Submissions temporarily on hold
Last modified on 2012-05-15 18:57:47 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
A few days ago I put our submissions on hold. I got some really good stories submitted in December and early January and I was running out of money to pay for them. So I’m in the wonderful position of having stories all the way to April 11th. I don’t want to reject a story I like just because there aren’t enough slots left.
Speaking of rejecting stories, it is something I hate to do. I enjoy reading every story I get, even if I don’t think it will work on the show. Every story has something to offer. But there is no easy way to convey that to a writer. It is naturally hard to look past the fact that someone is saying what you wrote is not good enough. That said, a few of my favorite stories that we have run were from authors that got rejected at least once before.
Some editors gave me advice early on to send form letters for rejection. So I started doing that. But later, I thought the better of it, and now I always try to explain my rationale for rejecting a story. I don’t know if it helps. A few authors wrote back to thank me and so far no one has been angry enough to write me a nasty note. I appreciate that.
So, any authors that have stories, just save them until March and then fire away. I guarantee that I will read every word. And I won’t take longer than a month.
No Christmas episode
Last modified on 2012-01-03 21:16:12 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
For Christmas I drove with my wife and kids down to New Orleans (about 900 miles) to visit with my parents and other relatives passing through. I brought my podcast equipment down, fully intending to put out a Christmas episode. I recorded the story late at night after everyone else had gone to bed, which is pretty difficult since we have a few night owls, but I made so many mistakes that it took me forever to edit. Then I was unhappy with the recording. So I started again, making even more mistakes, and finally giving up. Five kids running around, lots of visitors and no quiet rooms all conspired against me.
My parents’ house is full of amazing books about history and everything else. They are generous lenders so I had to pull myself together not to take away more than I could possibly read in a year. I had borrowed Will Durant’s The Life of Greece so many times that I finally broke down and bought it for $1 on Amazon.
Narrations
Last modified on 2011-12-15 21:17:19 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
When I first started the podcast I figured I would do about one third of the narrations, getting people with British accents and women as needed when the stories required it. I found some great narrators through a website called StarNow, and they did a great job. The problem is that I sort of thought I would be getting donations to defray the cost of buying the stories and hiring narrators. That, with three notoble exceptions, has not come to pass. (Big thanks to those three though!). I lived in England when I was a kid so I may be able to learn to do British accents, but I’m not up for doing the women yet. I guess I’ll go back to my top three female British voice talents and give that to myself as a Christmas present. All three of them rock!
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Can I find your podcasts on iTunes?