Jacqueline P Vincent

I received an invitation, along with millions of others, to link my blog to a podcasting company, Anchor.fm. Participating in podcasting has been on my to-do list for about three years, for me a natural progression from writing to reading stories out loud, and, as a bonus, reaching a wider audience. I found the post-cast site easy to use and intuitive. There are limitations, I haven’t worked out how to edit the sound tracks or how to fade music in and out with an over-voice, but as a start I’m enjoying playing with another media outlet and learning a new skill.

Kieran, originally piqued my interest in podcasts those three years ago. He was one of the work-aways who stayed with us and helped with our house renovations. His job as a podcast editor meant he could work and get paid whilst travelling. Keiran introduced me to Audacity, an amazingly powerful programme, and with patience showed me the basics of this open source software. Unfortunately, time and other commitments prevented me from exploring further until now.

Research

After receiving the invitation from WordPress to join Anchor.fm and be part of a growing community of podcasters, I joined up and researched the possibilities. I listened to the company’s instruction podcasts, they seemed straightforward enough, and listened to numerous ‘author’ podcasts. I made notes on format, style and timings and came up with a formula for producing my own. My partner, John, is an avid post-cast listener, and I asked for his favourites, non-author based, to listen to and supplement my research. I unfortunately, due to slight hearing loss as a child, don’t find listening a pleasure. In a sense it made research easier, I wasn’t listening to the content but their construction.

My Formula

The formula for my podcast show involves setting up the intro and outro jingles and adding-in interval jingles. Writing and recording a list of talk-overs for the intro and outro and adding information to allow sharing and promoting my writing. These won’t change for each episode, what will change will be the content. The content will comprise a pod-cast from my monthly blog, a short story written and read by me which will also go out on my monthly newsletter and occasional writing based interviews. I’m very excited and will use the collaboration between wordpress and anchor.fm to my best advantage.

Shows

Apparently, to anyone in the trade, podcasts are known as shows, I learnt that yesterday. I have one show set up for my adult writing and blogs, Jacqueline Vincent Author, with three ‘test’ podcasts created from my blogs ‘Yay, Nay and Lockdown’ and ‘Thank You’ a blog I wrote for The Good Life in Galicia blog. This blog, Podcast, and the short story written for my monthly newsletter will be on my show list for you to listen to. A transcription is available for those of you who prefer to read my story and blog. You can subscribe to my monthly newsletter by pressing the home button above and entering your email address on the join me prompt. As a new subscriber, you’ll also receive a novella, The Red Kimino, as a thank-you for joining.

My second show will be entitled ‘Horse Tales’, there’s a surprise. The target audience is for children between the ages of 8 to 13 who love listening to stories about horses. The stories will compliment my historical girl with horse adventures novels. Perhaps events that didn’t get into the books or short story ideas for a new book, or insider information on the main characters.

Another exciting time ahead for yours truly.