Sophinisba Solis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophinisba) wrote2012-03-29 09:29 am
sophinisba) wrote2012-03-29 09:29 am
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A note to authors who are not podfic fans, from me, sophinisba
So, like I mentioned the other day, I'm going to help out a bit with ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
welovepodfic because I think feedback for podfic is a great thing.
But hey, not everybody loves podfic! Are you an author whose work has been podficced, and are you feeling awkward about how to tell the person who's put so much work into creating an audio version of your story that you're not interested in listening? Or maybe you've tried to listen and for one reason or another you just can't get through it. If so, I have good news for you!
Listen, authors, we love you! We're grateful to you for writing these awesome fics that are so much fun to read aloud and that other people enjoy listening to!
We also get that not everybody likes hearing stories read aloud. And even some people who like some kinds of audio stories don't like hearing their own stories read aloud.
If you are not a podfic fan, then (no offense, but) ...
We make them for ourselves and for people who like to listen to them, not for people who don't! It's true that you have a unique perspective on your story, but that doesn't mean you're under any obligation to listen, to pretend that you listened, or pretend that you liked it. I can't speak for all podficcers, but for myself I can say the idea of someone trying to force themselves to listen to my voice out of a sense of obligation makes me pretty uncomfortable.
If you want to listen, that's great! Some people never get around to listening to podfic until someone records their own work, and when they finally do listen they discover that they like it a lot and want to get involved in podfic themselves. Some people listen and discover it's not for them, and some people already know that about themselves.
If you don't want to listen but you do want to acknowledge and support people who make podfic, here are some ways you can do so!
- Give blanket permission or post some other kind of podfic/transformative works policy! If you want, you can include a sentence like, "Podfic is not something I'm personally into, but I know it's important to a lot of fans and so I'm posting this permission statement to make things easier for them."
- If a podficcer approaches you about reading one of your stories, you might say something like, "Sure, go right ahead! I'm not a podfic listener myself, but I'm so flattered that you'd want to work on this fic." That's an easy way of heading off the awkwardness of "Am I supposed to listen to it/Are they gonna listen to it (and what if they hate it)" at the start.
- When a reader finishes a podfic, they will usually drop a link on your fic post or send you a message, or if you know them already you might see the post on your flist. Here are some ways you can reply if you want to make them feel good:
All of these, or even a simple "thanks", are nice not only for their content but because they take care of the uncertainty that the podficcer might feel when they send you that link. If you don't say anything, or if you say something like "I hope I can find time to listen to this soon" when it's not actually likely you're going to listen to it, you draw out that uncertainty. (Of course, it's totally cool to say "I hope I can find time to listen to this soon" if you really do want to listen! I get that people are busy lol.) The podficcer might keep wondering whether you're going to listen, might be waiting for you to comment, might be wondering if you're not commenting because you hated it, etc. If you say "Thank you for doing this" without promising to listen, we all have a better idea of where we stand and can breathe a little easier.
Note: Thanks toanatsuno and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
flammablehat for looking this post over for me. Just my thoughts, not Officially Endorsed by the Podfic Community, author and podficcer mileage may vary.
ETA: Entry updated Jan. 4, 2018 to replace sparkly text that had expired. The old version looked nicer. I'll also add that I no longer expect any kind of comment from authors, though comments of the type I talked about here are a nice surprise.
welovepodfic because I think feedback for podfic is a great thing.But hey, not everybody loves podfic! Are you an author whose work has been podficced, and are you feeling awkward about how to tell the person who's put so much work into creating an audio version of your story that you're not interested in listening? Or maybe you've tried to listen and for one reason or another you just can't get through it. If so, I have good news for you!
Listen, authors, we love you! We're grateful to you for writing these awesome fics that are so much fun to read aloud and that other people enjoy listening to!
We also get that not everybody likes hearing stories read aloud. And even some people who like some kinds of audio stories don't like hearing their own stories read aloud.
If you are not a podfic fan, then (no offense, but) ...
We make them for ourselves and for people who like to listen to them, not for people who don't! It's true that you have a unique perspective on your story, but that doesn't mean you're under any obligation to listen, to pretend that you listened, or pretend that you liked it. I can't speak for all podficcers, but for myself I can say the idea of someone trying to force themselves to listen to my voice out of a sense of obligation makes me pretty uncomfortable.
If you want to listen, that's great! Some people never get around to listening to podfic until someone records their own work, and when they finally do listen they discover that they like it a lot and want to get involved in podfic themselves. Some people listen and discover it's not for them, and some people already know that about themselves.
If you don't want to listen but you do want to acknowledge and support people who make podfic, here are some ways you can do so!
- Give blanket permission or post some other kind of podfic/transformative works policy! If you want, you can include a sentence like, "Podfic is not something I'm personally into, but I know it's important to a lot of fans and so I'm posting this permission statement to make things easier for them."
- If a podficcer approaches you about reading one of your stories, you might say something like, "Sure, go right ahead! I'm not a podfic listener myself, but I'm so flattered that you'd want to work on this fic." That's an easy way of heading off the awkwardness of "Am I supposed to listen to it/Are they gonna listen to it (and what if they hate it)" at the start.
- When a reader finishes a podfic, they will usually drop a link on your fic post or send you a message, or if you know them already you might see the post on your flist. Here are some ways you can reply if you want to make them feel good:
-Thank you! I know how much time and energy goes into making a podfic and I'm so happy that you decided to do this with my story.
-(on a long one) Congratulations! I know you've worked really hard on this and it must be exciting to finally have it posted.
-I hope you had fun and were able to make something you're happy with. Thanks again for choosing my fic.
-I'm glad it spoke to you. That story is special to me because [of reasons]. (An author said something like this to me a while back and it made me feel all fancy.)
-Thanks for the link! I'll add it to the fic entry so readers will know where to find your podfic.
That last one is great because your readers are among the people most likely to want to listen to that podfic! Another really nice thing you can do is to make an announcement on your journal to direct potential listeners to the new podfic. [ETA: If you do this, please link to a journal post or another page where listeners can view all the information and comment, rather than giving a direct file download link.]
You can also sometimes find something to comment on in the reader's notes of a post, or in any other way bring your comment back to what you and the podfic reader have in common: you are two creative people who care about this story.
All of these, or even a simple "thanks", are nice not only for their content but because they take care of the uncertainty that the podficcer might feel when they send you that link. If you don't say anything, or if you say something like "I hope I can find time to listen to this soon" when it's not actually likely you're going to listen to it, you draw out that uncertainty. (Of course, it's totally cool to say "I hope I can find time to listen to this soon" if you really do want to listen! I get that people are busy lol.) The podficcer might keep wondering whether you're going to listen, might be waiting for you to comment, might be wondering if you're not commenting because you hated it, etc. If you say "Thank you for doing this" without promising to listen, we all have a better idea of where we stand and can breathe a little easier.
Note: Thanks to
anatsuno and flammablehat for looking this post over for me. Just my thoughts, not Officially Endorsed by the Podfic Community, author and podficcer mileage may vary.ETA: Entry updated Jan. 4, 2018 to replace sparkly text that had expired. The old version looked nicer. I'll also add that I no longer expect any kind of comment from authors, though comments of the type I talked about here are a nice surprise.