How to Podcast Your Way to Publishing Success
Today, we’re diving into how to quickly and effectively build a platform and connect with your audience and influencers in the Christian writing space. I interviewed Chase Perlogle, the founding pastor of Bent Oak Church, a writer, and a podcaster. He hosts the weekly Pastor Writer podcast, where he interviews pastors and authors about writing, reading, and Christian life. His site also chronicles his ongoing writing projects and how he built a platform from scratch.
What inspired Chase to start writing and podcasting?
Chase: When I interview authors and ask how they got into writing, many share stories of loving books as kids, writing stories early on, and knowing they wanted to be writers. That wasn’t my story. I felt called to ministry early on and focused on speaking through high school speech and debate.
I have this slightly embarrassing memory from eighth grade when I wrote an article for the school newspaper. The teacher returned it with a note saying it was “too maudlin.” I had no idea what that meant, so I looked it up and found “stupidly sentimental.” I instantly concluded writing wasn’t for me. It wasn’t a huge deal, but I set writing aside.
In college, reading became more important to me, especially for my faith. As a pastor, I started caring more about the words and phrases in my sermons. I began writing full sermon transcripts to take to the pulpit, and I fell in love with the process of crafting something just right. The editorial process of refining an idea was exciting, and that sparked my interest in writing. I started reading about the craft of writing and felt it was becoming part of my calling, alongside pastoring and preaching.
That brings me to the podcast. The Pastor Writer podcast reflects my audience of pastors who are interested in writing. It’s also about who I’m becoming through my vocation. I’m walking with people and preaching weekly in a church setting, but I’m also drawn to writing and sharing that publicly. The podcast started somewhat selfishly in that I wanted to interview pastor-writers I wouldn’t otherwise have access to so I could ask them questions and learn from them. It was also a way to build a platform. I pastor a relatively small church and wasn’t on a fast track to a megachurch publishing deal. Podcasting felt natural for me, so I launched it about a year and a half ago.
What makes podcasting a unique platform-building tool?
Thomas: Podcasting is more technically challenging than starting a blog or being on social media. That difficulty means fewer people do it, which makes it easier to gain traction and build an audience. As podcasting gets easier, this advantage may fade, but the less crowded field is a big advantage.
I bet you’re one of the only pastors talking about writing on the entire iTunes repository. There are probably dozens of blogs by pastors writing about writing, but with podcasting, you’re in an exclusive club.
Another benefit is building relationships. We met when you reached out and said, “Hey, Thomas, want to be on my podcast?” I was like, “Sure, that’s not hard to say yes to.” You’ve done this with dozens of others, quickly building connections across the industry.
How has podcasting helped you build industry relationships?
Chase: For me, podcasting was a good fit. Early on, there’s pressure to be active on every social media platform, blog, and podcast. But you’ve got to pick what suits you best and go all in.
Conversations like this felt natural to me. I do more blogging now than when I started, but podcasting was my entry point. Having guests on has been a joy. I enjoy connecting with people I wouldn’t normally get to talk to and spending an hour diving into their insights.
People can listen to a podcast while multitasking. They listen while working on the house, mowing the yard, or driving. My episodes are often 50 minutes long, and often 95% of listeners stick around for the whole thing. Getting someone to spend 45 minutes on a blog post is rare. People are distracted, and holding their attention for even five minutes is an achievement.
Thomas: Exactly. It’s also easier to get podcast guests. If you’d asked me to be interviewed for a blog, I’d probably have said, “No thanks.” Writing answers to questions is more work than talking for a podcast.
How does podcasting foster unique conversations?
Chase: That’s so true. When we think about authors or influencers, we associate them with their books or topics. But with the podcast, I’ve found people have interests in the margins they love to talk about, but those don’t fit neatly into their book’s focus. It’s been fun to interview authors and talk about the writing process itself, not just their book’s topic. Many are open to those conversations on a podcast when they might not be in another format.
How do podcasters support each other?
Thomas: In the podcast world, other podcasters aren’t your competition; they’re your allies. They’re your potential guests. You connect with authors, influencers, and other podcasters.
History podcasters are especially good at collaborating. They have a special Facebook group where they help each other out, do cross-promotional intros, and interview each other. For example, I’m listening to the History of Byzantium podcast, and the host had the History of Vikings podcast host on to talk about where their histories overlapped. They discussed how the Byzantines hired Viking mercenaries as the emperor’s guard because they were big, scary, and not politically connected. It was a fascinating episode. This kind of collaboration happens to some degree in all podcasting categories.
I don’t want everyone to rush out and start a writing podcast. There are already great ones out there. But your book’s topic might need a podcast or two, or maybe there’s no podcast on it at all.
I had a client who wanted to start a podcast on a topic with no existing podcasts. By creating it, she’d own the entire market, which is a rare opportunity in today’s crowded online space.
Chase: It takes thought and awareness of what’s out there to find your place in the conversation. The Christian Publishing Show is more practical, focusing on the nuts and bolts of publishing.
My podcast is more introspective, exploring what it’s like to go through the writing process as a writer, especially from a faith perspective as a pastor. If I’d just said, “I’m starting a podcast on writing,” I’d be competing with great existing shows. Instead, I approached it as a pastor, reflecting on what writing looks like for me. Finding that unique angle makes your podcast easier to find, connect with, and more interesting.
How does your unique identity shape your podcast?
Thomas: Knowing who you are and embracing your strengths is key. You don’t have to try to be someone else. You didn’t see being a pastor of a relatively small church as a liability but as an asset. Being a pastor gives you credibility, like parking in the clergy spot at the hospital or getting free books sent to pastors.
Everyone has something that is a perceived weakness but is also a strength. You mentioned feeling like you weren’t on the megachurch pastor track, but you didn’t let that stop you. At your very first conference, several agents were interested in you, and one offered a contract right there, thanks in no small part to your podcast. You’re a perfect case study of podcasting’s potential power.
How does being a pastor influence your writing process?
Thomas: How does being a pastor help or hurt your writing process?
Chase: It cuts both ways. Being a pastor impacts my writing, and working on my writing impacts my pastoring. Most of my writing flows out of things I’m preaching on. We tend to do book studies, so my first manuscript used the story of Samson from the Book of Judges, which I preached on a few years ago. Right now, I’m working on a project about Saul and David’s story, drawn from preaching through First Samuel. But it’s never as simple as taking a sermon, editing it, and turning it into a book. It becomes something much bigger.
Often, much of the sermon doesn’t even make it into the writing. The seed, the idea, the thing that gets me interested is what sparks it. Sermons come at you weekly, so you’re starting from scratch each time. Some weeks, you get a sermon 80% there, but it’s that 20% on the edges that fascinates me. There’s something more in the story I want to explore and spend time with.
As a writer, I’m driven to find those moments and dig deeper. Being a pastor gives me access to conversations with people. I take a relational approach, embedding myself in the congregation. You see what people are struggling with and how the culture and world around them shape their thoughts.
Eugene Peterson once said the primary job of a pastor is to show up and say, “God.” It’s about being a voice for that reality, pointing out there’s more to the story. Knowing what it’s like to live in this world and how the gospel interjects and changes that story is rich ground for a writer to express ideas. You don’t have to be a pastor to write, but for me, so much of my writing flows out of who I am as a pastor.
How does pastoring help you connect with your audience?
Thomas: I recently spoke with Alice Crider, executive editor at David C. Cook, a major Christian publisher. We discussed the importance of writing to an individual and knowing your target reader.
As an author, you need to interact with your target readers in real life. For some pastors, meeting with people about their problems feels like it gets in the way. But that’s not a weakness; it’s a strength. Listening to your congregants is one of your biggest advantages. It helps you understand your target reader’s struggles and pains so you can write to those points. Plus, you’re forced to write dozens of pages every week, building that writing muscle. Even if you don’t manuscript your entire sermon, you’re still in front of a word processor a lot, which hones your craft. That’s why so many successful Christian writers are pastors.
Chase: Yeah, I approach pastoring with three commitments, especially as a bivocational pastor where time is limited. I want to be well-prepared when I step into the pulpit, having spent real time in prayer, not just squeezing it into five-minute increments. I also want to know the people I pastor. I make it a point to learn the name of every person in my congregation. It’s at the heart of pastoring. If someone’s been attending for three or four weeks, and it seems like they’ll stay, we invite them to our house for a meal. I want them to know my family, and I want to know their story.
When Christian writing is at its best, it articulates things we’ve all experienced but couldn’t put into words ourselves.
Pastoring is about recognizing what God is doing in a group or individual’s life and helping them voice and own it in ways they might not have been able to. Those two are deeply connected for me. I chose Pastor Writer because I’m a pastor first, and the writing grows out of that life.
How do personal connections shape your writing?
Thomas: C.S. Lewis is the king of Christian publishing, in my opinion. After he published his first few books, he got dozens, then hundreds, of letters from readers every day. He responded to every letter. Like having people in your home, writing letters is a great way to connect. Lewis even married one of his correspondents. He met his wife through letter writing!
It’s crucial to remember the human on the other side of your writing. You’re not writing to ideas but to a specific person with challenges, hopes, and dreams. I love how integrated this is for you. In Christian nonfiction, writing is an act of pastoring, leading people closer to Christ. If you’re not doing that, maybe Christian publishing isn’t for you. There are secular publishers for other directions. Even if you’re not preaching on Sunday, when you pick up the keyboard, you become a pastor on the topic you’re writing about.
Chase: One of the joys of the podcast is connecting with well-known authors or getting endorsements for books. But the greater joy, which surprised me, is connecting with the audience. Through Facebook and Twitter, people reach out, sharing their stories and struggles with writing. Some send me their self-published or first books with notes thanking me for the podcast’s motivation.
I do book giveaways every other month. Once, we gave away every book by Eugene Peterson. I pray the winners aren’t random but are blessed in their writing. They always write back with incredible stories about how the books encouraged them or fit perfectly into their work. That personal connection has been a fun, unexpected part of this.
How do you manage time as a bivocational pastor, author, and podcaster?
Thomas: You have a day job of freelance web design and development in addition to pastoring, podcasting, and writing. How do you manage your time?
Chase: I’m learning every week. The podcast could be better. I don’t get fancy with editing. Unlike NPR podcasts with background music and narrated stories, mine are just conversations with an intro and outro. I do that intentionally to keep the turnaround tight. It’s about blocking out time and finding a rhythm.
Pastoring means Sundays come every week, so I do one podcast interview weekly. For writing, some suggest a daily word limit, but that doesn’t work for me. I approach it seasonally. I might work hard on freelance web design and development for four months, then carve out three weeks to focus on writing.
Everyone needs to find what works for their lifestyle and discover what rhythms produce the work they want. There’s good advice out there, but it’s not always right for your context. You have to know yourself and what works for you.
Thomas: Some authors wake up early and write for two hours before their kids get up, but that’s not every author. Others lock themselves in a cabin and emerge a week later with a manuscript.
Chase: For me, it’s about buying time. How can I earn enough in one month to set aside two weeks in the next month to write? I try to build a sustainable rhythm. Being bivocational allows me to fit writing and pastoring into my life. You reverse-engineer it to make those things fit.
What have been the biggest surprises of hosting the Pastor Writer podcast?
Thomas: What have been some of the biggest surprises of hosting the Pastor Writer podcast?
Chase: When you think about writing, certain well-known authors come to mind, such as C.S. Lewis, whose books we’ve all read. You get this idea that maybe someday you’ll be like them.
But one thing that surprised me is how many great writers are out there who don’t have that celebrity status. Through the podcast, I’ve discovered their work and gotten to know them, and I realize how good and genuine their writing is. They’re writing faithfully, without all the fame and reputation we might expect. I’ve been surprised by how much that feels like a viable path. In the beginning, you think it’s boom or bust; you’ll either make it big or it won’t work. But I’ve found so many people writing faithfully, finding joy in their calling, and I’m realizing that’s the place I want to be.
If it grows bigger than that, I pray God helps me handle it well and follow where He leads. But there’s good writing happening out there that isn’t tied to celebrity, and I think that’s better. You can hold onto that and find joy in it.
The other surprise is how kind people are. Writing is hard, and the publishing process is painfully slow and often difficult because so much is out of your control if you go the traditional route. But so many published authors know this. They’ve walked the same path. I’ve found them to be really encouraging, supportive, and open about their own process. That’s been so encouraging. It’s easier to find my place in that community than I thought it would be.
How do you measure success as a writer?
Thomas: It’s about enjoying the journey. Not everyone is called to pastor a church of 20,000 in downtown New York City. You can be faithful in a small town somewhere and still have crowns to lay at the feet of Jesus in the end. God’s measure of success isn’t what man measures. How you define and measure success is key because it’s so easy to compare yourself to the person who is one step ahead and then feel jealous or angry. You think, “Why are they so successful? I deserve that. I’ve worked harder, I started sooner,” and so on. It can be a tough topic.
Chase: You have to enjoy the work itself. Of course, we all aim for that publish date or seeing the book on the shelf. But if you can’t enjoy the actual process of writing, editing, and seeing it come together, it’s just too hard. The process is too long. You can’t sustain yourself on some future hope. You’ve got to find joy in the calling and the work itself. If you can do that, the whole journey becomes more exciting and feels like an adventure as you see how it all plays out.
Thomas: Joy in the journey is the cure for destination fever.
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