Podcasting Becomes Integral Part of Book Authoring

As MrExcel Podcast Celebrates 1000th Episode, Podcasting is a "Requirement for Books to Compete"

Bill Jelen wasn't sure why he was getting into podcasting back in October 2005. He was a regular guest on TechTV's Call for Help television program. When he saw hosts Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur each diving into podcasting, he sought their advice and started his Learn Excel from MrExcel video podcast.

Jelen started offering a new Excel tip each weekday. For content, Jelen simply podcasted tips from his book, Learn Excel from MrExcel. "Back then, the hope was that someone would discover the podcast and then go out and buy the book."

The early start, coupled with the five-per-week schedule allowed him to be one of the first podcasts to reach the 1000-episode milestone.

Now, 1000 episodes later, Jelen realizes he had it wrong. For his upcoming books about Microsoft Excel 2010, Jelen is incorporating the podcasts into the book. For each chapter, he is choosing a particularly tricky concept and producing a podcast. Text in the book will invite readers to view the video on YouTube in order to bring the concept to life. "Podcasting is an easy way to naturally incorporate multi-media into print books. The multimedia component adds tremendous value to the book and will be a competitive edge to make my book stand out from the crowd of Excel books on the shelf," notes Jelen.

Jelen will incorporate at least one podcast per chapter into Excel 2010 In Depth, Pivot Table Data Crunching for Excel 2010, and Learn Excel 2010 from MrExcel. These titles are slated for release in 2010H1, at the same time Microsoft releases Office 2010.

Bill Jelen is the author of 25 books about Microsoft Excel and the host of MrExcel.com. His 1000th podcast episode debuts on Monday September 14. 2009 and deals with using Excel’s COUNTIF function to find records matching a range of dates. View the episode at mrexcel.libsyn.com or search for Learn Excel in the podcast section of the iTunes Music Store.