Spotlighting the Indie Author – Turning the Corner – JEC

Issue 139 * Blog 18-2020 * Read Time: 5 Mins * Podcast – Spotlighting the Indie Author

Note from the Raven: Joseph E Clay Dot Com was not pleased with the functionality of the blog that came with the Official Website hosted by Go Daddy. To remedy that we decided to have the Official Joseph E Clay Dot Com Blog hosted by WordPress. The below was originally published to Spotlighting the Indie Author Official Blog on June 13, 2020. Since the Podcast blog is better suited for for the technical data of the show, Credits and so forth this blog was transferred to this site on 1-25-2021, keeping it’s assigned issue and blog number.

Episode 4 was a turning point for Spotlighting the Indie Author. Why was it a turning point?

Well let me tell you. I mentioned in our blog, The Humble Beginnings that most podcast die before the seventh episode or shortly thereafter.

Episode 4 put us over the half way point to seven episodes.

We may only have four episodes under our belt but we have come a long way since Episode 1: Book Review – _Hotel 66_ – by Independent Author Michael King. Remember we recorded that episode using the built in mic on an Inspiron 24-2455 computer.

We learned from that mistake and moved on and…after Episode 4 we knew we were in this for the long haul…as we were having too much fun. We realize we have more to learn We’ll get to that in a few. First I would like to tell you what Episode 4 accomplished.

Episode 4 was the end of what we considered “On The Job Training” mentioned in the blog, The Humble Beginnings. Each main co-host, Nina and Joseph, aired an individual podcast, one together, and Episode 4 took care of Nina’s first interview. Joseph has interview experience so he is interview ready.

What does all that mean?

Spotlighting the Indie Author will no longer be using blogs that appear on ThunderHorse Publishing as scripts and reviewing books that were released years ago.

The reviews will be of books that have been published within the last 12-18 months. Spotlighting the Indie Author will now be interviewing independent authors and others not affiliated with Joseph E Clay Dot Com. We will have Indie Authors on the show to discuss their upcoming releases, book launches along with having Author Chats.

We will also be interviewing others, Editors, Book Cover Designers, Marketing professionals and more. Basically anyone who can help the Indie Author be successful.

Now on to the improvements the hosts need to make.

Hosts:

As mentioned in a previous post Nina Turnipseed and myself, Joseph Clay decided to take on the hosting duties at first. This was to get the podcast off the ground as cheap as possible, plus we had no idea if it would float or sink.

Since then Spotlighting the Indie Author has added the following staff to the show:

Announcer/Co-Host Sub: Kelli Winkler (Owner of Kelli Winkler Voice Talent). Kelli first appeared on Episode 4: Author Chat with Joseph Clay Author/Blogger/Entrepreneur and Podcast Host.
Contributing Host: Christy Warren (Book Review Manager/Executive Assistant to Joseph Clay at Joseph E Clay Dot Com). Christy first appeared on Episode 3: Book Review – Promise Me Always by G. Michelle
Contributing Host: Joan Clay (Director of Contest for The Corral). Joan first appeared on Episode 10: Book Review – Red Sandy Cat Detective, by JA Stone.

Kelli, who has a major in journalism and broadcast experience will be helping Joseph with the post-production. Plus since she is the only one who has ever been behind a mic, we all hope to pick up pointers from her.

Kelli’s advice has helped Nina, Joseph and Christy along with Joan get better, episode by episode, but there is still a lot to learn and techniques to be mastered. We have to work on the following.

Learn proper microphone distancing
Not sounding as if reading from a script.
Letting the unique personalities of each come through in their voices.
Be more spontaneous, the script is nothing more than notes. Come off script and improvise if there is something a host wants to add.

Some of the problems Nina, Joseph and Christy along with Joan are having are not their fault as the issues are with the equipment and programs. Well maybe not with the programs. That could be from the lack of knowing how to use the post production program.

At the present time we use the following programs and equipment:

Programs:

DAW: Audacity
DAW: Alitu. Alitu is an automated podcast producer. Since we have no idea what we are doing, Alitu fixes a lot we miss in Audacity.
Skype: MP3 Skype Recorder Pro Edition

Equipment:

Neewer 8 – in – 1 Microphone Accessory Kit. The kit contained a NW-7000 USB condenser microphone with USB cable, adjustable microphone suspension scissor arm with mounting clamp and a shock mount. The kit also contained a pop filter, microphone wind filter and a set of Neewer 100 Headphones.
Audio-Technica ATH-M40x headphones
Computer

The Neewer NW-7000 included in the Neewer 8 – in – 1 Microphone Accessory Kit improved the sound over the built in computer mic 100 fold.

So yes we know we need to improve and have made steps to do just that. Spotlighting the Indie Author accepts the challenge of lasting past 7 episodes as we turn the corner and are racing down the street to the next one.

We will go over the equipment and programs we have and or using on the podcast, in the series Podcasting 101: Equipment. Those blogs are in the process, we are trying to figure out a way to break them down in to sections, so the post will not be so long.

Plus we are researching equipment and programs to see whats available and putting together a wish list, so to speak. When done we hope the equipment on that list will improve our sound quality more and eliminate some minor issues we having with what we are currently using. We’ll will post that list in the near future.

Podcasting 101 – Post

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JEC – Official Blog