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Rachel Swirsky, Chief Editor, was kind enough to talk to me on the telephone about PodCastle, the first (and possibly only) audio fantasy magazine, along with her sister publications, Psuedopod and Escapepod.
MD: Tell us a little bit about PodCastle.
RS: We’re the world’s first audio fantasy magazine (I think it even says that on the website). We run reprints of fantasy short stories once a week. Every couple of weeks we also run flash pieces, under 2,000 words.
MD: What’s exciting about this project, for you?
RS: What’s exciting about the project… We’re reaching an audience that’s not necessarily familiar with conventional print media; they aren’t necessarily going out to buy Asimov’s Magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy. It’s also a way of keeping the short form, which I’m very excited about, viable. Our audience is about 3,500 people right now, which isn’t too bad for a month. [Editor's note: PodCastle has only been in publication for a month.]
MD: 3,500? That’s amazing. Congratulations. How are PseudoPod [the horror audio magazine] and EscapePod [audio science fiction magazine] doing?
RS: Pseudopod has, I think, about 9,000 in circulation. I’m not sure of the numbers, but I think that’s right. It’s the largest circulation for any horror magazine. EscapePod has the second largest circulation for any science fiction magazine, after Analog. Of course, there are magazines that don’t make their circulation public, but for those we know, we’re doing quite well.
MD:Congratulations to all of you. So, when an issue comes out, what happens. Do you archive the stories or is that it?
RS:No, we archive. We also release under Creative Commons so you can put them up elsewhere. You can’t edit the file, but you can download a story and put it on your own site if you want. And all the stories are archived for download at any time. They’re available in MP3 format, and available through our Itunes feed, or alternately you can stream or download them from the website, or get them through RSS.
MD:Do you have a favorite story?
RS: Up right now? Run of the Fiery Horse by Hilary Moon Murphy.
MD:What makes you pick a story? What are you looking for?
RS: [laughter] I’m trying to think of who said: “An author is looking for an editor to have a one-night stand with; an editor is looking for an author to marry.”
It’s fairly difficult. There are stories we read and go, “That was fantastic!” and then there is the grey area, “it’s got good qualities, but maybe it’s not complete” or something. That’s the stuff that’s hard to distinguish between. We don’t get enough stories to run every week that we absolutely love, so making that determination, between stories we like, that’s difficult.
MD:What do you like in particular?
RS:I have a little bit more of a literary bent probably than most people in the genre. I like experimental stuff, and I’m a bit more interested in psychology than action. That doesn’t mean we’re not actively looking for great sword and sworcery type pieces, but my interests are more toward magical realism.
MD:Do you get most stories through submission or do you go out looking for the perfect story?”
RS:EscapePod and PsuedoPod work mostly through submissions, but for PodCastle, I’ve also been picking through anthologies and bothering people. But the slush pile is very useful, too.
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MD:Will you branch into original fiction?
RS:Oh! We do. We accept original fiction, but it’s hard, because those stories are competing against reprints. Sometimes we get people who say they’re not really interested in audio publication, but maybe it’d be okay. They don’t seem to realize they’re competing not only against the other work that’s been submitted to us, but also with everything else that’s being published that we can buy as reprints.
I’ve been reading submissions for about 10 months I think. We’ve only seriously considered one piece of original fiction which we eventually let go. So, it’s definitely possible but it hasn’t happened yet.
MD:If I can be tacky, how do you get paid?
RS: I do get paid! Lots! [laughter]. Escape Artists, that’s the parent organization for all of the magazines, sustains itself through donations. Our listeners have been really generous. We’re also starting to move into sponsorships so we can do some more things, like get some more audio editors, and, you know, keep paying the authors what they’ve become accustomed to.
MD:So, walk me through it. Do you guys use music?
RS: We use music. We acquired the rights to use an album, Ethnic, by Shiva in Exile off of Magnatune; we also use music from a site that allows people to pay anything between, I think, $5.00 and $20.00 for each song.
MD:Do the stories sound more like an audio book, or are they acted?
RS: My personal taste skews toward audio book than actor, but we do have voices who act the stories dramatically. Our voices are volunteers. EscapePod is using more podcaster type voices. We use more authors. Some of our voices have acting experience, most don’t. There’s a dramatic range in how people choose to interpret text.
MD:If you could publish any story, oh, that you’ve read in the last year, what would it be?
RS: I fell in love with Portable Childhood by Ellen Klages, which is a mainstream story, so we will not be running that. We will be running In the House of the Seven Librarians, which is also by Ellen Klages, and which I think is breathtaking. Our schedule is in flux, but the idea at the moment is to run it near Christmas.
MD: What’s your turnaround time on submissions?
RS: Turnaround time is highly variable. We use a first reader, Ann Leckie, who is also one of the hosts of the broadcast. Stuff that comes in that Ann reads goes back within a day or so. If I see it, the time can get well-drawn out. Sometimes I play first reader too, and that will usually be a quick turn. For those stories under consideration, 6 or 7 months is the longest listed time on Duotrope, I think, but our average response time has been about 8.6 days now.
MD: What are you looking for? Is there something in particular you’d like to publish?
RS: We’re trying really hard to offer a variety of fantasy, from sword and sorcery; to urban fantasy; to psychological, magical realism. Fantasy, it’s a fairly flexible genre, so I enjoy that about it. We’re actively searching for ways to vary what we put out, but hopefully be the best, really cool examples of those sub genres.
With many thanks to Rachel for her willingness to share and for PodCastle’s Creative Commons License, here is Run of the Fiery Horse by Hilary Moon Murphy.
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