All Newsletters

You and 600+ other lovely humans have signed up for this newsletter. I remained humbled beyond words. Thank you. Except for the one person who unsubscribed. 😠

And say hello to our newest collaborator, Podnews! They've made it easy for us to get accurate listening times. Thanks, James! (Yes, you too can collaborate with us!)

After election night (week?) in the USA, I feel like everyone needs some fiction escapism. Let's get to it!

- Evo

Happy birthday, Mom! And hello, new peeps! We're closing in on 500 subscribers, which warms my cockles greatly. If you're wondering what you missed, the full archive of past issues is available. And please forward this email to a friend, won't you?

The 14 shows highlighted in this issue equate to 92 hours and 12 minutes of listening time. Wowzers!  Let's get into it.

- Evo

In an effort to make this the most insanely valuable newsletter about fiction audio, I've made yet another enhancement to the listings below.

You'll note that every show listed shows a "Listening time" value. Nifty! This is probably something I could pull from the show's RSS feed. But I'm not a developer (I could use one, hint, hint!) so I'm doing the calculation manually. Please accept my apologies if I got it very, very wrong.

Let's get into this week's featured selections, shall we?

- Evo

It's amazing to think that 350 of you have already signed up to receive this little newsletter of mine every week! Humbling, to be sure. Please forward this issue to your friends to help that number grow!

As a reminder, your support—as a creator or a production house—is greatly appreciated, with seriously reduced rates. I've 16 completed fiction podcasts for your consideration today.

Let's get into it.‍

‍
- Evo

Things are chugging right along here at The End HQ. Thanks to all of you who've reached out to recommend and submit fiction podcasts worthy of inclusion. I appreciate each and every one of you. Two quick things before we get to this week's listings, OK?

First, a huge THANK YOU to our newest collaborator, Audio-Drama.com. They've done an amazing job at categorizing and cataloging each and every fiction podcast they can find. I'm using their tagging system to help paint a more complete story about each... story. 😉

Second, I've slashed the prices for Collaborative Sponsors—big time—to make it easier for smaller networks, collectives, and service providers to help support this project, which continues to grow beyond my expectations. So get in on that while the prices are low, will ya?

Let's do this!

- Evo

I have a cold. Yes, just a cold. Not COVID, says the rapid tests. One good thing about being focused on fiction podcasts and being sick? You can actually be productive with your headphones on. Assuming you don't fall asleep. Which I may or may not have done. I'll never tell.

You should notice a few changes in this week's issue. Changes that, thanks to excellent feedback from readers, should increase the usefulness of the issues and lead to better-informed listening decisions on your part.

Let's do this.

- Evo

Do you have any idea how cool it is to launch a weekly newsletter, put out a single "official" issue, and then grow so quickly that you have to switch service providers before the second?

It's very, very cool. A lot of work and hand-wringing, but quite cool. 😎

So welcome to the new format of the newsletter, now with a full website behind it, which you should totally check out.

I'll have more to say after the completed listings, but I don't want to get in the way of your fiction feast, so let's get into it!

- Evo

Holy cattle, but it seems people love learning about completed fiction podcasts! I'm blown away by the support this fledgling newsletter has received in just a week. Well over 100 subscribers and loads of submissions. Keep 'em coming!

I've tweaked the format slightly this week. Uniformity will come, eventually. Maybe. Special thanks to Bryan from Sounds Profitable for the suggestion that lead to the big graphic that sets off the "recent" section.

Let's get into it, shall we?

- Evo

This is the inaugural issue (of a sort) of The End, the newsletter for fiction podcast fans who don’t like to wait. I say “of a sort” because this issue is really just a proof of concept. It’s designed to spark interest, get the pipeline flowing, and test out my chosen formatting. So yeah, mash that reply button and tell me what you think!

This particular newsletter has three main content sections:

1. A “features” section that highlights up to four shows. These need not be recently completed, serving as a way for me to highlight outstanding fiction podcasts regardless of when they were completed. There are some gems in the past I don’t want to ignore!
2. An “everything that’s newly complete” section. This is a text-based list that links out to the show’s website. My intent, assuming people actually start using the submission form, is to provide a complete dump of every fiction podcast that has been completed—at the season or series level—since the last issue was sent. An ambitious goal, I know.
3. A place for a sponsor. A straightforward ad for a network, an app, or something else relevant to fiction podcast fans. Letting people “buy” a featured listing sounds gross to me, but this seems pretty unobtrusive. (If you’re interested, let me know!)

Got it? Groovy. Let’s get to the meat so you can see how this puppy is going to look. Enjoy, and please send in feedback!

- Evo

I have a confession to make. I don’t love podcasts.

Not that I hate podcasts, you understand. Heck, podcasts have been a huge part of my life for almost 20 years and my full-time job since 2018. But I don’t love podcasts just because they are podcasts. That was likely true back in the early days when it was possible to listen to every podcast, and when it was not only possible to fall in love with the medium of podcasting, but something worthy of doing because it would help podcasting grow.

What I do love, however, is fiction podcasts.‍

Fiction was what got me started in podcasting all those years ago when I was interviewing science fiction authors for a radio show cum podcast that is no more called The Dragon Page. Fiction writers embracing podcasting is what lead me to create Podiobooks•com, a platform that helped authors create serialized audiobooks delivered in podcast form in an era when there was no such thing as a Kindle.

Now I’m coming back to where I started, putting my attention back to the fiction section of podcasting. This newsletter, creatively called The End, is, ironically enough, just the start of my re-focusing. And I think that was way too many commas for a sentence, don’t you?

What Is The End?

It’s a newsletter… of sorts. But one that won’t take you long to read. Long-form newsletters are fantastic, but there’s an upper limit on how many any given person can consume, and I’m reticent to add to the load.

It’s really an update list. An update list/service that will highlight an overlooked segment of fiction podcasters: completed works of fiction.

Fiction podcasters are often quite good at making noise for their fiction podcasts—single narrator, full cast, experimental, or whatever—when they launch the show. It seems the entirety of podcast marketing is obsessed with the launch, building momentum, and getting people hooked on the idea of waiting with breathless anticipation for the next episode in a fiction podcast to drop.

Yet that misses a large segment of the population, and one I’m a member of. A portion of fans of fiction who, for whatever reason, don’t like to wait. Like me, they’re happy (or at least prefer) to wait until a story—or season—is complete until they listen, allowing them to listen at their discretion and on their timeline.

So that’s what The End will focus on. Each issue—could be weekly, timing is fungible at the moment—will highlight fiction podcasts that have recently been “completed.” It could be the entire story has been told. Or a season end has been reached. Whichever, those who prefer to control their own listening will know what’s ready for their own personal all-they-can-eat buffet, complete with links to listen and maybe some commentary. The jury is still out on that. Again, I want to keep it tight.

Yes, I Want You To Update Me, Fiction Podcasters!

Eventually, I'd like to have some automated system set up that scans the millions of podcasts, filters down to just the fiction, and then reports back to me when the end (get it?) of a season or story has been reached.

But that's easier said than done. So, in the meantime, I'm relying on fiction podcasters and fans to let me know when a series/season is complete or is nearing completion. I created a quick form that will ask some basic questions, like the name of the show, a link to the home page, and when the final episode dropped or is dropping. Yes, I want to know about all of them and share them with the world.

Sounds like fun, yeah? Join me! And forward this to your friends.

- Evo