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Jessica Rhodes started Interview Connections in 2013 because she wanted to stay home with her kids, and her dad, a business coach, became her first client. She and Alexa met in year one, when Jessica was a guest on Lose the Cape, Alexa's first podcast. Thirteen years later Jessica runs the agency as sole owner with a local team of six, and she still calls podcast guesting the number one marketing strategy for authors. The reason is simple: readers remember the person they heard, then go find the book. Jessica walks through how to pitch a host so it reads like a real person wrote it, the six-month booking math behind a launch, and why an author who already published hasn't missed anything. If you want to plan your next launch with other women doing the same, the 10th Women in Publishing Summit runs in March 2027.

Readers remember you before your title. Jessica tried to name a memoir she's recommended to so many people and couldn't, but she remembered the author, Tom Sims, instantly. When a listener hears your story, the book becomes something they tell friends about.

Hosts book your story first. "It's not their expertise or their knowledge that is important, but it is their story," Jessica says. Lead your pitch with the story that makes you you, then connect it to the book.

Don't let AI write your pitch. Jessica talks to podcast hosts every day and hasn't met one who likes getting an AI-written pitch. Treat the first email like the first message to someone you actually want to meet.

Ask before you pitch. Tell the host which episode you listened to, then ask, "Are you open to an idea?" The answers teach you which pitch works before you send fifty of them.

Start booking six months before launch. Two to four weeks to book, one to three months to record, one to three months to air. That's six months minimum from first pitch to an episode going live, so count backward from your pub date.

A slipped launch date is fixable. Build a waitlist and ask the host whether they'd hold the episode and release it closer to the new date.

Already launched? Start now. Hosts care whether the episode is valuable, not when your book came out. Jessica's line: "The best time to plant a tree is yesterday. Just get going."

Jessica Rhodes is the founder and CEO of Interview Connections, the podcast booking agency she started in 2013 so she could work from home with her kids. Her dad, a business coach, was her first client, and she brought her background in door-to-door community organizing and nonprofit fundraising into booking his interviews. Thirteen years later she runs the agency as sole owner with six full-time local employees and a group of part-time contractors, teaches a free podcast guesting masterclass every month, and is the author of The Podcast Guest Formula. Find her at interviewconnections.com.