Fiction Podcast Weekly 291: YouTube's "data," Converting Prose to Script, BOYA's K9 & K3, and Pen to Print's Audio Play Competition

Issue 291 of The Fiction Podcast Weekly is brought to you by What’s the Best Day of the Week to Release a Podcast Episode?

Just because Douglas Adams’ The Hitchikers’ Guide to the Galaxy started on a Thursday doesn't mean your podcast has to. Katie Paterson examines the data and explores this question with SCIENCE: What’s the Best Day of the Week to Release a Podcast Episode?

News, Roundups, and Announcements

• Fred Greenhalgh announced on LinkedIn, “It is with great delight I can announce the honor of a lifetime, to be able to direct this new installment of one of the most iconic parts of the entire Star Trek universe. Audio dramas will never be the same once you've heard Khan!!!”

• Katie Hims wrote for The Guardian, BBC radio drama is in grave danger. Without it we may lose the next generation of writing talent.

• Audio Drama: Are We Sleepwalking Into Silence? On LinkedIn, Clare McGinn shares the value of audio drama and chats with David K. Barnes.

• Edison Research will present The Infinite Dial 2025 in a free webinar on Thursday, 20 March at 2pm Eastern.

• Meanwhile, Podnews reports that in the UK, RAJAR released its MIDAS study for Winter 2024. The study “shows a new high in weekly reach for podcasting, which is listened-to by 26% of all British adults. However, podcasts only account for 6% of all audio listening (with radio achieving 65%).” No word on when podcasts and radio will challenge each other to a duel, or when Edison and RAJAR will schedule their beach volleyball tournament.

• The event schedule for Podcast Movement Evolutions 2025 is live, apparently.

• YouTube celebrated 1 billion monthly podcast users on Feb 26.

• James Cridland pointed out in Podnews that “a listener to a second of “podcast” content on YouTube - even automatically-played content - will count towards the 1 billion figure, irrespective of the amount of downloads they make, or the time they spend with podcasts.”

• Wil Williams pointed out in Let’s Be Normal About Data for Podcast Marketing Magic that “there is not an industry standard for what constitutes a “listen” in podcasting.”

• New roundup at The End: Desert Power.

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Creator Resources

• Converting Prose to Script – The Audio Drama Adventure by Emily Inkpen for Pen to Print

• Jay Allison shares A Direction at Transom. When the way is hard to find, it helps to have a compass.

• BOYA’s K9 & K3 USB Mics: Blue Yeti, or New Yeti? by Matthew McLean

• 14 Ways to Grow Your Podcast Through Collaboration, newly updated

• Coming Soon to Indie AF: Travis Vengroff and Lowri Ann Davies chatting about The Dialogue Edit.

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Opportunities

• This is the fifth year of the Pen To Print Audio Play Competition aimed at unpublished audio drama writers based in the UK. Submit a half hour (3-5000 word script) for the chance to win the main prize, your drama being professionally produced by Alternative Stories. Deadline: 21st March.

• The South Carolina Arts Commission shares the SCAC Arts Project Support Grants for up to $2500 in funding for “artists, nonprofit organizations, and units of government in South Carolina.” Deadline: 4th March.

• The International Women’s Podcast Awards deadline is the 17th of March.

• The British Podcast Awards are now open for entries. Deadline: 15th of May.

• Casting call: Ghost Wax Mazemouth. Deadline: 23rd March.

Milestones & Debuts

• Next Sunrise: On The Rings of Saturn In an ice-mining facility orbiting Saturn, a quirky crew of mismatched individuals attempt to work, live, and stay (mostly) sane in the isolation of the outer solar system.

• Derry’s New Direction The last handful of humanity’s survivors live on an experimental faster-than-light generation ship, arranged in a toxic, hierarchical society overseen by Derry the Director. When Navi the Navigator, a girl from the ship's lowest class, discovers a habitable nearby planet, the ship must confront a change to its status quo.

• Exercises in Sound is an experiment in audio storytelling. One short scene, re-imagined over and again, exploring how narrative is affected by changes big and small to details of design, editing, performance, music, and all the tools of narrative audio.

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