The Articles ➡️ Podcast ➡️ Book Pipeline
🎙️ New episode: Cara McGoogan on how she approached adapting her own work
Hey Bleeders,
This week’s guest is living the dream—my dream, at least! Cara McGoogan is the brilliant journalist and host behind The Telegraph's Bed of Lies podcast and the author of Blood Farm. She joined me to share her journey of transforming a series of articles into an investigative podcast and then into a nonfiction book published in both the US and the UK.
Behind the scenes, I’m working on a narrative podcast project that I’m hoping will evolve into a book (agents and editors, I’ve got the proposal ready and waiting!), so this conversation was exactly what the doctor ordered.
If you’ve ever thought about reimagining your own work in another medium, this episode is loaded with insights and inspiration to help get you started. Whether you're writing for audio, pitching a book, or structuring a story in either medium, I promise you’ll walk away with some fresh ideas—there's so much to learn.
Here’s a taste of what we covered:
📄 The book proposal
Despite having a podcast as a proof of concept AND an interested publisher, Cara still wrote a detailed book proposal to land her book deal. And it paid off—she received five offers!
Key elements included:
A punchy pitch to hook readers (think of it as the book's back-cover blurb).
An outline of chapter breakdowns—adapting the podcast narrative for prose.
A sample chapter (in Cara’s case, the prologue).
Stats, awards, and a media pitch list to demonstrate credibility and marketing potential... which came in handy when it was time to promote the book!
🎙️ Writing for audio vs. the written word
Podcasts thrive on cliffhangers and withheld information, whereas books often front-load intriguing details to drive reader curiosity. With prose, you can pull quotes and write around them; with audio, how something is said matters as much as what is said. Understanding these differences was crucial to crafting impactful storytelling in both formats.
📖 Restructuring for prose
While thematic storytelling worked well for the podcast, it didn’t translate to the book. Switching to a chronological structure helped build tension more effectively. Readers gain foreknowledge of events while characters unravel the story in real time, creating that irresistible “scream-at-the-page” dynamic.
🖋️ Expanding the narrative
Converting a season of six podcast episodes (about 45,000 words) into a full-length book (eventually 118,000 words) required adding depth and new perspectives. Cara expanded scenes, dug into historical documents, and brought new characters to life.
She also re-interviewed sources to glean more details that helped her craft immersive prose. Interestingly, some sources had questions about compensation the second time around.
✔ DIY fact-checking
Due to time constraints, Cara had to do her own meticulous fact-checking—often late at night or even on holiday between wedding festivities (true story!).
Her tips? Footnote everything, phone an expert when in doubt, and go line by line checking against source material for accuracy. It was a grueling but essential process—because finding errors after publication is every writer’s nightmare.
⚖️ Navigating legal reads
Fun fact: Sometimes authors have to pay for their own legal reads, and Cara’s portion came out of her advance. Still, the process was invaluable, especially since there were sensitive topics and potentially damaging allegations at hand. It served as a “double fact-check,” and a source of relief in ensuring the material was bulletproof.
©️ IP minefields
We also discussed the sometimes maddening differences in intellectual property ownership between books and podcasts. In publishing, authors usually keep the rights (yay!), but in podcasting, production companies often retain them (boo!). The lesson? Always negotiate and advocate for yourself. If you don’t fight for fair terms, you could end up doing all the work and getting only a fraction of the reward.
🤝 A tale of two mediums
One of my favorite takeaways was how differently these two storytelling formats operate in so many aspects of execution. For example, podcasts are typically a team sport, with collaborators to bounce ideas off (though not always, in my experience!). Books, on the other hand, are a solitary slog where every decision rests on your shoulders.
Cara made a compelling case for alternating between the two. Researching a topic once and adapting it for multiple formats not only makes the most of your effort but also creates richer, more nuanced stories.
💡 Words of wisdom
The best advice from this episode? Just start. Writing a book (or creating a podcast) is all about showing up consistently. Even if it’s just banging out 300 words or 20 minutes of brainstorming a day, those little steps add up.
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get to work. We've got big goals for 2025!
Happy bleeding,
Courtney
🎙️ Wanna create a podcast in 2025?
Have you been dreaming about starting a podcast or leveling up your current one? You’re in luck! I’m heading back to Roadmap Writers to teach my 5-week class, Creating Your Podcast, starting January 12th.
With minimal startup costs and maximum IP potential, podcasting is your golden ticket to showing off your talent, growing your network, and building a platform.
In this course, we’ll cover:
🎧 Podcast types and formats
✨ Nailing your concept and niche
📝 Pre-production planning: booking guests, coming up with segments, scripting, etc.
🎙️ Producing, recording, and editing like a pro—aka “Wait, how do I actually make this thing sound good?”
🚀 Launch strategies and audience growth hacks
💸 Monetization
I’ll guide you through every step of the process with tips from my 10+ years in podcasting. If you’re ready to stop dreaming and start creating, now’s the perfect time.
So… ROLL CALL! 🗣️
Do you know of any other podcast-to-book adaptations? I’m compiling a list—drop your recs in the comments below!
If you’ve dreamed of turning your podcast into a book, I’d love to hear where you're at in the progress.