Anniversary and History
Our eight year anniversary is this Saturday!
Usually I wait until the new year to implement major changes to the site. However, with a lack of new content on the blog for months, it seemed prevalent to restart the engines. I wrote the first post on September 21, 2011, with the first review publishing 5 days later. You can read those first few reviews on the podcast. They’re of 7th Son: Descent by J.C. Hutchins. While the blog has remained untouched, the podcast has been pushing forward with more archived audio reviews. These can be found in season 3 of the podcast feed on apple podcasts and other podcasting apps like Radio Public. If your podcast player of choice does not utilize seasons, you can find these episodes by looking for the letters “AAR” or “Archived Audio Review” at the beginning of each episode’s title.
Starting this September, on the same day as the first introductory post 8 years ago, Audio Drama Reviews will return to releasing content for both the blog and podcast. The release schedule is still up in the air but should be similar to how it was before the hiatus. A new review every 1-2 weeks.
Anniversary Changes
With the return to form comes change as well. That’s why the requests line will remain inactive for the foreseeable future. However, there’s a reason for this that the community will love. Instead of having an e-mail account dedicated to keeping track of who sends shows for review, a creator or fan of a show can submit a request via social media. The requests e-mail will remain open until I finish what’s in the queue. Spoilers: It’s a lot of audiobooks and Doctor Who shows. So if you like those things, prepare to hear and see a lot more reviews of those types of audio stories. Why open the flood gates like this? Because Audio Drama Reviews is also removing the entire season/series prerequisite for submitting. A few things to note going forward, however.
- Audiobooks are no longer accepted. If an audiobook is found that sounds interesting, then a review will likely still happen. The difference is it has to be found and not submitted. Reviewing a 1-72 hour audiobook is time-consuming.
- No More Fan or Official Doctor Who Stories for a While. This is to keep my sanity and to not let the page be overrun with the Doctor, who I realize is a popular figure in audio drama history.
- Unreleased and New Shows get Precedence or Expedited Service. For shows who have yet to release their first episode who contact us ahead of time with a press kit for their show will have their show the day it’s released. Give us at least two weeks notice with about a 24-48 hour grace period depending on when the first episode drops. The press kit must include at least the first three episodes. New, already released shows with less than 5 episodes can ask for expedited service for a donation of any amount above 50 cents via Ko-Fi or PayPal.me. BLOG REVIEWS ONLY.
PodTales 2019 Exhibitor
This October 20, I will be attending the first audio drama and podcast fiction festival as an exhibitor in Cambridge, MA. As the event approaches, I’ll be posting on social media more to keep everyone informed on where the table will be and other logistics. People attending will be able to get one of the following items:
- A paperback copy of a new collection, Audio Drama Reviews: Eight-Year Anniversary for $7.
- Audio Drama creators with their reviewed works inside get a discounted rate of $3. Paypal and Venmo are accepted.
- An Audio Drama Reviews 4 GB USB drive with newly recorded audio reviews for the audiobook version of the above collection in both mp3 format and one m4b file. There will be a code for people to use on this page if their drive is blank. (24 drives total).
- A paperback copy of my recent novella Ani-Mech for $10 (Only 10 Copies available)
More to Come for the Podcast
There’s more stuff coming, but it’ll have to wait until after PodTales. Until then here’s something coming down the pipeline.
Podcast reviews take time to make and will be treated separately going forward for new and coming soon audio dramas. Expect simultaneous publishing for everything else.
—Michael L. Bergonzi