TriCom Podcasts Put Authors In Your Pocket

by Felicia Pride, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 8/21/2006

TriCom Publicity has launched two free subscription-based podcast shows, Authors in Your Pocket, a weekly one-on-one author interview, and Bookclubs in Your Pocket, a monthly digital roundtable discussion between a book club and an author. Produced and scripted by audio engineers, graphic designers, publicists, and internet marketers, the podcasts are designed to be stand-alone, entertaining marketing pieces for authors and publishers.

TriCom specializes in African American-oriented titles but also represents a variety of authors. The shows are hosted by thirty-year Chicago radio veteran, Wali Muhammad, and have featured interviews with an array of writers including Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, Lisa Jackson, Meg Cabot, Eric Jerome Dickey, and Mary B. Morrison.

In addition to the standard MP3 podcasts, TriCom offers graphically enhanced versions of the same show, a unique feature that Hicks said allows audiences to follow the programs visually on their ipods. The enhanced podcasts include photographs, book illustrations and hyperlinks to purchase books, as well as links to author and publisher websites, mailing lists, blogs, reading guides, excerpts, and interactive contests.

To promote the podcasts (authorsinyourpocket.com), TriCom sends weekly emails to its home grown list of 208,000 readers and 12,000 bookclub members. The shows are also listed in search engines, podcasting directories, library and educational directories and on Myspace.com. L. Peggy Hicks, CEO of TriCom, said, "We’ve used everything we’ve learned in the eleven years of marketing books into creating and promoting these podcasts."