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If you’ve been tasked with making a podcast for your news organization, you know how daunting the experience can be. From picking the right equipment to interviewing guests, every little piece can be the difference between thousands of subscribers or none at all.

But one of the easiest ways to get people tuning in is to let your personality shine and express an opinion.

“The Internet is a medium that rewards people who provoke a little bit,” said Matt Binder, producer of “The Majority Report with Sam Seder.” ”There’s several ways to get at the truth. One is to just give information in a slightly dry and informative, just-the-facts way. Another is to have people debating a topic, and I think that is always much more dynamic.”

For eight more ways to grab listeners’ ears, read How to Make a Podcast People Want to Subscribe To.

Author and journalist Susan Orlean (left) has written two nonfiction pieces that have been turned into films. She’ll discuss her new book, Rin Tin Tin, in Mediabistro’s first online Literary Festival & Workshops starting July 16. Other speakers include Rebecca Skloot, Jason Boog, and Jason Allen Ashlock. Register now.

Writing a book is hard enough, but why does writing about the book you’ve written feel impossible? In mediabistro.com’s 7 Steps to a Winning Book Proposal, published authors, editors and agents spell out the necessary steps to crafting a viable and compelling query letter.

Step one, assemble the basics. Your query letter must include an overview, marketing plan, competitive book analysis, and author bio and platform, along with a table of contents, chapter summaries and a writing sample.

Bring these pieces together in an intuitive order, but don’t dwell too much on what’s the perfect arrangement. “If you’ve got the ingredients — a really fresh idea or a fresh spin on an old idea, good writing, and a platform and a promotion plan — it doesn’t make any difference what order they are in,” said Michael Larsen with Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents. “Editors can skip around, and will and do.”

Read the full article here. [subscription required]

When your writing spans more than 1,000 words, the number of publications you can pitch seems to dwindle, but Poets & Writer is seeking reflective essays and publishing industry trend pieces that reach up to 3,000 words.

With 80 percent of its editorial content generated by freelancers, the literary magazine deems itself ”writer-friendly” — with plenty of room for outside pitches. The “News & Trends” section brings up-to-date happenings of the publishing and literary community, “Literary Life” offers a home for long-form reflections on the writing process, and P&W is also  open to profiles of writers and poets whose books are about to be published.

Looking to break in? Get more guidelines in  How To Pitch: Poets & Writers.

It’s almost the weekend, and you’ve been invited to your roommate’s band’s show tonight. If the cheap beer isn’t a good enough incentive, maybe a byline at the Village Voice is.

As the most open section of the Voice, the music section is vibing for offbeat culture stories with a humorous yet hard-hitting tone. Music editor Maura Johnston wants to know what is happening around New York: an artist with an interesting backstory and NYC ties who’s releasing an album, a micro-scene coalescing, and so on.

For more on word count and editor contact info, check out How To Pitch: Village Voice.

You’re not the only one intimidated by the Bloomberg Businessweek name. In mediabistro.com’s latest How To Pitch article, editors admit that, despite the brand’s cachet, they aren’t inundated with freelance pitches — good news if you’re looking to land a byline there.

“Ultimately we want someone to spin a really great yarn that happens to be of interest to business readers,” explained features editor Sheelah Kolhatkar.

To find out which sections of Bloomberg Businessweek are the most freelancer-friendly and for a list of all editors accepting pitches, check out How To Pitch: Bloomberg Businessweek.