Since I started podcasting somewhere around 2013, I’ve spoken with a lot of people who passed on appearances simply because they didn’t think they could do a good appearance. I haven’t been doing this so long that I’ve forgotten having that feeling as well, so the last time I heard this concern I decided to do this primer on all aspects of PR interviews and appearances. If you are in charge of your own marketing efforts, this one is for you. If you’re one of the several people who have told me they’ve decided to forge ahead with a podcast of your own recently, consider this collected wisdom my podwarming gift to you–welcome to the neighborhood. I even finished up with a story I haven’t shared before about being the subject of a very tricky interview with a major news outlet.
Here are just a few questions I tried to answer here:
- What should I expect from a basic interview about my game or work?
- What if I get surprised by a question?
- What if I’m not a natural communicator? (I’m not either, I promise)
- How can I be sure I’ll be ready for the topics?
- What kind of editing should I expect to be done? What shouldn’t I expect?
- How should I prepare for and conduct my own interviews with others?
- How can I protect myself from potentially adversarial journalism?
Most of this show was guided by conversation with fellow indies, particularly in recent discussions on Twitter. I hope I have answered some of the concerns raised there, and maybe even made you more comfortable with the idea of promoting yourself in future appearances around the web. As always, let me know.
Todd Mitchell is a US Midwest-based comedy writer and game developer with bylines at Weekly Humorist, Fanbyte, Slackjaw, End of the Bench Sports, and more. He’s the author of Inside Video Game Creation, the founder of CodeWritePlay, and host of the GameDev Breakdown podcast. Follow him on Twitter @Mechatodzilla.