Introduction to Graphic Audio

The people of Graphic Audio are no strangers to non-fiction podcasts, but for a company whose tagline is “A Movie in your Mind” and who specialize in turning prose into immersive full-cast audio productions, there seemed to be a heavy reliance on word of mouth and big-name author fandoms. In fact, if it weren’t for Writing Excuses and Brandon Sanderson, the reviews of the Mistborn Trilogy on the site probably wouldn’t have happened.

In short, if you love a certain author, you’ll typically pick up anything they write. Graphic Audio is not unlike Audio Drama Reviews in that we both rely on word of mouth and popular creators in the field to share and like our content. Without writers, Graphic Audio would have no source material, and with no A-list authors like Sanderson and his agent giving them the rights to make an audio drama version of his first book trilogy the company might not have survived for as long as it did. Thankfully, their strategies have only improved.

An Untypical Review: Marketing Principles

As you can probably guess by the introduction, this review is going to be a little different. Upon first announcing the Graphic Audio Story Podcast (G.A.S.P.) back in Summer 2018, a story with an X-Files sensibility and tone was on Graphic Audio’s story podcast feed. Fast forward to late October and an entirely different story replaced the other.

This is a clear indication that Graphic Audio isn’t quite committed to free podcast entertainment in the way most podcasters are doing it. Honestly, when your company gets most of its revenue from premium content and probably spends a lot the technical aspect of the production (mixing, paying actors/actresses, sound design, etc.), it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to try a marketing funnel this late in one’s career. Of course, I joined the fanbase back when Mistborn: The Final Empire (Part 2 of 3) was still unreleased. They had a large enough back catalog already to where if you enjoyed the free content, you’d be willing to check out the paid stuff. There’s nothing wrong with using this proven strategy and the content they provide is more than valuable as it’s on par with their other 17.99 dollars or more productions available on their website.

Consensus and Rating

In short, if I were to review any story at some point in time, you the reader/listener might not get a chance to enjoy it. It’s possible some of the stories are in fact paid for content made free in podcast form for a limited time to help entice people. Of course, it could also be original creations that leave after a while. Whatever the reason, Graphic Audio doesn’t skimp on the production value and truly lives up its tagline of a movie in your mind.

4/5 Stars