Podcast Guidelines

Podcasting is a way of performing a virtual reading of your poetry. The audience is as wide as the internet and it is an inexpensive way of promoting your publications.

Recording is simple and easy and does not require specialist knowledge or equipment, but there are some simple points you should bear in mind in order to ensure you don’t have to redo it several times, or miss out entirely.

Podcasting isn’t difficult, especially if you only want to record individual poems. If you read it straight through, there is not even any need for lots of editing.

Hardware:

There can be any number of combinations of microphones, mixers or handheld recorders, so I won’t be able to guide you through the specifics of the actual recording.

You will need a microphone — but you might already have one. If you use a Skype headset you could use that. If you use a handheld recorder like Zoom or Edirol for recording lectures or events, you can use that too. Your computer might even have one embedded in it (but the quality might not be great there). If you are buying one, there are lots of reasonably priced microphones that plug directly into a USB port.

Recording into a microphone onto your computer isn’t the only option. You could record a video (if a digital camera is all you have) and use an online tool to strip the audio from the visual (http://media-convert.com/) , or record via Skype using your headset and some software like Hot Recorder (http://www.hotrecorder.com/) or another free alternative.

Software:

You will also need software to record it onto. Audacity is a free piece of software used by podcasters across the world (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). Using proper software like this allows you to see the sound waves — and — if you are confident enough, to edit it and remove unwanted gaps. However, if you record using Audacity you can’t save it as an mp3. You can either download and install the LAME mp3 encoder (http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/) or save as .wav and convert to mp3 using converter software later (see Finishing Up).

Do your best to cut out any background noise (for example close windows and doors). It might not sound noisy to you, but it will reduce the quality of the recording.

Relax. You can re-record as many times as you like, so there is no need to get nervous. The microphone is a very passive audience.
Interruptions are fine, but it is best to decide in advance where you will start again from in case you stumble over words or cough. Is the poem short enough to start again, or could you just begin from the start of the stanza?

When recording, the aim is to get as much good sound (your voice) into the microphone and to exclude bad sound (passing traffic). In order to get as much of your voice as possible into the microphone, you should be as close as comfortably possible.

However, if you are too loud, the sound will clip. That means that it is too loud for the microphone to record, and once it has reached its maximum level it will stop taking in. You will know if you have clipped if when you listen back it sounds distorted. If a recording clips, there is no way to get that sound back (as the problem is with the microphone, not the audio).

Speak clearly. Unlike at a live reading, people don’t have the benefit of watching your lips or body language, so you must compensate for that by reading clearly.

If you decide to give introductions make sure that they would make sense if taken out of context. For example ‘As I was saying earlier…’ might work well if the poems are in sequence, but it doesn’t make any sense if the listener only downloads that one poem.

MP3 Format:

MP3 files are the best format for a podcast as many audio players recognise this format. If your audio is not mp3 (it might be .wav for example), you can download a free audio converter to change it to mp3. http://www.e-soft.co.uk/
When your recording is complete and in the correct format, you will need to prepare it for publication by renaming it and adding tags.

File Management:

The filename is the name you see in your files and folders, and this should include your poem title and your name (eg. titlename.mp3).
Tags are information embedded in the file about the file. This includes Title, Author, Album, Year and other fields that are useful for a user to refer to. If correctly added, these tags will also appear in media players (like iPods or Windows Media) and will allow the audio to be catalogued in them. In order to add a tag, right click on the file, select ‘Properties’ and click on the ‘Detail’ tab. Once you have entered what you need to, click on ‘Apply’ or ‘OK’.

Emailing Audio:

Your poems might be too large to attach to an email (especially if they are long). If this is the case, you might want to put them in a zip file. If you don’t know how to do that, you can use a website like yousendit.org which allows you to put the files online at a secure web address, and then sends the link to that web address via email to your intended recipient.

Marketing:

Tell people that you have poems online, link to them from your website, blog or Facebook page. You might be able to use the audio as part of a Virtual Book Tour, and if it is of a good quality, local radio might even make use of it.