Hello & welcome to Serdd’s Audio Fanfictions Monthly agenda for Wednesday, April 1st, 2020.
I hope all of you out there are staying safe and looking after yourselves. These are uncertain times, so while we’re all practicing self-isolation & social distancing: please don’t forget about your mental & spiritual wellbeing as well. Take care of your selves, and each other.
As some of you may know; the author of Erased Potential, my original My hero academia audio fic, declined their permission for me to post their story here on Patreon. Let me be clear: theslytherinpaladin was very accepting of me producing their fic and making it available on AO3. But they were uncomfortable with the idea, I assume, of someone, me, charging for or making money off of their work.
Which, I get. I totally understand. That is the perception. But that’s not the whole truth of it.
To all of you listeners out there, and especially any authors who might be listening; please allow me to clear up a few miss-conceptions about what it is exactly that I’m trying to accomplish here:
With Patreon; it is not my aim to be paid for or earn from the author's work. What I am offering and charging a subscription for; is a “behind the scenes”/ “Making of” of the fic’s that I’m creating for free.
It takes – a LOT – of work to create these audio fics. From the voicing of different characters, the narration, the hours upon hours of editing & cutting, to the videos, uploading, posting, & linking to multiple sites and then finally the social media and sharing of it all.
And that’s just for your standard audio fic - one not posted to Patreon. With the Patreon episodes; I’m taking extra time & putting in extra work to offer you chapter by chapter updates, rather than having you wait for months on end with no updates and seemingly no progress.
It's exactly the same as one of my favourite artists, also on Patreon, and I really got this idea from her. She takes fanfics, and, with the author's permission, turns them into Manga. She then offers them first, panel by panel, on her Patreon. Then once the chapter is ready, she releases the full thing to the public.
That's what I want to do. I want to make Fanfiction available to all... but I can't do that if I can't sustain myself.
What I’m trying to say, in a very ‘round-about way, is that, in essence, I’m charging for my work, not the authors. Every single fic I narrate and produce - as soon as it's finished, goes up for free – to listen to & download - on both AO3 & my website.
So, if any of you out there have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me and let me know.
Next: I’ve made a few changes /updates to my website, and hopefully what’s up; is working. If not let me know. Speaking of the website; if you’ve been on there in the last little while you’ll have noticed the covers & summaries of a few fics listed for each fandom. Those with covers are ones that I’m currently in the process of cleaning up from my old archive and I am doing my very best to get them out as soon as I can.
Your best bet for new fic alerts is subscribing to my YouTube channel: because every fic gets a video and a corresponding link from where to download, and/or my website. I do plan to cross-post my audio fics onto AO3, but some authors don’t want it on there, OR, and this is a big OR – some of the fics I post are no-longer available online. And rather than be accused by AO3 of plagiarism, I’d really just rather avoid it. Rest assured, I do have permission from these older authors to voice & host their audio fics. But some were originally hosted on sites that have since closed down, some authors have taken down their fics as they’ve lost interest in fanfiction, and a few got tired of negative and non-constructive reviews and or people stealing their work and so took their fics down.
It’s sad, but it happens more often than you’d think.
I’ve also made a few changes regarding my YouTube videos. The change is… Disregard everything I’ve said in earlier episodes about the YouTube videos being less than 15 minutes. The great thing about trying something new for the first time is getting to learn for yourself what works & what doesn’t. And I, personally, didn’t like the video’s lasting less than 15 minutes.
When I was working in audio books; even when producing books with less than 15 minutes to the first chapter, i.e. children’s books, we combined chapters to make up the 15 minute sample. (Unless it was the whole book, then we took it down to 5).
So, that’s the new plan: all new fics will get “first 15” videos no matter their length. I even have a Yuri on Ice one shot series that I’m hoping to start soon, that I expect will end up being 1 fic per video.
Oh, and while cleaning up my archive, I remembered a very important caveat that I have yet to specify! My YouTube videos will have a strictly G to PG-13 rating. There may be a curse word or two, but absolutely NO sex, explicit nudity, graphic violence. If such things do occur in the first 15 minutes, I will either: a) read around it, b) skip to later in the chapter, or c) go to the next chapter all-together. I was reminded of this by one of my favourite fics that was originally supposed to be a one-shot, and so starts with a VERY intense sex scene, and I know that I lost a lot of listeners because that was the opener. So not to worry: the samples, at least, for all of my stories will be safe for most audiences.
One last little change that I’m making is to the one-shots at the end of each month. They’re still going to happen, don’t worry, but rather than tell you from which fandom the one-shot will be, I’m going to make that a surprise as well. One of the best things about fanfiction, and a habit I am very guilty of is being able to bounce around to all different fandoms with all different themes and getting to cherry-pick what you feel like reading whenever the craving takes you. So, until I have voters to chose my one-shots: I’m just gonna put out whatever I’m feeling that month. This way also allows me to chose fics with maybe certain themes that fit that month, or center around holiday or the like.
Alright! Let’s get to the main even shall we?!
The airing dates for April 2020 are as follows:
April 10th: Pax, Chapter 2
April 17th: November’s Secret, Chapter 3
April 24th: Monthly One-shot
Now, I’m really looking forward to delving more deeply into Pax. I’ve never read it before, so it is a cold read for me, but it looks really intriguing and has a lot of great reviews, so look forward to that.
November’s secret… ah, you all know how very much I love this fic. This up coming chapter was an emotional one for me, and another one of the many, deeply felt, connections I have to this fic. I hope you enjoy it. (I hope you cry) :D
Fic Recs for April 2020:
1) Burn Your Wings by: Crowbird – A My Hero Academia fanfiction
2) Just a Tiny Mistake by: Dudette_Mal – A Mo Dao Zu Shi fanfiction
3) To Summon a Mate by: Penthesileia – A InuYasha fanfiction
I know there’s a lot going on right now, and there is a whole lot of crap that we as countries, as citizens, and most especially as people are having to deal with – majority for the first time. The last thing I want to say before I sign off is… be kind to each other. We see it in all of the supernatural shows and fantacy novels where humanity is hyped and set on this pillar of idealization as the pinnacle of righteousness. In all the stories, it’s the otherworldly creature striving to be more human, or the demon trying to regain their humanity.
It's in crises like now that we find out who we are as people. Are we in it only for ourselves? Will we step on our neighbor for something more want than need? In this First World of surplus and excess – must we take what we don’t need from those who do “just in case”?
Don’t get me wrong; I have seen some good, and some shining examples of the humanity people write about. All I’m saying here is: Please be one of them. Support those who need it right now, give when you have enough for yourself and your family, and reach out to those who are alone. Facetime, Houseparty, facebook, oovoo… the physical distancing, for some, is worse than the disease.
That’s it. That’s all I’ve got.
Thanks for listening, and be sure to subscribe for updates. Oh! One last thing and it’s very important! This month of April will be the last month of free episodes. The monthly agendas will continue to be available to all, but the chapters & one-shots will, for May onwards, only be available to subscribers.
Right! That’s it, that’s all I’ve got.
Remember; be good, be safe, and I’ll talk to you next time!
Till then; happy listening!
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