Plenty of people want to be on podcasts. They have expertise worth sharing, a business that would benefit, and a story or two a host would like. Most never send a single pitch, because the two usual ways in cost too much: doing it yourself takes hours, and hiring someone to do it takes thousands.

I built CastGhost for the people in between. Here's who that is, and who it isn't.

The short version

  • Doing it by hand is free, but finding shows, checking them, tracking down hosts and writing pitches eats hours.
  • Hiring an agency takes it off your plate, at a price most people starting out can't justify.
  • CastGhost does the slow parts (the search, the checking, the contact and the first draft) and leaves you the parts that should be yours: choosing, editing and sending. Setting up and searching are free, and you pay $2 when a pitch is drafted.
  • It's built for early-stage founders, busy professionals, self-published and indie authors and scrappy DIYers.

The two usual ways in

Doing it by hand: free, but slow

Pitching podcasts yourself costs nothing but time, and it takes plenty of it. For every show, you:

  1. find it, through web searches and directories of millions of shows;
  2. check it's still publishing, interviews guests and covers your subject;
  3. listen to enough of it to know what the host cares about;
  4. track down the host's email, which is often not where you'd expect (here's why);
  5. write a pitch for that show, not a template;
  6. remember to follow up a week later.

None of it is hard. It just adds up to hours for every handful of shows, and that's where most people's podcast plans stall.

Hiring an agency: done for you, priced like it

A podcast booking agency, a publicist or a PR firm does all of it for you: the research, the pitching, the scheduling, and sometimes the prep. If you have the budget and want it entirely off your plate, it's a good choice.

It's priced for that, though. Interview Valet, an agency that runs podcast interview campaigns, says on its FAQ that campaigns start at $1,500 a month, with a six-month commitment. That's fair for a done-for-you service, but at least $9,000 is a lot for a founder still finding customers, or for anyone wanting to try it to boost their online presence and bolster their SEO.

Pitching software sits in between, usually on a monthly plan. I've covered how those plans compare elsewhere.

Where CastGhost fits

CastGhost does the slow parts for you:

  • It finds the shows. It searches Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and other directories live, and keeps going until it has ten shows that fit you. A batch takes a few minutes.
  • It checks them. It reads each show's recent episodes to make sure your subject comes up, the show interviews guests and it's still publishing, and tells you why it scored each one the way it did.
  • It finds the host. It looks where hosts publish their contact details and checks that an address accepts mail before your pitch goes to it.
  • It drafts the pitch. About 150 words, written for that show from your own bio, talking points and published work, in your voice, with nothing invented.

And it leaves you the parts that should be yours. You choose the shows, edit every draft, and send it from your own Gmail, so replies land in your inbox and the relationships stay yours. Nothing goes out without you pressing Send, and when a host goes quiet for a week, CastGhost drafts the follow-up.

Who it's for

Early-stage founders

Every dollar goes into the product, and every hour is already spoken for. Yet a podcast is one of the few places you get to talk to your customers for half an hour: the host's questions do some of your customer discovery, and the listeners are the people who have the problem you solve. I've written about what guesting has done for me.

CastGhost suits that stage. Searching is free, ten pitches cost $20, and you can do it in the gaps between everything else. You don't need an audience or past appearances, either: your pitches are built from the work you've already done.

Busy professionals

Consultants, coaches, authors, lawyers, accountants, specialists of every kind. You have the expertise and you can afford a tool. What you don't have is a spare afternoon to research shows.

With CastGhost, your time goes into reading drafts, not hunting for email addresses. Each pitch takes minutes to review and send, and the follow-ups arrive drafted. If someone handles outreach for you, a publicist or an assistant can pitch on your behalf, in the third person, under their own name.

Self-published and indie authors

A podcast suits a book. A host gives you half an hour to talk through its ideas, with listeners who chose to hear about them, and the episode keeps finding readers long after launch week. But without a publisher's publicity team behind you, the promotion is up to you, and so is the budget.

CastGhost builds your pitches from your book and the rest of your work, and pitches the subjects your book covers rather than just the book, which is what hosts want to talk about. If your book spans more than one subject, each can be its own pitch niche, with its own search and its own pitches.

Scrappy DIYers

You have more time than money, and you like doing things yourself. CastGhost doesn't take that away from you. You decide which shows to pitch, you can rewrite every word, and editing a draft yourself is always free.

What it saves you is the drudge work, at $2 a pitch. And because every show comes with an explanation of why it fits you or doesn't, you learn what makes a good fit as you go.

Who it isn't for

  • If you want it all done for you, including the calls and the scheduling, hire an agency or a publicist. They can use CastGhost too.
  • If you need a set number of interviews a month, no tool can promise that: hosts decide who comes on their show.
  • If you only want the biggest shows in the charts, CastGhost isn't built for that. It looks for fit: shows whose listeners have the problem you solve, which are often smaller, newer and more likely to say yes.
  • If a marketplace already fills your calendar, keep using it. CastGhost is there for the many shows that never joined one (how to use both).

One practical note: CastGhost sends from Gmail and Google Workspace today. Outlook support is coming.

Try it before you spend anything

Setting up your profile and finding shows that fit you are free, so you can see exactly which shows CastGhost would pitch, and why, before you add any credit. When you're ready, a pitch is $2, including a redraft and its follow-ups, and your credit never expires. See Pricing.