podfic

[jmtorres]

Hey everybody, I know nothing about podfic except that I'm considering recording some; seriously I haven't even listened to hardly any ever. What are fannish conventions I should know like format, where to post, how to include fic headers, things I am too ignorant to ask?

Comments

[aris_tgd]

People have talked a bit about their individual preferences on podficmeta in a few posts, IIRC. I think specifics are up in the air from one recorder to another, but it seems most people like fair-to-good bitrate mp3s, separated out so they're not too long, and with a little but not a ton of identifying information at the beginning of each chapter. And Jinjurly's archive seems to be the place that a lot of stuff is archived: http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/

I have heard that it's an access issue when people record reading-over-background-music, though, so that's something to keep in mind. (Some people have a hard time making out words over music and would prefer a no-music version.)

[revolutionaryjo]

Never too ignorant to ask! And I always love enabling more podfic into the world. :)

The places I typically post to are amplificathon, podslash and if there is a specific podfic community to the fandom, there too. (e.g. merlinpodfic)

Author permission is a must, but there are quite a few lovely authors who have given blanket permission. paraka has been awesome enough to compile a list.

As far as formats go, mp3 is usually preferable. I usually post that and a m4b file. If you don't have the means to make your own m4b, just ask when posting to amplificathon and cybel will actually make one for you! With a lovely cover even! FYI, posting to amplificathon automatically gets your podfic posted in the archive too.

For technical questions, podfic_tips is a great place to check out. The only tip off the top of my head is to make sure you record in Mono rather than Stereo if you're using Audacity. Stereo just makes the file size huge with no real purpose.

Good luck! Feel free to ask me if you have any questions. I'm more than happy to help out. :)