Series 2 of The Arc of Joan takes a non-fiction detour. I am
"playing" a dry witted narrator for an audio tour guide into creating
podcast fiction in this 10 part series. This series gives independent
producers a step by step guide and a few important hacks to help develop
and create their own audio drama series. Episode 9 is a general overview of launching and publishing the podcast.
Below you will find
the transcript to this podcast. There will be a test afterward. Jay Kay.
This tour is a basic overview of the steps involved with creating an
Audio Drama Series, whether it be a comedy or drama or horror show.
It is not an opus or the be all and end all of how to create an Audio
Drama. But, hopefully it will help give someone a general idea of what
they are
getting into before they start creating and producing.
This podcast was created on Audacity software, using the helpful resources from freesound.org and freemusicarchive.org and John Bartmann did the music from JohnBartmann.com
Hey Y'all, Welcome back to: Joan and the savvy podcaster. Episode 9: Launching and Publishing. My name is Saylor Billings and I created the Audio Sitcom, The Arc of Joan. But this next 10-part series is dedicated to creating and producing Audio Drama Podcasts without breaking the bank. The blog associated with this podcast is located at: https://thearcofjoan.blogspot.com/
In this episode I’m going to talk about the publishing hosts and launching the podcast.
So let’s all just pretend, for a moment, you have followed my advice and you now have 4 full episodes completed out of 12 finished and ready to start the weekly launch and you’ve bought your one year subscription to a Podcast Host Site. Well then tah dahhhh! You are ready for the limelight. Nope, hang on. I’m sorry, first you need to call your publicist and get your media army on the line. Wait, that’s not how it works? No. No it is not. Podcast hosts do one thing and one thing only, they host your work and you pay them to do that. They don’t distribute a podcast, that’s why you have to have a RSS feed and that’s what places like iTunes or Google or Spotify do, and they also have the listening app’s (also known as directories). The RSS feed is basically the URL where your series lives and it contains the other information that helps listener apps find the show. So really, you’re paying someone to host your work which drives traffic to their own site. You are the content that builds Spotify and Google and Apple. So you ask, why don’t I just have my own website and drive traffic to myself using my work? You absolutely could do that and some podcasters do. It’s what I did in 2007 and let me tell you honestly, if you take that route, it is a LOT of work, like full time job, burn out inducing work. Actually in 2007 I didn’t really have a choice if I wanted to get the O Line Mysteries podcast out into the world. More on that adventure and possibly my biggest mistake in Episode 10. But now in 2021/2022 you do have a choice, too many in fact. The podcasting hosts today are competing for content, your work. Because without your work they have nothing, keep that in mind when you make your choice for a hosting service. However, I’m going to continue here under the assumption that you are not hosting your podcast on your own website but are using a podcasting host. The most important 3 distribution services to get listed on as of now are Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.
Podcasting hosts are all the same, they all distribute to the big 3 and 'I just can’t choose one'. Then you need to align yourself with podcasts who would have the same target audience, look at their directories. Just because one podcast host has more that 1000 audio drama’s doesn’t mean you should go with them. Look at your show; Is Betty’s day out and children’s podcast or an adult feature podcast, is Betty’s day out a mystery with a 90-year-old detective or is Betty a poodle? There are different audiences for each of these scenarios, so you’d look on the podcasting hosts website to see who caters to your audience. Let’s say Betty is a cat. And you know there is a famous singer who is known for her love for cats and she also has a podcast on that hosting service. (Let’s face it though, the famous singer probably has their own website and hosts the podcast herself, but you get the picture.) If Betty is a poodle I would go with whatever host has 1000 pod’s about dog training.
I’ve spoken throughout the series about keeping your notes at least loosely together and in Episode 3 I spoke about getting all the work done for your metadata and show notes, cover art, etc. Now, you’ll be glad you did that, because it has to be done before you get too stuck into these last steps. All distributors are going to want basically the same information from you. Show Title, Description, Category, Artwork, Explicit (Adult content), Copyright, and Website. Here, you want to make it easy for people to find your work by staying consistent. If you’re going the 12-episode route then the Show title is the first step. For Betty’s Day Out, make it Betty’s Day Out Episode 1. Then make the subsequent shows Betty’s Day Out Episode 2, and so on. I would use the Description line to describe the entire series. “Follow Betty on her many adventures as she overcomes obstacles and attempts to find a toilet on her days out of the house.” Whatever. This is the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the series. Make sure you have at least 3 Categories in order of importance because some places ask for 1 or 8, it depends on the distributor. So that’s #Comedy or #Mystery or #Poodles. Artwork is the jpg you made for the show. Copyright. Who owns the show. You do. You can put your name there or if you’ve given the production a name, put it here. I list my producing work under Billibatt Productions to keep it separate from other work that I do. But just a note here, if you plan on making money from this podcast and you make up a Production name make sure you’ve got all your legal paperwork in order to cash the check. For most of the podcasting hosts you’ll be asked to fill out the show notes. That’s where you give the episode a name Episode 1, What shoes to wear? Or Will Betty wear a hat. It doesn’t have to be a question, Betty chooses a hat. Who acts in it, further description of the episode, the sound effects credits, website links- all the information you want to include.
Podcasts hosts will not give you an RSS Feed unless you have at least 1 episode. That doesn’t mean it has to be a full episode. You could start with a trailer for the series. If you already have 4 episodes in the bag then you have plenty of content to make a good trailer for the show. On the launch date you could list both the trailer and the episode. Just make sure to title it, Betty’s Day Out Trailer not Episode 1 so it doesn’t get confusing for your audience.
So this is the flow chart for publishing. You’ve got episode 1 and a trailer ready to go. You pay for a hosting website. You upload your shows to the hosting site. The hosting site gives you an RSS feed and sends out your show to the distributors. It is up to you and your budget which host you choose, I advocate nothing, but I can tell you what I’ve used and why.
I’ve done the personal website route, the popular hosting route, but now I have a more nuanced host. The website route, I’ve explained already here and since I don’t intend on running my own content business with 100 episodes and more, I have no use for a website. I recently had one of the popular hosting sites and I was really, really disappointed with it. I’ve actually come to realize something a few things. It may just come down to the fact that with your own website you have more control about the information and statistics you get back. With the website I was able to get enough information to be able to really hone in on my listeners, if I had wanted to really target my audience. However, with the next host it was more generalized information, like on Tuesday, 3 listeners somewhere in Australia who used Apple Podcasts. The website demographics gave me the same information as an RSS feed would give. So it would be more like Tuesday; 8AM; 2 listeners; Perth, Australia; Samsung; Spotify; 1 listen Syndey, Australia; Apple Podcasts; iPhone 7, and how long they listened, etc. I spent a year with the popular host with really paltry downloads. It was akin to the same amount of downloads I would get in a week with the website, it took a year for the host. What went wrong? I have no idea. It could have to do with Search Engine Optimization or whatever; I don’t think anyone actually knows for concrete certain exactly how the distribution cycle works because the SEO processes are always moving and changing techniques. I just moved the podcast to another host. I needed to align The Arc of Joan podcast with where my target audience gets their podcasts. I chose Acast. I looked online at all the other popular podcasts on the different hosts. Who they were promoting and pushing to the front of the line as they all do, whether or not they’ll admit it, and went with the one that I felt like aligns with my target audience. Perhaps that is the reason the downloads for Arc of Joan have tripled or maybe it has to do with the different RSS feed information.
So that’s it for today and for the series. The final episode, Episode 10 is me winging on about what it was like creating a podcast in 2007, and how far the medium has come since then. Only recently since the podcast Serial and really when Covid swept over the world has podcasting become the normal. How many of us had to watch someone roll their eyes at you, “So, how’s your pod-cast? That’s it right is that what you call it?” Remember what I said, there are always going to be a Nancy from Puoghkeepsie out there. Just keep moving forward. Episode 10 is a fun listen which includes the biggest mistakes I made back then. The blog for this podcast is at https://thearcofjoan.blogspot.com/
I really hope this has given you some good insights into making an Audio Drama Podcast. I only have one request for someone out there. Will someone, please, think up a new word for Audio Drama Podcast? Audio Drama Podcast is clunky and clinical. Something cool like …I don’t know. Just ADP?
And if you haven’t been told yet, I hope you have a great rest of your day!
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