I’ve done more than 100 guest podcast appearances, and I host Leaders and Their Stories, so I’ve sat on both sides of the microphone more times than I can count. (See National Podcast Day) The guests listeners remember tell a story and then stop talking. A guest reading talking points off a second monitor sounds like it, and the audience drifts. I enjoy guesting, too. I spend my days on creative work, and an hour spent focusing on somebody else chills my mind out. In 2024 I ran my guest recordings through Riverside, whose clip feature cut each episode into short clips for TikTok, so the size of a show’s audience mattered less to me.
A client with a ghostwritten book walks into that same room worried about something the host never thinks about. They didn’t type the sentences, so they feel like a fraud before the first question. I understand the feeling, and it’s misplaced. If your ghostwriter built the book from recorded interviews and you approved each chapter, every story in it came from you, in your words. You know that material better than anyone alive, your ghostwriter included.
A guest reading talking points off a second monitor sounds like it, and the audience drifts.
Think of a boat built for you at a yard. The builder shaped the hull and ran the wiring, but you chose where it would sail, and every chart in the wheelhouse came from trips you made yourself. When guests come aboard, you give the tour and you take the wheel. Nobody expects you to explain the fiberglass layup, and nobody hands the helm to the yard. A ghostwritten book works the same way on a podcast, a stage or a folding table at the library.
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Podcast interview | Answer the question asked and tell a story from the book in about two minutes |
| Preparing for media | Reread with a pen, pick five or six stories, practice each out loud |
| A detail you don’t remember | Say so and tell the story around it |
| Painful chapters | Decide beforehand how far you’ll go and have a kind closing sentence ready |
| Promoting the book on air | Mention it two or three times an hour; give the title and one website |
| “Did you write it yourself?” | Decide your answer before the first interview and say it calmly |
| Your book launch | Invite your ghostwriter only if you want; agree how you’ll introduce them |
| Reading aloud at an event | Pick a five to seven minute passage, read slowly, stay for questions |
How do I do podcast interviews about a book I didn’t write myself?
The same way any author does: tell stories from it, share the opinions in it, and point listeners to it once or twice. Podcast hosts want a good conversation, and a good conversation comes from your life. Your book is made of the same material.
Assume the host hasn’t read the whole book. Expect a skim of the description, a chapter and your bio. That works in your favor, because the host will ask about your life and your work, and the book becomes something you mention when a story reaches its point.
A host wants a guest who listens to the question and answers that one. A guest who swerves every answer back to a prepared pitch makes the host work twice as hard, and listeners hear the swerve. Answer what you’re asked, tell a story that fits, and trust that a good host will give you room to mention the book at the end.
Keep your answers short. Two minutes for a story is plenty. Then let the host react. A guest who talks for eight minutes straight kills the conversation, and the edit will cut most of it anyway. My article on video interviewing tips covers the camera and microphone side if the show records video.
How do I prepare for media interviews about my ghostwritten book?
Reread the book cover to cover, with a pen in your hand. Mark every story you’d enjoy telling out loud, and every claim someone could push back on. Then pick five or six stories and practice telling each one in two minutes, in your own spoken words, with no script.
Ask your ghostwriter for the interview recordings and session summaries before the project closes. My contract keeps recordings for three months after the project ends, and clients can get copies on request. A recording of yourself telling a story the first time, before it was shaped into a chapter, reminds you how you naturally say it. My article on what happens to ghostwriting interview recordings has the details on retention.
Practice with a friend who hasn’t read the book. Hand them a list of questions, let them ask in any order, and record the session on your phone. When you play it back, you’ll hear the stories that wander and the answers that need a first sentence a journalist can quote. Print reporters pull one line from a twenty-minute call, so give them a clean one early in each answer. Then get on as many podcasts as you can find, even ones with 50 listeners. The practice alone is worth it, especially at the beginning, and you build up a reputation from there.
Know your numbers and names cold. If the book says the company grew to three hundred employees, don’t say four hundred on the radio. A host or a listener who catches a mismatch between your mouth and your pages will wonder who wrote what, and you’ve handed them the question.
What if someone asks me about something in my book I don’t remember?
Say you don’t remember that detail, and tell the story around it. “I’d have to check the exact year, but the story goes like this” is a perfectly good answer from any author, ghostwritten or not.
Authors who wrote every word themselves forget their own books too. A book takes months or years, and by the launch you’ve moved on to other work. Nobody on a podcast expects you to quote page 184.
If the gap is bigger than a date, it points to a preparation problem. A client who approved each chapter as it arrived and reread the finished book before the launch won’t hit many of these. And if you find a passage you truly don’t recognize, call your ghostwriter and ask where it came from. If the book was built from your interviews, the passage came from something you said, and the recordings will show where.
Plan ahead for the painful chapters, because hosts go straight to them. A divorce or a failed business gets told in the book at the length you chose, and a microphone asks for more. Decide before the interview how far you’ll go on air, and have a sentence ready that closes the door kindly. “I put everything I want to say about that in chapter seven” works fine.
A book mill that writes a book from a questionnaire and a few calls with a writer who never met the client, then leaves that author alone at a microphone unable to explain chapter three, is a menace. The author looks like a fraud, and the company that set them up never pays for it. My article on cheap ghostwriters, stolen bios and bestseller scams covers that corner of the business.
How do I answer audience questions about my book at events and signings?
Answer them like a person who lived the book, since you did. Audience questions at a reading are friendlier than media questions, and most of them are about you and why you wrote it.
Have a few answers ready for the questions every author gets. Why did you write the book? How long did it take? What happened to the people in chapter two? Who is the book for? You’ll hear some version of each one at every event.
Local events reward preparation. A library talk, a bookstore evening or a signing at a community center puts you in front of people who could hire you or tell a friend. Call the local paper a couple of weeks ahead with a one-paragraph note about the event and the story behind the book, because a local angle is what an editor needs to say yes.
How do I promote my book on a podcast without sounding like an ad?
Mention the book when a story naturally leads there, and no more than two or three times in an hour. Listeners came for the conversation, and every hard plug costs you a little of their attention.
A guest who opens every answer with “As I say in my book” gets tuned out. After the third time, the audience stops hearing anything else. Tell the story instead, and let the host say, “That’s in the book, right?” A host’s recommendation carries far more weight with listeners than yours ever will, and the good hosts make it without being asked.
Give the host one clear way to find the book, and say it the same way every time: the title and one website. Send the host a one-page sheet before the show with your bio, a few story prompts and the book’s title, because a busy host will use it. A guest who lists four retailers, a discount code and a social handle has lost the listener by the second item.
Keep a copy of every appearance, too. Shows often don’t even send me the link, so I go find my guest appearances, download them and put them on my website with the transcript and everything. I do it for the small shows as well.
What do I say if someone asks whether I wrote the book myself?
Whatever you’ve decided to say, said calmly. You can name your ghostwriter, you can say you worked with a professional writer, or you can say it’s your story and your book. All three are true.
Decide before the first interview, so you don’t improvise on the air. Presidents and athletes have used ghostwriters for generations, and the answer that works is the brief one. My articles on what to say when someone asks if you wrote your book and on how credit works in ghostwriting go through the options.
Tell your ghostwriter what you’ve decided, too. A professional under nondisclosure won’t contradict you, but they need to know whether they can ever mention the book to a prospective client or must keep it off their list entirely. Put that agreement in writing before the launch so nobody has to guess.
Should my ghostwriter come to my book launch?
Only if you want them there, in whatever role you choose. Whether to tell anyone about your ghostwriter is entirely your decision, and a professional ghostwriter under nondisclosure won’t show up and announce themselves.
Some authors invite the ghostwriter as a guest and introduce them as a friend or as the writer who helped, and that’s fine. Others keep the launch to family, clients and colleagues.
A book launch is the christening, and the name on the bow is yours. You greet the guests and tell the stories, and the builder, if invited, enjoys the party from the dock. If you do invite your ghostwriter, tell them in advance how you’ll introduce them, so nobody fumbles the handshake in front of your biggest client.
Can my ghostwriter do interviews or speak for me about the book?
No, and you wouldn’t want it. Readers and hosts want the author, and a ghostwriter talking about your life on your behalf undoes the point of a book with your name on it.
A ghostwriter’s job ends with the manuscript. I deliver a solid manuscript draft and refer clients to trusted editors for editing, proofreading and formatting, and the promotion belongs to the author. My article on the ghostwriter’s role after the manuscript is done covers what a ghostwriter can reasonably help with after delivery.
Be suspicious of any firm that sells a book and a “media tour” in one package. I hate those bundles. They charge for placements on shows nobody listens to and dress up paid spots as earned interviews.
How do I read aloud from a ghostwritten book at a reading?
Practice the passage out loud several times, and mark up a copy the way an actor marks a script. Pick a scene with dialogue or a story with a turn at the end, five to seven minutes long, and cut anything that reads well on paper and trips your tongue.
Change a word if you need to. A good ghostwriter writes in your voice, but the rhythm of a sentence on the page and the rhythm you’d use speaking aren’t always identical. Nobody in the audience is following along in the book, and you’re allowed to say it the way you’d say it.
Leave time for questions after a reading. The passage warms the room up, and the questions afterward are where people decide to buy the book, hire you or invite you back. Stay for them, and linger near the table for the people too shy to ask in front of everyone.
Read slower than feels natural. Nerves speed everyone up, and a room of listeners needs time to picture the scene. Look up at the end of each paragraph so the room sees your face while you tell them your own story.
My take
You can talk about a ghostwritten book as well as anyone, because every story in it came out of your mouth. Reread it, pick a handful of two minute stories, and ask your ghostwriter for the recordings before they’re deleted. Forgot a detail? Say so and tell the story around it. Avoid any firm that bundles the book with a paid media tour. Read slowly at events, then stay for the questions, because people decide to buy the book during those few minutes.
What should you do before your first podcast about your book?
Reread the book this week, pick your five stories, and practice each one out loud until it takes two minutes. Ask your ghostwriter for the recordings while they still exist. Decide what you’ll say if someone asks who wrote it. Then book the show, because a book that nobody hears you talk about won’t do anything for your speaking, consulting or career. The return on a book comes from those, and book sales rarely cover the cost. My article on turning a ghostwritten book into courses, talks and posts goes further on that.
The preparation that lets you talk about every page of a ghostwritten book with confidence.
If you haven’t started the book yet, my ghostwriting services build it from your own recorded interviews, so every page holds something you said, and the Book Discovery Intensive is a first step. The Ghostwriting Hub covers the rest.
I hate hearing that hiring a professional makes the life inside a book less yours, and no author should apologize for it on air. It’s your boat. Somebody else built the hull, but every chart aboard came from your own trips, and when the lines come off the dock, you’re the one at the wheel.
Interviews and events are marketing, and marketing is what sells a book. Sell Your Books is my no-hype guide from more than a decade of indie launches, ads and email lists.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Sorensen Finally Admits Collaborating on JFK’s ‘Profiles in Courage’, History News Network
