Literary Agent Steve Laube recently released a blog post showing that 100% of ECPA Bestselling authors had a podcast presence as either hosts or guests. 60% were both hosts and guests!

We were curious to see how many authors on the USA Today Bestseller List had a podcast presence.

The authors with no podcast presence are in bold. Authors who guest on podcasts are marked with a “G” and authors who host are marked with an “H” next to their names.

USA Today Bestseller List (September 26, 2019)

1. Guts by Raina Telgemeier (G)
2. The Institute by Stephen King (G)
3. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (G)
4. Talking to Strangers by  Malcolm Gladwel (H & G)
5. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (G)
6. Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls by Dav Pilkey (G)
7. Permanent Record by Edward Snowden (G)
8. Land of Wolves by Craig Johnson (G)
9. The Goldfinch By Donna Tartt  (G)
10. Educated by Tara Westover (G)
11. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (G)
12. The Oracle by Jonathan Cahn (G)
13. Call Sign Chaos By Jim Mattis, Bing West (G)
14. The Last Kids on Earth and the Midnight Blade By Max Brallier, Douglas Holgate  (G)
15. Killer Instinct by James Patterson, Howard Roughan* (G)
16. It by Stephen King (G)
17. Room on the Broom By Julia Donaldson (G), Axel Scheffler (G)
18. The Stalking by Heather Graham (G)
19. That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph (G)
20. Vendetta in Death by J.D. Robb  (G)
21. Shut Up and Listen! by Tilman Fertitta (G)
22. Dungeons & Dragons: Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus by Wizards RPG Team (H & G)
23. A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie (G)
24. The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz (G)
25. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris (G)
26. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (G)
27. Met Her Match by Jude Deveraux
28. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson (G)
29. Ghosted by Rosie Walsh (G)
30. She Said by Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey (G)
31. What It Takes by Stephen A. Schwarzman (G)
32. Love You Forever by Robert Munsch (G)
33. The Baby-Sitters Club Graphix: Boy-Crazy Stacey by Ann M. Martin (G)
34. The Titanic Secret by Clive Cussler by Jack Du Brul (G)
35. The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff (G)
36. Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate (G)
37. The Timepiece by Beverly Lewis (G)
38. The Last Letter from Juliet by Melanie Hudson
39. The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman (G)
40. A Better Man by Louise Penny (G)
41. The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott (G)
42. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (G)
43. Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow (G)
44. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
45. Goodnight Moon Board Book by Margaret Wise Brown
46. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Board Book by Eric Carle
47. Flame by Chelle Bliss (G)
48. The Umbrella Academy Volume 3: Hotel Oblivion by Gerard Way (G)
49. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (G)
50. StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath (G)

Notes

Of the authors on this list with no podcast presence, 40% of them wrote classics and have since passed away. 

While 90% of authors guest on other podcasts, only 4% of them host their own podcasts. If this were a list of only nonfiction authors, we expect the number of hosts would be higher.

Methodology

We looked up each author on either Podchaser or Apple Podcasts to find their podcast presence. If we missed a podcast or interview please leave a comment and let us know.

Not All Co-Authors Guest on Podcasts

Not every author of a book has a podcast presence. For instance, while James Patterson does guest interviews, we couldn’t find any with his co-author Howard Roughan. 

Pen Names

For books written by authors using pen names, we count interviews with the real human behind the pen name, so Nora Roberts interviews count as interviews for J.D. Robb, and Greg Tito counts as Wizards RPG Team.

A Webinar for Authors Who Want to Learn About Podcasting

Novel Marketing host Thomas Umstattd Jr. is hosting a free webinar where he will talk about:

• The best way to listen to podcasts (it’s not what you think!)
• How to get guest interviews
• How to host your own podcast

If you are wanting to learn more about podcasting, this is not a webinar you will want to miss. Thomas will also answer your podcast-related questions.

Webinar Details:

• Cost: Free
• When: Thursday, Oct 3 at 7 pm Central Time (Convert Timezone)
• Where: Register Here
• Why: Learn how podcasts work and easy ways to start using them to write better books and build a bigger platform. 

Can’t make it? You can register for the replay.