This post is sponsored by RadioPublic, an easy-to-use free podcast app that makes listening to podcasts simple – on the web, iPhone, and Android. RadioPublic’s mission is to help listeners discover and engage withpodcasters. Radio Public offers promotion tools to help you grow your show, such as embeddable web players and vanity RSS feeds. For fiction podcast creators and enthusiasts, RadioPublic’s fiction podcast growth tools are very helpful.
As RadioPublic specialises in podcast curation – with their dedicated team of Podcast Librarians – we thought it would be a good idea for writer Ma’ayan Plaut to run through some shows that Radio Public’s currently tuning into. Today, they highlight fiction podcasts.
Growth, Fiction and Radio Public
Fiction podcasts present their own set of challenges when it comes to growing your audience. Monetisation and cross-promotion aren’t as easy when ads can break up the flow of your story. Genre, topic and story can make fiction podcasts seem so niche that they’re an acquired taste. However, as podcast listenership grows, more folks are emotionally investing in fiction podcasts.
Radio Public has tools to help podcasters share their shows, and to help listeners find new shows to enjoy. As a free user, podcasters can embed episodes anywhere, and set up a standard podcast marketing landing page. Pro users can set up an enhanced web embed player, use a vanity podcast feed URL, and Google Analytics Integration, for just $12 a month.
Tools like Radio Public’s Podsites can save fiction podcast creators time, while helping them be found more easily by fiction podcast enthusiasts.
Fiction Podcasts
Fiction podcasts that explore a past, present, or future on Earth–or beyond–immerse listeners from scene to scene. From episode to episode. A compelling audio drama shapes whole worlds, from words, develops characters through dialogue, and transports us into new stories where we let our imaginations get lost (or run wild) in a new place.
We know how much work goes into making an audio drama. Both from a talent perspective and from a technical standpoint, and we know that time and talent and tech all have a cost. Through RadioPublic’s Paid Listens program, we are enabling podcasters to continue making their podcasts through directed financial support, earned as their listeners enjoy their shows.
With the nearly two dozen shows shared here, we highlight some of the audio dramas and fiction podcasts participating in the Paid Listens program. And how some have made use of RadioPublic’s free marketing tools to earn more money.
The Amelia Project
The Amelia Project offers a very special service: Faking its clients’ deaths! Its eccentric clientele includes cult leaders, politicians and celebrities, all desperate to disappear and start over… But how long can the secrecy last?
The Amelia Project includes RadioPublic in their ways to listen section of their site and includes their most recent episode there, too. This podcast is an amazing example of fiction podcast growth, garnering awards from Austin to London.
Anansi Storytime
Telling Fairy Tales and Folklore from cultures all over the world as audio plays.
Audio Drama Reviews
The audio version of Audio Drama Reviews’ reviews.
Audio Drama Reviews includes the Available on RadioPublic button on their website, and embeds episodes of the show in individual blog posts.
Bedtime Stories Cozy Corner Podcast
Original children’s stories for nap time, bedtime and any time it’s relax time!
The Chaotic Goodness Podcast
Women and men playing the Uncharted Worlds RPG by Sean Gomes. Follow the misadventures of a bunch of spacefaring idiots as they try to make a living picking up random jobs and constantly repairing their space freighter.
DREAM STATE
The President’s daughter is abducted through a breach in reality. Six months later, insider testimony begins to shed light on a complex web of corruption and malevolence. What would you sacrifice to make your dreams real?
Hail and Well Met – Guild of Adventurers
Three adventurers travel the world of Kalanthus discovering truths about the world and themselves in this live play D&D story driven podcast.
Hail and Well Met includes a RadioPublic link front and center on their website and pins the most recent episode of their podcast to the top of their Twitter account.
In Her Burning: A Surreal Diary
In an isolated society, teenage Erith has been chosen for Polishing. A ritualistic surgery that erases one’s irises so the individual may see the Volucris—strange and enigmatic creatures that live in an alternate realm only visible to the Polished. She discovers a new, haunting reality after her procedure that warps light into darkness and reveals hidden secrets about the world. As she progresses, she and her companion, Calyx, discover frightening truths about the Polished. And realize they are in danger of losing themselves to the changes Polishing inflicts on the mind.
Mike Luoma’s Glow-in-the-Dark Radio
Listen in as author and radio host Mike Luoma reads from his books.
Mike includes his show link in his Twitter bio, has a listening badge on the homepage of his website, and embeds his most recent episode on the podcast section of his site.
On A Dark, Cold Night
On a Dark, Cold Night is the ideal podcast for horror-lovers with insomnia. It’s a creepy friend to tell you bedtime/ghost stories. The podcast involves Your Narrator telling you a spine-chilling yet soothing ghost story every week.
On A Dark, Cold Night uses their RadioPublic link on their podcast’s homepage.
Ostium Podcast
Ostium is a fictional podcast about a man who discovers a secret town with many doors that lead him to strange and interesting places.
Ostium embeds the first episode of their show on the homepage of their website and individual episodes are embedded on their season pages, as a tool to increase fiction podcast growth.
The Phenomenon
When a supernatural threat drives mankind to the point of extinction, survivors around the globe struggle to endure in a world with just three rules: Do not look outside. Do not look at the sky. Do not make noise.
The Phenomenon includes their RadioPublic link in ways to listen to their show.
The Rise of King Asilas
When America faced its ultimate crisis, the second civil war, a leader emerged that unified the fractured country. However, in order to reunite all the warring states, he had to restructure the government and restore order. In doing so, the country changed from a democracy to a monarchy. Reluctantly, General Asilas Roman became America’s first king. This is the story of King Asilas, an American patriot who became the center of the country’s most definitive time in history and the people he trusts during his reign as America’s first absolute ruler.
The Rise of King Asilas reminds listeners on their about page to listen on RadioPublic.
Serendipity City
Serendipity City is an actual-play podcast that takes place in a sprawling, dieselpunk metropolis with a magical underworld (in more ways than one). Anarchists fight corrupt companies. shapeshifters fight for turf. dwarves work in the caves underneath the city. And through it all, our intrepid group of questionable heroes just wants to do the job they were hired for.
Starless
A post-apocalyptic audio drama. In which rampant fires have destroyed not only lives and the earth, but what little civilization was left. Rhana is on a mission to restore humanity to the world.
Starless pinned their first episode’s RadioPublic link on their Twitter account as well as including their show link in their Twitter bio.
Station Blue
Vagabond Matthew Leads finds himself alone in a remote Antarctic research station. A Found Footage isolation horror.
Station to Station
Dr. Miranda Quan’s lab partner is MIA. But his notes, and a tape player that may contain his final words, have made it onto the research ship headed hundreds of miles into the North Pacific along with a sinister secret that endangers everyone aboard.
The Strange Case of Starship Iris
In 2189, Earth narrowly won a war against extraterrestrials. The Strange Case of Starship Iris is about what comes after. It’s a story of outer space, survival, espionage, resistance, identity, friendship, found family, romance, and secrets. (Also, there’s jokes.)
Tides
Tides is the story of Dr. Winifred Eurus, a xenobiologist trapped on an unfamiliar planet with hostile tidal forces. She must use her wits, sarcasm and intellectual curiosity to survive long enough to be rescued. But there might be more to life on this planet than she expected. . .
Tides makes use of their RadioPublic link in the footer on their website, and mention RadioPublic in their ways to listen in their press kit, so they can better surf the waves of fiction podcast growth.
Unplaced
Unplaced tells the story of a woman who wakes up one day to find that no one can see or hear her. And everyone she knows is slowly forgetting about her. That would be weird enough! But after a few weeks of being invisible, she finds she’s not the only being other people can’t see.
To help their fiction podcast growth, Unplaced Podcast includes their RadioPublic link on their website and in their press kit.
Vest-Pocket Musicals
Turning obscure short stories by amateur authors into miniature musical podcasts.
Vest-Pocket Musicals includes a Listen with RadioPublic button in their subscription options.
Violet Beach
A sci-fi/comedy show about a small Maryland town. Seven friends are dragged into something far bigger than themselves.
Westside Fairytales
Westside Fairytales is an anthology of horror and dark fiction stories written and read by author Tyler Bell.
Westside Fairytales includes a RadioPublic embed player as a way to listen on their website.
Fiction podcast growth
Websites, embeddable players and vanity URLs are great ways to encourage fiction podcast growth. But, they aren’t the only avenues to world domination. Our book, Podcast Growth -A Book About Growing Your Podcast Audience offers clear explanations and useful strategies to help any podcast gain a wider audience. Not only this, but also, Podcraft Academy can help you with all aspects of making a better podcast. Won’t you join us?