This is the start of The End

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