Fighting For Our Right To Party

[zvi]

So, I am not actually directing you to go talk to people in an anon meme, but there's a long discussion about posting a story podfic first, text delayed, in the Inception anon meme on LJ.

It raises a few interesting questions which you might care to discuss.

Some questions:

1) How do you convince people to give podfic a try, if they don't intuitively grasp why it might be cool?
2) If a story only ever gets posted as podfic, are you keeping something from people who prefer text?
3) What are the arguments for and against simultaneous release of podfic and text versus podfic first release?
4) How do you present the idea to people of a staggered release without annoying them? How do you let the people who didn't want to listen to the audio that the text is finally available?
5) If a story is released podfic first, is that first podfic of it the canonical version of the text?
6) How do you write a story to be read?

Comments

[paraka]

Well, yes, you are keepking something from people who prefer text.
You're assuming that there's a text version of the audio. I'm not saying this has happened (although I really want to try it now!) but it's totally possible for someone to just sit down in front of a mic and tell a story without having anything written down (or maybe only crib notes or an uncompleted draft). In which case creating a text version could be a lot of extra work.

But whether or not there is a written version that just hasn't been released, I still don't think it's wrong or anything for it to remain unreleased. People make decisions all the time about how accessible they want their fanworks to be to their audience. Many authors choose to lock their fic, limiting who can read it. Lots of people choose not to include ratings or warnings with their works, making it inaccessible to those with triggers (or making it difficult to access). Hell, fandom, pairing and, yes, medium will affect what kind of audience their work will get. No one has to make their work universally available and accessible to everyone. In fact, it's kind of impossible.

Sure people are used to getting their stories in text format. But it's becoming more common for vids to tell full stories. Or, would people really be demanding a text version if we were talking about comics, or other visual & story based fan arts?

With the rise of the internet, fanfic that was published in zines became something that was only accessible to a limited number of people while everyone else had to wait for the net release.
I actually thought about zines too when reading the discussion, however I think there are some key differences between the two. With zines the limiting factor for accessibility was money and distribution and that's not a limiting factor for podfic. The limiting factor with podfic is that many people prefer to read stories over hearing them (with some people who are unable to listen to stories). If we're talking about preferences, I prefer to listen to my stories over reading it (and some people are unable to read stories) but I don't think anyone would ever demand authors provide podfic just to please me and make it extra accessible. Lots of authors even read their fic aloud before posting, so they'd just have to turn on a mic and it wouldn't even be extra work on their part!

I think the real issue here is that releasing stories as podfic isn't something we're used to. Online fandom is largely text oriented and we're not used to having to cope with fandom outside of that (never mind that we mostly leave those unable to handle text to figure it out how to get around that on their own or go somewhere else). And it gets me because fandom is largely text oriented, if that's what works for you (general you for this entire paragraph) and audio does not, there's sooooo much available in text format that why are you freaking out/complaining/getting annoyed that such a small percentage isn't catering to you. Sure you'll miss out on a story, maybe even a great one, but there are hundreds, thousands more that you don't have to miss out on. It's like complaining that someone wrote a fic in French instead of English so you can't read it, when everyone knows that English is the dominant and most accessible language for fandom. Sometimes, it just wasn't made with you in mind.

Sorry frogspace, this isn't really meant to be a rant at you (your comment was just the one I could get my thoughts out most clearly in response to).

[klb]

it's totally possible for someone to just sit down in front of a mic and tell a story without having anything written down

I've actually heard people do this in conversation. It's awesome and one of the reasons I love spending time with fannish people when I can. And I totally wish I could have whipped out my mic one of those times and made a recording, because it would have been perfect to share.

Oh man, now I am plotting a little about if I could get those same people in a room at one point and turn on the mic and just be like OKAY GO. Because that would be beautiful.

[paraka]

I actually find speaking so much easier than writing when it comes to getting my ideas out(which is why I asked if I could call you tonight). It's actually become pretty common for me to whip out my mic and saying a post before I type it up. When I try to type things out they're a lot more fragmented and less clear, so I'll talk things up and use that as a basis for writing it up later.

I haven't tried it specifically for fic yet but I think it might be a project for sometime in the future (ya know, when I have free time again :S).

[frogspace.livejournal.com]

You're assuming that there's a text version of the audio.

Yes, I do. Based on the question, the context of the discussion, and every podfic I've ever listened to. If there is no text version, the question doesn't make sense and we are talking about something altogether different. If there is any fanfic audio performance out there that is spontaneous storytelling without any text basis, I would be thrilled to find it. So far no luck.

I still don't think it's wrong or anything for it to remain unreleased.

I didn't say it's wrong.

I actually thought about zines too when reading the discussion, however I think there are some key differences between the two.

And yet you bring exactly the same arguments and thus prove my point that introducing limiting factors to the fic introduces the same arguments to the discussion. *g*

Sorry frogspace, this isn't really meant to be a rant at you

No problem. I didn't say any of those things you are ranting against, so... *shrugs*

[paraka]

Yes, I do. Based on the question, the context of the discussion, and every podfic I've ever listened to. If there is no text version, the question doesn't make sense and we are talking about something altogether different.

Actually, the question reads: 2) If a story only ever gets posted as podfic, are you keeping something from people who prefer text?
No where in there does it say that there's a text version in existence, it simply says "story" which can just as easily imply a verbal story as a textual one. So this question totally makes sense if we're talking about stories without a text version.

And yes, historically most podfic/audiofic has been based on a story with a pre-existing text, however as busaikko pointed out (and as I suggested in my previous comment) that's not always the case. It may not be a common occurrence (at the moment) but making sweeping statements as you, and others in this discussion, have done ignores those exceptions. And unfortunately those kinds of sweeping statements have a habit of becoming a "fandom rule" and people feel they can't break them later on so I think it's important not to forget these uncommon occurrences.

And yet you bring exactly the same arguments
OK, and this is where I admit that I have never actually run across any zine wank (I was thinking about zines and hold back the online release of fic when I said I thought about zines) so can't actually speak to the wank side of the zine debate.