What does ‘radio drama’ make you think of? Noir detective stories projected through a gramophone? Creepy stories under the blankets whispered from a 1950s handheld? Auditory storytelling is making a huge comeback in the form of audiobooks and podcasts – and the next story to be told over the airwaves could be yours.
There are more opportunities for science fiction and fantasy (SFF) writers than ever before. We’ll guide you through everything you need to know about submitting your work to these up-and-coming markets.
What is a podcast?
‘Podcast’ is a portmanteau of ‘iPod broadcast’. It refers to a program that delivers audio content for streamed listening. Today, podcasts aren’t regulated to iPods; they can be delivered through anything with a speaker and an internet connection.
Literary podcasts work in a similar way to literary magazines, except that the work they feature is broadcast aloud by professional readers instead of printed on a page. Depending on the podcast, they might also feature things like author interviews, industry news, or writing advice.
Many of these literary podcasts accept unsolicited submissions from emerging writers. That’s where you come in.
What do speculative fiction podcasts looks for?
When podcast editors are looking at short stories or narrative poems, it’s very important that the work sounds good when read aloud. Not everything that’s beautiful on the page will translate as beautifully to the human voice. And, you can have fun using literary devices to create sentences that sound beautiful in ways you wouldn’t necessarily notice if you were reading.
Favour short, compact sentences over long, meandering ones, and cut anything – anything – extraneous. This includes quite a few dialogue tags (‘he said’, ‘she said’, or worse – ‘she said meaningfully’), filtering words (‘she heard’, ‘he saw’), and passive modifiers (‘she was hit in the shoulder with a falling box’).
Paying attention to rhythm and cadence will also make a big difference to how your story sounds. For instance, if you have a string of sentences structured as clause, comma, clause over and over again (‘repetitive sentence structures can get tiring, especially when read out loud’), the ear will quickly become desensitized. Be sure to vary the way your sentences are put together to keep the rhythm fresh. Also try to balance your hard consonants (Ks, Ts, Bs, Ds) with softer sounds (vowels, Ws, Ms, Ss, Ls). Hard consonants will make the pacing pick up (they’re very good for action scenes), while soft sounds will slow it down.
Often, podcasts will have narrower word counts than literary journals. Where a magazine might open to stories between 500 and 3,000 words, a podcast might request stories between 1,800 and 2,200 words. This is because they want stories of approximately the same length to fill the same recurring slot of time. Make sure you read each individual podcast’s submission guidelines very closely (you can find more tips on submitting your work here).
10 SFF podcasts that champion short fiction
Ready to get your work into the ears of listeners? Here are ten places to start.
Who is it? PodCastle
What do they publish? Fantasy
What do they want from me? Short stories of up to 6,000 words
Gimme the money: Pro rates 💰💰💰
Who is it? PseudoPod
What do they publish? Horror and weird fiction
What do they want from me? Short stories of up to 6,000 words
Gimme the money: Pro rates 💰💰💰
Who is it? Escape Pod
What do they publish? Science fiction
What do they want from me? Short stories of up to 6,000 words
Gimme the money: Pro rates 💰💰💰
Who is it? Cast of Wonders
What do they publish? YA speculative fiction
What do they want from me? Short stories of up to 6,000 words
Gimme the money: Pro rates 💰💰💰
Who is it? The Other Stories
What do they publish? Horror
What do they want from me? Short stories between 1,800 and 2,200 words. Check their revolving themes.
Gimme the money: Honorarium 💰
Who is it? StarShipSofa
What do they publish? Science fiction, including YA
What do they want from me? Short stories between 3,000 and 7,000 words
Gimme the money: Honorarium 💰
Who is it? Untold Tales
What do they publish? Speculative fiction and romance
What do they want from me? Short stories between 2,000 and 5,500 words
Gimme the money: Pays in love 💛
Who is it? The Drabblecast
What do they publish? All speculative fiction
What do they want from me? Short stories between 500 and 4,000 words
Gimme the money: Honorarium 💰
Who is it? Imagitopia
What do they publish? Fantasy
What do they want from me? Reprint short stories of up to 5,000 words
Gimme the money: Honorarium 💰
Who is it? Creepy Pod
What do they publish? Horror
What do they want from me? Short stories between 1,000 and 7,000 words
Gimme the money: Honorarium 💰
Fija Callaghan is an author, poet, and unapologetic daydreamer. Her work has been shortlisted and longlisted for a number of short story prizes, and you can find her writing in publications like Gingerbread House, Crow & Cross Keys, Corvid Queen, and Mythic Magazine. When not writing or helping other writers get the best out of their work, she can be found haunting her local bookshops or watching the tide come in.
Do you write fantasy or science fiction?
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