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  • Six to Start Stunted, Patreon's Combined RSS, Third Coast, AuDIAs, and grants for artists

Six to Start Stunted, Patreon's Combined RSS, Third Coast, AuDIAs, and grants for artists

Plus: a Guest Editorial about the truth of what makes your podcast worth picking out of a crowded field, dialogue editing secrets, and the NYC Audio Drama Hangout

Author

Lindsay Harris Friel
March 28, 2025

Issue 294 of The Fiction Podcast Weekly is brought to you by Podcast Launch Hype Is a Distraction—Focus on This Instead.

You know that hype-building “hit the ground running” advice we hear around launching a new podcast? Matthew McLean says, at best, this is a distraction from what moves the needle when it comes to growing a show. At worst, it can cause new creators to quit before their content ever has a chance to make an impact. Find out why, how to dodge that bullet, and a case study of endurance with “We’re Alive.” Podcast Launch Hype Is a Distraction—Focus on This Instead

News, Roundups, and Announcements

  • Guess I’ll cancel my Six to Start membership now. Zombies, Run! and Marvel Move maker lays off majority of staff by Victoria Song for The Verge. “The news was delivered last week to staffers in a Zoom call, in which they were told that parent company OliveX could no longer afford to keep Six to Start afloat and would shut down the company if they can’t find a buyer. Laid-off staffers were also served redundancy notices, which The Verge has confirmed.” Olive X is, apparently, a game designer who prioritizes working out in exchange for tokens, which users can exchange for NFTs and other bitcoin stuff that everyone loves.

  • Do you support podcasters on Patreon who make more than one show? Fool & Scholar Productions tips us off: New Feature: Combined RSS “By popular demand, Patreon will soon be implementing a "combined feed!” What is a combined feed? "In early testing, we heard some fans preferred consuming all shows in one feed. This is essentially a super-feed that continues to include all episodes from all of a creator's shows in one place. This allows fans the flexibility to subscribe to either the Combined Feed for all content or individual show feeds based on their preferences." TL, DR: Check your Patreon updates if you listen to shows via a Patreon RSS feed.

  • Nick Douglas shares, “New Yorkers, come to the fifth Brooklyn audio drama hangout on March 30!“

  • Fiction podcasts with Disabled characters is “a blog post containing a roundup of fiction podcasts with Disabled characters by a Blind audio fiction writer and novelist.”

  • Starstrider Productions is launching a crowdfunding campaign for the new audio drama Dracula: 2004 on 2nd April.

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Guest Editorial: Rob Christopher

For years, I’ve relied on The Cambridge Geek’s roundups and social media posts, as well as his website, audiofiction.co.uk, to find new audio drama podcasts. Rob Christopher’s enduring work pulls our favorite podcast genre out from under the rubble of zillions of other podcasts. He helps us find experiences that inspire, excite, and challenge audiences. As audio drama podcasting has grown from a few dozen shows to thousands, it seems harder to make a show stand out. Or is it? I asked him to tell us what, out of the plethora of shows he sees go by every day, makes him inclined to pay attention to a particular podcast. He gave me more than I bargained for, and I agree with his opinions. Enjoy!

Every year, somewhere between 1500 to 2000 new fiction podcasts start, of which about 20% are actual plays, 40% books, and 40% dramas. And I like all three formats.

So how do I decide which I am or definitely am not going to listen to?

First up, first impressions. Cover art doesn’t have to be inspired, but it does have to be competent, and show that you’re taking the creation seriously. Check your edges for compression artefacts, don't make it too busy, and make sure what's on your cover art actually matches your show title (sometimes it doesn't - this is confusing!)

Essentially, don't give people a reason to dismiss you. AI art can do this, being perceived as lazy or low quality, especially given how many podcasts are just an AI cover and dynamic ads slapped onto LibriVox recordings (looking at you Sol Good Media).

Next, what can I read about your show? Press packs and stylish websites are great if you have the budget/time for marketing, but most prospective listeners won't get that far. Before anything else, they’re going to see your podcast description. It’s only when they become committed listeners that they go digging. Make your description hit hard.

A distressing number of podcasts limit themselves to "Author Namey McNameface reads their spooky stories" or "A Dungeons & Dragons actual play". I do not care. I’ve got 985 D&D podcasts in the database. That is not a unique description.

The podcasts I do listen to?

Flintlocks & Fireballs: "Muskets! Spells! Beards! This British 5E D&D podcast has it all! Follow the adventures of four mad voice actors and three would-be privateers across the shores of Calcinea, a Napoleonic world full of dungeons, dragons, flintlocks and fireballs!"

That gives me tone (excited, jolly), interesting setting details (historical, pirates) and cultural info (fellow Brits, might get on with their sense of humour).

Out of Place: "Andrew Moss loved his anthropology job, until mysterious artifacts from a Mr. Havisham started arriving in brown paper bags. The artifacts are... Wrong."

Here, we're teasing. An anthology-like structure, with stories that will be either supernatural or science-fictiony. Bit like Warehouse 13, for those who've seen that.

Museum of the Missing: "On the 29th of February 1988, a global catastrophe led to 3.5 million people disappearing in an instant. Only problem is, no one remembers anything about it. Until now."

Strong statement of the science fiction premise. You know what this is about, and you can probably make a reasonable guess if that premise interests you.

But there’s no limit on paragraphs. Give us your strong hook, then lay things out more plainly. Entice/warn people with an explicit “full cast found footage horror audio drama". Tell us why you're different, then tell us the handy marketing box you fit into.

This is also where you do your celebrity marketing – “from the writer of…”, “featuring great actor…”.

Please note – this only works on listeners who like/know those stars. Obviously, they come with an inbuilt audience (see Markiplier in The Edge of Sleep or Misha Collins in Bridgewater), but don’t let them come before the story. For the 90% of possible listeners who have no personal connection, all they do is distract.

(But keep them in at the end - when you are a fan, you don't necessarily need anything else. I've followed established podcast voice actors and production companies from podcast to podcast quite happily.)

After those details, we finally get to the sound.

Podcasts are great: they are (generally) free; lack inherent gatekeepers allowing a wider variety of tone, style, genre and diversity; and you can listen to them while you drive, work, cook, putting stories straight into your ears.

And podcasts are terrible: because they also put unpleasant sounds straight into your ears.

Some "bad" sounds are subjective - chewing, slurping, drinking - and will stop some people from ever listening to your show. Others (myself included) could not care less. But some are objective.

Blown microphones, background static, terrible reverb, volume peaks and troughs, voice actors we can't hear, voice actors who sound like they're in a different room, voice actors who are made by computers. They hurt.

I try to listen to a full first episode of every show I add to the database (where reasonable). And if I'm enjoying it, I might get through a couple more, and add it to my (ever-growing) To Listen list.

But if I find it painful to listen to (and I consider myself a relatively tolerant listener), nope. Turning it off, never listening to it again, not recommending it to other people.

Don't let this happen to your show. Find people you can trust to give you honest feedback. And listen to that feedback. It’s okay to practise.

Actual plays are the worst for this, I find. Too many start their very first episode with "hi guys, we know the audio is bad, it gets better".

Oh, you know the audio is bad? In an audio-only medium? Hmm. Hmmmmmmm. Our first impression of you is an apology. Please, if you need to run a practice one-shot to get your audio sorted, do that. Stop setting yourself up to fail.

Ads also fall under this. Skip dynamic ad insertion on your trailers/teasers. Give us a chance to fall in love with you before we accept the capitalistic compromise.

A strong trailer is great, though. Short, sweet, very little commitment from listeners (we only have so many ears), and it can get someone to subscribe immediately. Favourite recent example: Unprescribed Journeys. I subscribed to that podcast entirely because of the line "What if there are bees?" in the trailer, and I've been enjoying it since.

If I've survived your first episode, now it's mostly down to taste, and that, I'm afraid, is horribly subjective. Some people will never like your show. Some people will always like your show. But at least they’re starting from a good place.

And that's that. Hopefully, some of it's useful to creators, but feel free to hunt me down and shout at me if you think I'm wrong*.

If you want to gauge my skill at deciding what's "good" (art is subjective, I know, I know, stop yelling), I run podcast feeds that include either the trailer or first episode for every new (English language) podcast I find that passes a basic quality check. If you want to see what I personally recommend trying out, see the "To Listen" list linked above, or sign up for the (free) weekly email from my Patreon, which has every new show (in all languages) I add to the database, as well as a "Librarian Recommends" section at the top.
* Don’t shout at him. -Lindsay

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Opportunities

  • The AuDIAs is an awards show for hidden gems in the fiction podcast space. Submissions for Nominations are open now. More info can be found at audias.org . Deadline: April.

  • The Third Coast International Audio Festival has extended their deadline to April 17. Go get ‘em, Tiger!

  • The Signal Awards are open for entries. Deadline: 9 May. Ooh, Podcast Newsletter is a category, should I enter?

  • The Aesthetica Podcast Lounge: A UK Film Festival First is “a brand new, truly unique space to exhibit work and engage new listeners. We are looking for podcasts that captivate, challenge and immerse listeners in new perspectives.” Deadline: June 30.

  • Got a screenplay that you’re sure could be a great audio drama podcast that someone could also bankroll to make a movie or streaming series? The Austin Film Festival Fiction Podcast Script Competition deadline is April 22.

  • The deadline for Audio Flux Circuit 05 is April 1, and that’s no joke. Check out the inspiring stereoscopic images, and submit your three-minute masterpiece.

  • Got a minute? The 60 Second Radio Competition is for international work that is exactly 60 seconds. Any style is accepted: radio art, collage, soundscape, radio theatre, sonic prose and poetry, sound art, creative documentary, mutant radio, sonic captures — anything is possible as long as it's 60 seconds long. Deadline: 13 April.

  • Canada Council For The Arts has upcoming grant opportunities for Canadian artists and organizations:

    • Concept to Realization: A grant supporting the full creative cycle — from the initial idea through to presentation, at any stage of the creative continuum. Deadline: 23rd April

    • Research and Creation: A grant of up to CAD $25,000 for Canadian artists, artistic groups and arts organisations to develop and make creative works. Deadline: Also the 23rd of April.

Milestones & Debuts

  • Purgatory, Missouri. Can sleep and the Afterlife collide? An epileptic woman falls into a coma and finds herself in a grimy, rundown carnival, where the sky is grey and danger is everywhere. Each Newcomer gradually loses their memories of who they were while the carnival itself seems to be ripping apart.

  • The Machine. Twelve contestants enter a reality TV show, but when people start dying off every week, the survivors have to find a way out.

  • The Nephilim Hunter Rufus Hardy, Fishcop. After twenty-seven years working for the Department of Fish and Game, he’s ready to collect on his pension. But, the universe, it seems, has other plans for him.

Keep sharing good stories.

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