Writers: Put away that inkwell and feather for a while and get hip to podcasts. We’ve already shown you the elements of a superb podcast; now we’ve prepared a list of podcast resources to a) strengthen your knowledge of the book industry and the writerly craft on an ongoing basis and b) give you ideas to cop for your own syndicated series. We hope as you explore them you’ll get a feel for the wide range of uses these little audio phenomena can be put to, and—if you’re one of those obsessed, reclusive, technologically clueless writer types—pick up some valuable new-media skills.

For your listening pleasure, a handpicked selection of writing/publishing podcasts:

Fiction

• AmericanWriters.com offers full podcasts on fiction writing (”The Shadow in the Hero,” “How to Open Your Story”) and quick, morsel-sized audio tips.
• Write Where You Belong: The Creative Writing Podcast is therapy for members of the writing community experiencing creative problems. Let Steve Yudewitz walk you through overcoming writer’s block and deciding if it’s time to throw in the towel on your writing career.
• Attendance at the Odyssey Writing Workshop will not only cost you tuition, but will require you to get dressed to hear the lectures. So, in lieu of paying a fee, brushing your teeth, and putting on pants, opt instead for the free monthly podcast, which offers advice from top fantasy, sci-fi, and horror writers.
• At FictionRight, husband-and-wife team Alan and Rebecca Lickiss cover fiction technique, interview fellow authors, and provide writing exercises.

Business

• 800-CEO-READ, supplier of business titles to corporations and other organizations, hosts a series of interviews, updated monthly, with their top authors.
• From HarperCollins Canada, Foreword Thinking is a podcast on business and motivational titles. Host Mitch Joel picks the greatest entrepreneurial brains in the book business.

Children’s

• Recorded over the faint, comforting din of an Ottawa coffee shop, Just One More Book features satisfyingly specialized discussions on “the children’s books we love and why we love them.” Break out the apple juice and sippy cup for the full effect.
• Childrensbookradio.com interviews kiddie lit authors who talk about what it takes to make a good read for the kids.
• Book Voyages gives listeners an elementary school library media specialist’s take on the children’s book market.

Miscellaneous

• When it comes to verb agreement, comma placement, misplaced modifiers, and a host of other common punctuational and syntactical trip-ups, the prolific Grammar Girl’s got you covered. Her “Quick & Dirty Tips” entertain and inform.
• The uselessness of most of the information at A Way With Words doesn’t mean it isn’t fascinating and addictive. Renegade word lovers Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett explore etymology and the origins of strange phrases, among other linguistic trivia. The Collective Noun Contest is a highlight.
• The Writing Show supplies wide-ranging audio resources to authors from a different guest each week, from analysis of self-publishing contracts to strategies for writing historical fiction to developing and packaging scripts for Hollywood.
• Didn’t make BookExpo this year? BookExpoCast.com has many of the highlight events and panel available via (you guessed it) podcast. Archives extend back to the 2006 expo.