Earlier this month we were invited onto the ‘Get Published’ podcast, hosted by Michell Plested, the author of “Galaxy Billies”, “Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero” and the EPT story ‘You Can Never Go Home Again‘.
We talked about the origins of the podcast, the submissions process, what we have learnt over the last few years and what is next for us. The interview is about 45 minutes long and is well worth a listen, especially if you’ve ever thought about writing for EPT.
Take a look at the rest of Mike’s site when you are there – the podcast is one we listen to regularly and there is plenty of interest on the website!
Across all our feeds, we’ve managed to get a total of half a million downloads since we started the podcast. This is quite amazing, given that not everyone starts with episode 1 since now we have over 100 episodes in the main feed. Apart from that, we have 5 anthologies on Podiobooks and a lot of eBooks out!
Over three years ago, on Valentine’s Day 2010, we launched the podcast with a photo that was taken in Edinburgh on Frederick Street. This is – quite literally – where it all started, so we saw it fit to be the first photo for our new project.
Some of you might not know the story, so let’s tell it again. Mick and Katharina had already been contributors of writing podcasts like 100 Word Stories and Great Hites whilst at the same time pursuing their own projects. Around that time, a photo exhibition opened in Vienna. The photographer prompted the visitors to write their thoughts of the photos on a piece of paper – the stories behind the photo, or what was going on in it – and throw the paper in a big box which was situated at the exit.
That’s where the idea for the podcast came from. Katharina had always been an avid photographer, so it was easy to get the pictures that would inspire the stories. We decided to open the podcast for submissions, but read all the stories ourselves in order to maintain a consistent level of quality. So far, it has worked well, especially for people who don’t have access to recording equipment, but would like to test the waters of podcasting their fiction.
Every once in a while a hiatus is required, to recharge the creative batteries – it isn’t easy to come up with a new story every month, even when you pick the photos that prompt them. A photo that might look promising could sit on your screen for hours without a single word underneath. But then there are others – like a duck on a plank – that prompt the most varied selection of stories. The credit for this goes entirely to Mick – there might have been a moment where Katharina didn’t know why she should take a plain photo of a duck on a plank. Somewhere between cybernetic robot assassin ducks, gangland posturing and a murder she was proven wrong.
Some photos trigger discussions about the place where they are taken that are longer than the stories submitted. That’s okay, too. In the end, it’s about uniting two different creative outlets – photography and writing – just as much as it’s about throwing two different creative people together – Katharina and Mick.
Last but not least, we want to thank you – the listeners, the readers and of course the contributors – without whom this wouldn’t have been possible. :)
Can you imagine – the novella “Tainted Roses” by Mark Kilfoil is already our FOURTH book on Podiobooks!
This is very exciting for us, and we hope you will check out Tainted Roses over there as well.
At this point another thanks to Mark who was so immensely inspired that he ignored each and every word limit and still put out such a great story, we had to podcast it anyway… :)
Tainted Roses has just received a glowing review at ‘View From Valhalla‘. If you have enjoyed the story (or not), VFV is a great place to discuss your thoughts about it.
We also welcome your reviews at the iTunes store or any other podcast sites, so if you have enjoyed listening to any of our stories please do leave a review or tell a friend (or ten). Spread the word!
We have reached a point where we both have a number of commitments outside of EPT that have reduced the amount of time and creativity we can devote to it. As such, we can’t guarantee that we can both write a new story every month, however, we don’t want EPT to stop or pod fade (more than we already have).
For the next few months we will, therefore, change the game a bit. There will be no new photos until at least March – but all the previous ones are up for the taking. This means we will still accept new stories, record and release them. You are able to choose from ALL our past photos, which you can see in the Gallery. So for those of you who had started writing for us in the past and didn’t make the deadline – here is another chance to get your stories in! We hope that by taking the pressure off a little bit, writers will have the luxury of being able to fine-tune their tales!
Listeners: we will continue to publish suitable stories we receive, so feel free to encourage your favourite authors to write something for EPT. Maybe send them a link to one of our pictures and challenge them to come up with a story!
The usual guidelines for Submissions apply. Please send in your written stories as usual to: info ( at ) everyphototells ( dot ) com
When we do return to our regular schedule later this year, it will be with a bang!
We are looking forward to all your stories and might still drop in the occasional ones ourselves! :)
After 12 months of releasing EPT stories, our work on the eBook and the launch of “Book 2” on Podiobooks on March 30, we will take another hiatus for the month of April.
There will still be a single EPT Special episode for April, that Mick and Katharina have written together.
From now on, there will also be a more rigid structure for the prompts and deadlines. The deadline for May will be April 30th.
In other words, the new photo prompt will be released on the first of each month and anybody wishing to submit a story will have a full month to write it. This will allow us to spread out the stories over the following month and better plan for how many we will accept and produce.
It has been an incredible year, with forty-four episodes of the podcast released to date, ‘Book 1’ available at podiobooks.com, a Parsec nomination and an exciting range of writers joining us to share their visions of what our photographs suggest. When we started this project, we didn’t really expect to have more than a couple of guest writers join us, but already we have had a few months with four or five guests. We would like to say ‘thank you’ once again to everyone who has taken the time to submit a story; it fires the imagination to hear so many ideas come from a single picture every month and we do enjoy reading the stories and bringing your characters to life.
In some ways we are victims of our own success, finding that we have had to turn away some stories as the podcast has grown, just in order to maintain our level of quality. We’d like to quickly remind anybody who would like to submit a story of a couple of important points.
Deadlines
We both have day jobs as well as other podcasts, so we need to allocate time to EPT stories, so that we give every story the time it deserves. We also try to release episodes, where possible, throughout the whole month, so getting your story to us as soon as possible does matter. If you are in any doubt about being able to hit the deadline, please let us know as soon as possible so we can plan around it if we can. If you don’t tell us and go past the deadline, then chances are the story won’t make it.
Editing
Please get someone else to read your story before you submit it and also try reading it out aloud to yourself. These are tried and tested ways to check for mis-spellings, grammatical errors and story problems. If your story has any minor errors, we will endeavour to fix these before recording, but a story full of problems slows down the recording process, extends the time it takes us to edit the episode and pulls us (and potentially the listener) away from being immersed in the story. If we struggle to read the story, we’re less likely to want to record it, so… check it!
Length
Our submission requirements are for stories between 1,000 and 5,000 words. Please try to stay within those limits. If you realise your story is just short of 1k or you reckon you’ll struggle to stay within 5k, please let us know in advance. We can discuss the story, why it needs to be longer (or shorter) and what we can do about getting it into a suitable format for the podcast.
Local Knowledge
We’re from Scotland and Austria and, despite having a regular diet of American/Canadian/Australian/etc. TV shows and movies, we might not know how to pronounce that beer you’ve used in your story or even what a certain everyday word means. Chances are, neither will some of our listeners! If you need to use local colloquialisms or products in your stories, it would be good if you could provide some explanation about it and a guide to pronunciation, if possible. We can then include the details in our episode notes.
Re-publication
We release the podcast under a Creative Commons licence (by-nc-nd), so you don’t even have to ask if you’d like to include a copy in your own podcast feed, just so long as you use the whole, unaltered mp3 file and provide a link back to EPT. All story rights remain with the writer, so as soon as it is published you are free to submit to other markets. If you do re-submit your story or use our podcast files in any way, please do let us know and we’ll let our listeners know and add relevant links to the website.
![February 2010 [©2009 K Maimer]](https://everyphototells.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/february-2010.jpeg)
