I am fascinated at the every changing world of podcasting. I found your Archangel somewhere. You know how surfing is. Your presentation reminded me of AM radio "shows" back in the day. Multiple voices, sound effects etc. But, you maintained the novel- in-hand and being read motif.

I'm thinking, if your looking for ways to improve your readings you might give a listen to shows like the Green Hornet, The Shadow even Hopalong Cassidy. This is going to sound wild, but the restaurant chain Cracker Barrel sells these in CD formate.

A podcaste (Novel reading) in the formate I heard you use is essentially an adaptation of the written word morphed into the spoken word with a twist. The "twist" at this point ---the drama is left on the page. My guess is the more energy and interest you put into podcasting the more your writing will come to resemble the radio scripts of old.

Also, even in its current redumentary form your "reading" was very visual. I saw it as much as I heard it.

Funny isn't it. The more things change the more they don't. What seems even more fascination, in our so called post modern world, we are reinventing the wheel and don't know it. The primary difference from then until now---the internet gives everyone a shot at invention.

Thanks Curtis! Always good to hear from a listener. Funnily enough I've listened to those very serials both as a boy and as an adult. I'm sure they influenced me. There's also a movement in the podcast community to revive and "reboot" the old serials. I'm writing a bit of sci-fi now that I hope will echo those days.

And I appreciate the feedback. I do hope my writing and speaking craft will improve with time.

Maybe we should throw in Peter Gunn complete with theme song as he heads on down to Mothers.

I do want to help improve the community as a whole, your comments are challenging. Constructive criticism is something that I know writers/podcasters cherish, so it's something I should strive to give. I think in a lot of cases I may feel like since I don't have any of my stuff out there yet I'm not qualified, but maybe I should just realize that if I think I'm qualified or not, I'm trying to help the writer improve their content, and that they'll appreciate it.

My rule of thumb is let the podcaster decide if you're qualified or not. They will anyway and this way you've done your part.

And I'm beginning to share my opinion more. I'm doing it via email at the moment though that doesn't mean I won't be more vocal publicly in the future. Prior to this I was good about praising but not about critiquing. I want to do both now.

If you ever need a beta reader/listener, let me know.

Scott, while I still think critique should be saved for a private avenue, I agree with you it's very important, I hope that I get good critique on my fiction when I release it so I can see what's not working for people. I agree with you that it's important for the community to give reviews and critiques, even though it takes time, it's a valiant thing to do for your fellow podcaster.

You pose a number of good points and like you I believe in asking my peers to critique what I’m doing, to better my project and myself. I am of the opinion that the critiquing you’re wanting should happen before publishing, not afterwards. That is, when I download a new novel I’m expecting it to be a finished project, the best that the author has to present at that time.

I’m reminded of what Mur Lafferty said at a seminar I attended. You don’t go to a writing class to have them love your work, you go there to find the problems with it. I do write, and someday I hope I get the opportunity to have one of my stories done in podcast novel form. Until that time, I seek the opinion of friends to give me that feedback. Just as I will tell them what worked and didn’t work for me, and offer suggestions based of what I know others have done. So to me, the input you want should be sought prior to publishing not as you go along. And if you’re new to podcasting then definitely ask someone to listen to it before you throw it out into the world. Maybe the air-conditioning sound you take for granted comes across as a hurricane.

If you truly want that input as you go along, then you have to let people know where and how to leave it and Twitter isn't the place. How can I let you know that I see a problem with any part of your story in 140 characters. Not to mention my comments are directed towards you the author not all of the people that follow my feed. So if you don't follow me, I can't DM you, so there's no point in my commenting. Now if I like your work, I'll say so in public, because I want to promote what you're doing. It's the least I can do because you're giving me a free book. I think that's one reason why you see more positives.
Just my opinion of course.
Moonlyte

You make a really good point that we should get critique while our stories are in the pre-published stage. Considering we're effectively self publishing though and most podcasters don't have access to real editors, the work we put out will always be a work in progress. It should be the best WIP we can put out though.

You make a good point about the length of a tweet as well, but people pretty consistently use Twitter to critique TV, movies, music... So while you can't go in depth, sharing is certainly happening.

In my case I do what I can to give people several ways to contact me and I try to follow everyone who I'm pretty sure isn't a Bot.

Thanks for promoting the good work of podcasters. I know we need that promotion and I'd never say don't promote.

Thanks again!

You started a very spirited and thorough conversation here Scott. I enjoyed how you pulled comments from a number of mediums and stitched them together with your own commentary.

I think its clear that those of us providing content want to know what people think. It is also clear that not everyone has the time/inclination to provide it. The challenge is, and always has been, to meet somewhere in the middle. I'm not sure how we do that except to make an effort ourselves to comment/critique/provide feedback more, just as you said you were going to start doing yourself.

Let me take up that gauntlet myself.

Thanks Mike. It was fun combining people's thoughts from Twitter/Wave/Voicemail and weaving them together.

I totally understand folks that don't have the time/inclination. I think as podcasters we all at least should have the latter, though again the former doesn't always allow us to act on it.

Glad I could challenge you.