🏆BBC Audio Drama shortlist,🦠 Wrapped for Creators,📚legal issues with AI, mentorship, fellowship, and how to make🌟 action figures🌟 for your podcast

Issue 327 of The Fiction Podcast Weekly is brought to you by ADWIT: The Audio Drama Writers’ Independent Toolkit.

Sarah and Lindsay want to empower you to create more good audio drama so they can enjoy it. Learn more ways to make the audio drama and/or fiction podcast script of your dreams with ADWIT: The Audio Drama Writers’ Independent Toolkit. Is this aggressive self-promotion? Yeah. Want me to promote your podcast instead? Okay, I will.

It’s December, and I’m sure your inbox is jam-packed with sales offers. Isn’t it nice to have one thing that isn’t a Bl@ck Fr1day or Cyb3r M0nday deal, extended again and again? Let’s all find ways to make new and exciting audio experiences to send out in the universe, so hopefully in a zillion years when alien archaeologists find the remnants of Earth’s civilization, they can find our audio drama and/or fiction podcasts and say, “eh…maybe these humans weren’t so bad.”

News, Roundups, and Announcements

• Podcasthon 2026 Reaches 1,000 First Registrations: On The Road To Surpass 2025 Record, Podnews reports. More info in Opportunities, below.

• The BBC Audio Drama Awards 2025 nominees are…

• Captions and Headliner Survey Headliner is running a survey about how podcasters use video and closed captions. If accessibility matters to you, take the survey.

• 53% of New Podcasters are Planning a Solo Show, by Katie Paterson for The Podcast Host

• The East London Advertiser shares the Pen to Print: An Introduction to Audio Drama with Alternative Stories on the 11th of December. I know, I already told you about it, but it bears repeating, and there’s so little news that’s relevant to audio drama and fiction podcasting right now. And what does this say about podcasting? All, right, all right. Deep breaths.

• Spotify Wrapped for Creators is out… yipee. Insert party horn here. You know when someone’s overzealous with those blowout things, and the paper gets soggy and loaded with saliva, so not only is the sound annoying, but you also get a spray of spit in your face? That’s what Spotify Wrapped brings to mind. It’s like celebrating New Year’s with my brother. Again.

Promote Your Podcast, Business, or Service to Audio Fiction Enthusiasts

With over 2400 subscribers and an average open rate of 50%, the Fiction Podcast Weekly is a brilliant place to advertise. We have options to fit every need, want, and budget.

• The Top: Be the main sponsor of an issue for $99 per week or $340 for four weeks.

• The Middle: Purchase a Classified Ad for $28. These sit in the middle of the email and have no accompanying graphics.

• The Bottom: Get your link and logo in our Supporter Gallery for $4.99 a month or $50 a year. New Supporter Gallery sales are temporarily suspended while I figure out recurring payments. Thank you for your patience. ​

​Do you have audio drama or fiction podcast news to share with us? Let us know!

Creator Resources

• Creating the Mini Cat Lawyer Pam Cameron, creator of Community Cat News, shows how you can make action figures of your podcast characters to promote your podcast. She shows us actual action figures with moving parts. You need this in your life! I’ve always wanted to make Jarnsaxa Rising action figures, and I’m shocked that Wooden Overcoats action figures don’t exist yet. SHOCKED, I TELL YOU.

• Revisiting: We Need More Words to Describe Audio Stories Jazmine T. Green is concerned about the limited language we use to describe podcasts and audio storytelling. We all know there are myriad ways to describe audio fiction: let’s explore. (Please note: This episode of Sound School was recorded in 2022 when Ms. Green went by James and used he/they pronouns. As host Rob Rosenthal said, “You’ll hear me refer to her that way in the episode. She recently told me she’s fine with that.”)

• Hey! It’s an Audio Advent Calendar!

• How to use AI in Podcasting: The Exciting Opportunity and the Legal Minefield, by Gordon Firemark for Podnews

• I was today years old when I learned about Creative Field Recording, a blog and newsletter that is what it says on the tin and more.

• Do audiodramas still bring in funds through ads even years later? In r/audiodrama, there’s a lively and informative discussion about audio drama podcasts and money. Come for the cringe factor, stay for the well-informed discussion of creative monetization strategies in the wild.

Classified Ads

Get your brand, product, podcast, or service in front of over 2400 fiction podcast enthusiasts. Place a classified ad of up to 30 words in an upcoming Fiction Podcast Weekly email newsletter issue for just $28.

​Fiction Podcast Weekly Classified Ad Form​

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Opportunities

• You have fewer than 100 days to register for Podcasthon. This initiative challenges podcasters to produce special episodes raising money for charity from March 14-20, 2026. Not only can you do something good for the world, but you can also cross-promote your show. Go get ‘em, Tiger!

• Casting Call: The Father. Listing expires 11 December.

• Casting Call: Incorporeal Investigations. Listing expires 10 January.

• Art Senses Mentorship Programme is a mentorship programme for international artists working across all mediums and disciplines to develop projects that explore the sensory dimensions in artistic practice. Deadline: 5th December, so go get ‘em, Tiger.

• Folger Shakespeare Library Long-term Public Humanities Fellowships are 3- and 9-month fellowships in Washington, D.C., to research, edit, write, and make creative work related to Folger Shakespeare’s collection of early modern humanities and their afterlives. Deadline: 15 December.

Launches and Milestones

• Dark Sanctum Delivers Chills and Thrills with Detour by Rachel Reeves for Dread Central

• An Angel Without a Name Not long after you meet your guardian angel in a car accident, He falls from heaven. You find him lost and confused in the park and take him home. This is your new life with your fallen guardian angel.

• Faction: Infiltrating Hate Ethan Fox, a journalist, was contacted by FBI agent, Cole Tyler, who had recently infiltrated the most dangerous hate group in America. What could make a seasoned FBI agent want to share info on a hate group with a journalist?

• Fault & Stitchery Welcome to the Lees: a jazzy pleasure district where the buildings walk, the party never stops, and the edges of reality are beginning to crack. Festus, a tailor and memory mage, finds themself tangled in wild magic, political unrest, half-truths, and lost memories, all with implications well above their pay grade. (Use the RSS feed, as it appears to be only available on Spotify so far. 😬)

• Congratulations to Fool and Scholar on this major milestone: the Japanese adaptation of Liberty: Tales from the Tower is currently the #1 Fiction Podcast and Sci-Fi Podcast in Japan!

• I was today years old when I learned that you can purchase The Amelia Project’s The 12 Deaths of Christmas on Patreon!

Keep sharing good stories.

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