Ask How to Audio Drama: Getting Lost in the Noise Round 2

Last updated on January 31st, 2023

This week in How to Audio Drama, we’re answering reader questions about audio normalization, going from screenwriting to audio drama, and what to do when you feel like your podcast isn’t getting the love it deserves.

Want to submit an anonymous question to How to Audio Drama? You can fill out our quick form here:

What are the proper practices in hiring someone for your show (voice actor, editor, etc.)? Do you come out with a proposed price or do you ask for their rates? Should it be someone you already know or could you reach out to a voice actor you’ve liked in different shows? I know the basic rules of politeness should apply but it’s the proper business rules I’m more curious about.

Tired For Hire

Hi, Tired,

The answers to these questions all come down to, unfortunately, an unclear answer: you should do what’s right for you and your podcast. Unless you have a network’s guidelines to follow, the “wild west” analogy for podcasts applies more than ever in business proceedings. Different shows do all of these things in different ways, depending on podcasters’ budgets, contacts, and more. I can’t give you a standardized breakdown, because we don’t have one–but I can tell you what we did for VALENCE, my audio drama, and why we made those choices.

For VALENCE, we knew that sound design was going to take up the majority of our budget. We wanted to work with an established sound designer, Julia Schifini, and we knew she had standard rates. We had a maximum amount set for the first season before we reached out to her to ask, just to make sure our budget wasn’t getting out of hand. We asked her rate, negotiated with some wiggle room based on the hopeful success of our IndieGogo campaign, and set the rest of our budget around that. For our actors, we had set rates for major, secondary, and minor characters, all depending on how prominent they were in the scripts.

If I can give any advice on rates for actors, I would say to set standard prices based on how often each character speaks. You can set a rate per word, per scene, etc. I would generally advise against paying more for more experienced actors, unless there’s someone you want to really make sure you can bring onto your team. This helps make sure your compensation is fair and it’s accidentally playing into any biases.

For our casting call, we really wanted to bring some new voices into audio drama. We had plenty of seasoned actors we loved, and we reached out to them to audition–but we didn’t look at any names when we listened to the audition audio from everyone. There’s benefits to hiring your friends and actors you love, for sure. It’s usually easier to pick one person than to open yourself up to hundreds of auditions, like we got. It’s certainly less work. But you might miss out on some stunning performances from someone who hasn’t gotten the chance to work on an audio drama yet. Some of our best performances have come from new actors who haven’t acted at all until now. In my opinion, opening your production up to casting calls is worth the effort.

If you have one person in mind for a role, though, there’s no harm in reaching out to an actor. Be prepared for rejection, but I doubt actors will be angry with you for contacting them. If you stick to those rules of politeness in social situations, you’ll be fine in the professional aspects of casting too.

How do I feel happy for my podcaster friends’ success instead of envy?

Greener than the Wicked Witch

Hi, Green,

Envy is a common theme across all creative communities, but it’s something I find fascinating in podcasting. When it comes to most businesses, competition is something you have to fight against. A customer buying someone else’s product means they probably won’t buy yours. With podcasts, this isn’t the case. When people fall in love with a podcast, it’s pretty common that they fall in love with podcasts. This is especially true for audio dramas.

Remember that people are still being brought into the world of podcasts to begin with. Your friends’ success means that they’re bringing more people to the medium, which means more potential listeners for you! Your friends’ success will help your medium’s success overall, which will, by proxy, help you succeed.

Remember that creative success isn’t a zero-sum game. You don’t fail because your friends succeed. You and your friends succeed differently. Comparison is the thief of joy, as the adage goes, and it can be difficult to stop comparing our success to others’ when numbers are involved.

Instead of steeping in envy, I’d recommend having a conversation with your friends who are seemingly achieving the success you desire. Tell them you’re feeling envious and that you know you shouldn’t. Ask them how they’ve been feeling with their success. Ask them how they dealt with feeling inadequate before they found their footing. Ask them how they find new listeners and fans. Instead of just being frustrated, take time to listen and learn.

I help to produce several podcasts, and for the life of me, I cannot get showrunners to send me the things they’ve promised me on time. Despite working with them to set up strict deadlines for delivering audio, scripts, etc., they quickly fall behind on their deliverables. When I try to approach them about this, it is usually met with apologies and excuses, but no real action. As a result, I’m expected to drop my other projects in order to get things done on time. Typically I include a clause in my contracts about working overtime/rush jobs but a few of them provided their own contracts that I wasn’t able to edit to include that cause. How do I explain to these showrunners that their lack of preparedness does not equate to an emergency or failure on my behalf?

Hating the “Hurry Up and Wait”

Hi, Hurry,

I’ve been on both sides of this, and it’s always frustrating. If you’re tied up in contracts, though, some basic disclosure: I’m nowhere near an entertainment attorney or lawyer in any regard, so take everything I say here with a grain of salt.

First things first, make sure the showrunners understand where your frustrations are. Point out to them what your deadlines are, how long you take to work on an episode, and how far behind they are. If they’re this far behind, there’s a chance they don’t realize just how little time they’ve given you. Ask if you can receive an extension on your work equal to the time they’ve delayed your work. Make sure you’re being clear about this; it isn’t the time to just check in every now and then. It sounds like you need a direct conversation about your needs.

If there’s been apology but no action, it could be the case that what you see as urgency does not register as urgency on their behalf. There might be miscommunications when it comes to deadlines and how firm they are. Ask those questions. Ask what they want you to do to resolve this, and if there are expectations on your or not in this regard. Ask what they are doing on their end to get the work to you. Don’t let assumptions get the better of you before you’re clear on exactly what is happening, who is doing what, and who is responsible for what.

Next, make sure you know what the expectations are for your due dates. If you’re unable to get the work done in time with all of your other obligations considered, look to your contract to see what your rights will be if you turn in work late. If there’s nothing in the contract, ask directly. If you don’t get a clear answer, make it clear that you need one. If you don’t think the answer is satisfactory, now might be a time to contact an attorney to look at your contract and see what can be done.

And, of course, always bring up requests for contract renegotiation. It might be time to see if you can advocate for overtime pay and the usual expectations from showrunners–or it might be time to find a way out of a work situation that just isn’t working for you.

How to Audio Drama is our weekly column documenting every piece of information you’d need to start your own audio drama (aka fiction podcast). The series can be read in full, or read volume by volume. You can use our table of contents to find each How to Audio Drama installment, and you can submit questions to our monthly How to Audio Drama advice column.