative fiction authors.
  • Speculative Fiction Writing Made Simple (Heather Davis) — active April 2026, weekly. Book coach and developmental editor focused specifically on SF, fantasy, and dystopian novels. Features guest interviews with authors, editors, and agents. Contact: heather@manyworldswriting.com
  • Mythcreants — active May 2026, 580+ episodes, weekly. Panel/discussion format on craft and worldbuilding — no outside guests, but essential listening for SFF writers.
  • Octothorpe — active April 2026, 155+ episodes, Hugo Award-winning fandom/Hugo-coverage podcast. Panel show; contact: comment@octothorpecast.uk if you are active in the Hugo community.
  • Baen Free Radio Hour — Baen Books’ official podcast. Worth listening; pitch path is through Baen’s publishing relationship.

Horror and Dark Fiction

  • Faculty of Horror (Andrea Subissati + Alexandra West) — active January 2026, 168+ episodes, monthly. Academic horror film analysis with guests. Contact via site.
  • Castle of Horror Podcast (Jason Henderson panel) — active August 2025, 470+ episodes, semimonthly. Panel format, occasionally brings in author/filmmaker guests. Contact via Facebook page.
  • The NoSleep Podcast (David Cummings) — active June 2026, Season 24, weekly. Fiction submission market, not interviews — submit horror stories at com/submissions. Pays on publication. Previously published stories accepted if you hold the rights.

Foundational Author Interview Platforms

  • The Drunken Odyssey (John King) — active May 2026, 708+ episodes. Writing life and literary interviews. Contact via site.
  • Australian Book Lovers Podcast (Veronica and Laurie) — Australia-based, active 2026, 162+ episodes. Interviews authors across categories including speculative fiction. Contact via site.

Story Markets (Fiction Submissions — International)

  • AntipodeanSF Radio Show (Ion Newcombe) — Australia-based, active weekly. Speculative flash fiction (500–1000 words, SF/fantasy/horror). Open to submissions from anywhere in the world. Stories often narrated by the authors themselves. Also broadcast on community radio 2NVR 105.9FM. Submissions: com/submission-guidelines.

Writing Craft and Technique

  • The Dead Robots’ Society (Terry Mixon, Paul E. Cooley, Veronica Giguerre) — active February 2025, 785+ episodes. SFF-focused writers’ panel/discussion show, occasional guests. Contact via site or Discord.

Niche, Subgenre & Identity-Specific

  • Latinx in Publishing — active as a community organization (events through 2026), but does not operate an interview podcast. Listed here as a community and networking resource, not a pitching target.

 

Rich Archives: Shows That Have Concluded

These shows are no longer producing new episodes and should not be pitched. Their backlists remain freely available and constitute some of the most valuable listening in the indie-author catalog.

Six Figure Authors — Lindsay Buroker, Joseph Lallo, Andrea Pearson (Concluded 2022)

The show formally wrapped in April 2022 with two sporadic check-in episodes in late 2022 and October 2023. In 130 episodes it offered unusually candid, practitioner-level conversation about building a commercial fiction career. Archive at 6figureauthors.com and all major platforms. Do not pitch — not accepting guests.

Story Grid Writing Podcast — Shawn Coyne + Tim Grahl (Concluded)

292 episodes of rigorous craft conversation using the Story Grid methodology. Final episode explicitly announced as the last. The methodology and site (storygrid.com) remain active and valuable; the podcast is not. Do not pitch — concluded.

88 Cups of Tea — Yin Chang (Concluded 2020)

Warm, supportive interviews with writers, filmmakers, and publishing professionals. Archive at 88cupsoftea.com. Do not pitch — concluded.

Magic Lessons — Elizabeth Gilbert (Concluded)

The Eat Pray Love author’s creativity podcast. Archive holds up well. Do not pitch — concluded.

The Author Biz — Stephen Campbell (Concluded July 2018)

Ran from June 2014 to July 2018. Archive at theauthorbiz.com. Do not pitch — concluded.

Tea & Jeopardy — Emma Newman (Concluded 2017–18)

Emma Newman’s whimsical, warm author interviews conducted over imaginary tea in a perilous lair. 173 episodes; feed marked inactive since early 2018. Archive at teaandjeopardy.geekplanetonline.com. Do not pitch — concluded.

Be the Serpent — Alexandra Rowland, Freya Marske, Jennifer Mace (Hiatus since 2021)

Three-time Hugo finalist for Best Fancast. 102 episodes; announced hiatus after episode 100 in July 2021 and has not returned. Archive on all major platforms. Do not pitch — on indefinite hiatus.

The Career Author Podcast — J. Thorn + Zach Bohannon (Concluded October 2020)

150 episodes covering craft, career strategy, co-writing, genre, and revenue diversification before transitioning into Writers Ink. Archive at thecareerauthor.com/podcast. Do not pitch — concluded.

Self Publishing Journeys — Paul Teague (Concluded 2023)

Paul Teague documented his climb from ten pounds a month to a full-time writing income across several hundred episodes — including a real-time business diary unusually candid about the messy middle. Archive at self-publishing-journeys.com. Do not pitch — concluded.

Coode Street Podcast — Note: Active but does not accept bookings

Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe’s long-running SFF conversation of record is still active (episode 715+, 2026), but their own guidelines page states plainly: ‘Coode Street does not accept bookings to appear on The Coode Street Podcast.’ They invite guests themselves. Remove from your pitch list entirely. You can send your book to the postal addresses on their guidelines page and hope it attracts their interest.

 

Applying Strategically: A Framework for Getting On Air

Not every show here is an equally appropriate first target. A strategic approach maps your current career stage against each show’s documented guest profile, then sequences pitches like a campaign.

  • Start with the open doors, not the big rooms. The Rebel Author Podcast pitch form, the New Books Network pitch form, the ALLi Inspirational Indie Authors email, and the direct addresses for This Is Horror and Talking Scared are real, working entry points. Use them before attempting the aspirational targets.
  • Match the show’s audience to your reader, not the show’s size. A small, sharply targeted show whose listeners are precisely your readers will out-convert a giant generalist program. Think about who listens, not just how many.
  • Build your speaker page before you pitch. Bio, photograph, topics, prior appearances — hosted on your own domain. It is now an expected credential.
  • Document and amplify every appearance. One episode properly promoted — blog post, newsletter, social coverage, permanent entry on your appearances page — compounds into many discovery points. See Content Repurposing Explained.
  • Accept silence as the baseline. Most pitches go unanswered. This is not a verdict on your work. It is the landscape. The strategy is volume across verified, reachable targets — not chasing any single show.
  • Never pay for placement. Every reputable show here is booked on merit and fit.

Podcasting harmonizes with earned media of every kind. See Getting Started with HARO, Using Featured.com for Content Marketing, and Social Media Marketing Is Not Enough for the broader picture.

Conclusion: The Signal Beneath the Noise

The indie author landscape is louder than it has ever been. Every platform claws for attention; every feed is crowded shoulder to shoulder; every promotional channel has a price tag, and the prices keep climbing. Into that din, the podcast remains a quiet and persistent signal — a medium built on conversation, on sustained attention, on the particular trust that accumulates when one human voice speaks honestly to another across the intimate geography of earbuds.

The shows gathered here are not mere promotional vehicles. They are communities — ongoing conversations about the craft and commerce of independent authorship, sustained by hosts who have poured years of their lives into building something genuinely useful. Approach them as someone who wants to contribute to the conversation, and you have found the foundation of every successful pitch, every memorable appearance, and every reader who follows the episode all the way back to your books.

Listen first. Prepare thoroughly. Pitch specifically. Accept silence without taking it personally. Show up again. The rest follows the signal home.

 

Related Reading: 

Sources Cited:

Important Note: All “com,” “org,” “ca,” “uk,” or similar designations are actual links. 

  • The Creative Penn Podcast: com
  • The Self Publishing Show: com/spf-podcast
  • The Indy Author Podcast: com — cold pitches deprioritised 2026 per episode 316
  • ALLi / Inspirational Indie Authors: org
  • Novel Marketing: com/novel-marketing
  • SPA Girls Podcast: com
  • Wish I’d Known Then: com
  • Stark Reflections: ca
  • The Rebel Author Podcast pitch form: co.uk/podcasts/pitch-the-rebel-author-podcast
  • The Bestseller Experiment: com
  • Self Publishing Insiders (D2D): com · Live: D2DLive.com
  • Kobo Writing Life Podcast: com/kobo-writing-life
  • New Books Network pitch form: com/pitch-a-book
  • This Is Horror Podcast: co.uk · email: michael@thisishorror.co.uk
  • Talking Scared: com · email: talkingscaredpod@gmail.com
  • Imaginary Worlds: org · email: imaginaryworldspodcast@gmail.com
  • Breaking the Glass Slipper: com
  • The Skiffy and Fanty Show: com
  • The Worldshapers: com
  • Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy: com
  • Sword and Laser: com · pitch via Goodreads group
  • Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast: com
  • Writing Excuses: com
  • EscapePod / PodCastle / PseudoPod / Cast of Wonders: org
  • Nightlight: com
  • FIYAH Literary Magazine: com
  • PodMatch: com
  • fm: matchmaker.fm
  • Rephonic: com
  • Podchaser: com
  • ListenNotes: com
  • Six Figure Authors archive: com — concluded 2022
  • Tea & Jeopardy archive: geekplanetonline.com — concluded 2018
  • The Career Author archive: com/podcast — concluded 2020
  • Self Publishing Journeys archive: self-publishing-journeys.com — concluded 2023
  • The Podcast Guest Playbook (Dalrymple / Lefebvre): com/dp/1959882244
  • I Should Be Writing: com · pitch genre writers: lafferty.assistant@gmail.com
  • Otherppl with Brad Listi: com · email: letters@otherppl.com
  • WROTE / LGBTQ Storytelling: com · email: contact@wrotepodcast.com
  • Sell More Books Show: com
  • Wide for the Win: com
  • Indie Author Magazine: com
  • Historical Happy Hour: com
  • La Lista — A Latinx Writers Podcast: Apple Podcasts
  • The Stacks: com
  • Debutiful: net/podcast
  • The Drunken Odyssey: com
  • Faculty of Horror: com
  • The NoSleep Podcast: com · submissions: thenosleeppodcast.com/submissions
  • The Dead Robots’ Society: com
  • Alternate Futures (UK): co.uk
  • Speculative Fiction Writing Made Simple: com · email: heather@manyworldswriting.com
  • AntipodeanSF (Australia): com · submissions: antisf.com/submission-guidelines
  • Australian Book Lovers Podcast: com/podcasts

Important Disclaimer, Folks

Podcast landscapes shift constantly. Shows close to guests, change links (also called URLs), go on hiatus, employ contact forms that simply don’t work, or just vanish. Close to a quarter (or more) of the podcasts I’ve been a guest on have gone black. Every entry in this guide was verified active at the time of writing. If you find a dead link or a closed door, that’s the nature of the unruly podcast beast and not a flaw in your search. Some links will direct to database pages, or podcast links that say nothing at all about the host, pitch policies, or anything about the podcast itself; and if you trip over such a link just use a search engine to find the actual podcast or backspace through odd links back to find the author or host actual site. Also, rejections, non-responses, dead links, forms that don’t work, are all “sauce for the goose” as the saying goes; use what you can and discard or run a search on what might not. Thanks.