Well, P.G. Holyfield had his “Damn you, Holyfield!” and now I guess I have my “F**k you, Durham!” And yes, I take that as a compliment… twisted though it is… This is how it all happened. A FETIDUS listener by the name of Shane wrote me a decidedly terse note on the FETIDUS website, and I wrote him back. Here’s the exchange for your enjoyment. [ Language warning for my readers sensitive to the F word! ]
As posted by Shane:
“I love Fetidus. But you know what I am really fucking sick of. You expect an invest from us. But you’re not invested in us. You take so god damned fucking long to release new episodes and we’re invested in the story.
So fuck you. I am cutting my feed from Itunes and will sign up again maybe in a year. When I am positive that all of the episodes have been released and I don’t have to wait so long.
This is really not fair to your fans.”
My response:
Hey Shane,
Wow, man, I almost don’t know what to say! First, I’ll take your post as a profoundly twisted compliment, so thank you, sir! I guess P.G. Holyfield had people tell him, “Damn you, Holyfield!” and now I guess my version of it is “Fuck you, Durham!” — although perhaps for different reasons. But I’ll take it as a good thing anyway. And I’ll just add this:
1) I deeply appreciate all my listeners. I try to say that as often as I can, and I hope that’s coming across. Getting to know some of them has been one of the highlights of producing FETIDUS. When someone transitions from being a listener to a full-fledged “fan,” I can’t say how awesome that is, and how much I appreciate it! It’s humbling and amazing. You guys completely blow me away!
2) You’re right, it does take a long time to release new episodes. As far as I know, I’m the only podcast novelist who is also writing all his own music for the episodes, and you know I have multiple voice actors as well, etc… this is basically a totally custom audio drama including all the music, and I don’t exactly have a staff, other than the split personalities in my poor, demented, contortionist mind. Plus I want to make sure each episode has a certain minimal level of quality. In fact, if I did it to the perfectionist level I wanted to, the episodes would take far longer to release!
So, yes, that all takes time, more time than I would like it to. But alas, this is how I’m doing it. Since FETIDUS is free, and I also have to make a living, have other creative projects going on, and more importantly I have a family I love spending time with… it’s the reality of the situation. As you know, I don’t charge for FETIDUS, don’t have any sponsors and thus far have refused any sponsors or ads, and I haven’t asked for donations (and I don’t plan to). So when you factor in the time it takes me to produce it, FETIDUS is costing me a huge amount of money. And I wish I could work on it full-time. I believe the way I’m doing it will eventually be worth it, and more importantly, I’m enjoying the hell out of it, and hope my listeners are too, even at the expense of torturing them with long waits in between episodes.
Now, in between episodes, it’s not that I forget about FETIDUS, or just ignore it or the listeners. I’m constantly trying to work on it, but I have other obligations in life, as I’m sure you do. For one, I have to make the money to make the time to work on it, so unless you want to write me a really big fat check to cover all my expenses, this is the only way I can do it.
Other podcasters struggle with the same issues, as I’m sure you know. They have different ways of dealing with it, all of which are completely understandable. For example, they may choose whether or not to include some of the production elements I’ve chosen to include. Some take sponsors. Some have a volunteer or a paid assistant helping them, or even a team or partners to work with. Some have real budgets. Some have big (or not-so-big) publishing deals and this is part of their critical marketing effort for their book launch (and I have supported more than one podcaster in that situation). Some are passionately trying to get that magical “big book deal.” Some are experimenting by charging for content. Some strip down the production to the bare minimum (quite effectively, I might add). Some secretly have a slave clone of themselves working night and day, etc., etc… In fact, I know of some podcasters who think I’m insane that I write my own music for FETIDUS and I’ll frankly, happily concur. But since I love doing it this way, I’ll continue investing the time.
3) Finally, how can I say this except, thank you for listening! I totally understand if you want to hold off until the whole project is done. I get where you’re coming from, and I’m honestly thrilled to hear you’re so pissed off at me that you’d let me know. I guess I must have done something right, otherwise it wouldn’t have been worth your time to contact me. And I sincerely wish you didn’t have to wait so long as well. In the end, I hope it will be worth the wait, and you come back to experience the full story. I just wish you didn’t cut the feed before episode 8, because things are about to get even more juicy.
Best Regards,
James DurhamP.S.: And by the way, cool artwork on your site! (I clicked there from the link you provided on your name.) Nice work, man!
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
James,
You handled that with true class. I have to say that I think fans don’t always truly grasp how much work goes into a production like you put out. Even a stripped down podcast takes a lot of time and yours would be the exact opposite of stripped down. It would be a symphony rather than the guy on his porch playing a recorder. While the guy with the recorder might be really good and fun to listen to, the preparation for a performance between the two does not compare.
And while I said a “Damn You, Holyfield!” to P.G. like many people, that was all in good fun. This was more along the lines of some of Sigler’s fans. You’re a good guy and let it roll off (as you should), but I’m a fan and think that guy was way out of line. And I’ll never give you an “F* you, Durham!”
I will , however, remind everyone to be patient. It’s for a good cause because “After all, FETIDUS is all about helping people…isn’t it?”
The most ire I can muster up right now is “Hurry up, James! We’re waiting!” And believe me I’m itching for a new episode. And I don’t mean itching in the same way as Art is, thankfully.
Thanks, David! LOL! Yeah, I don’t think you’d want Art Blanchard’s affliction. Although I will say that it *might* come in handy every once in a while in an undead-laden post-apocalyptic world like FETIDUS. But then again, it might not.
BTW, I really do appreciate all my listeners. I’m amazed at the diversity of people that I’ve discovered are listening to FETIDUS. And I bet there are more people who are upset at me (or at the very least, annoyed), like Shane, that the episodes take so long. So I respect where he’s coming from, but I can’t say it much better than I did in my response to him.
And yes, the episode is coming soon! Thank you, man, for your support! I can’t wait to share it with you guys. The parts I have completed are creepy and delicious in all the ways I was hoping for, so be warned, this is one you’ll want to sit down for, turn the lights low, and hold on to something — or someone — very tightly.
That P.G. Holyfield guy sucks. But at least he finished his podcast novel, so people can’t give him sh*t anymore.
If I’m ever lucky enough to win an award someday, I plan on quoting from the most scathing review of MaAH during my acceptance speech. Something along the lines of “horrible writing, and even worse voice-acting…” It didn’t anger me (much)… it made me work even harder.
We chatted a lot about this very thing (meeting audience expectations re: a release schedule) before you got started. This stuff is hard. Even with your years of audio editing and music experience (which I certainly didn’t have when I started this podcasting thing), it takes so much time to create this type of podcast novel.
The “straight read” podcast novelists set the weekly release standard, and they worked (and continue to work) very hard to meet that standard. But considering the production time it takes to create an episode of something like FETIDUS or MaAH or Metamor City, or any of the other podcasts that are more audio dramas than author reads… there needs to be a different set of expectations. I know that a lot of my listeners were patient and stuck with me… and what ended up as an average of an episode released every three weeks or so. I know others stopped listening but have come back to listen to the whole novel since it is now completed. And there are some that left and have yet to come back. And like David wrote, most of the people that took part in the “Damn You Holyfield!” meme were fans that understood what it took for me to produce MaAH.
All you can do is be honest, communicate what’s going on as often as possible, and when you don’t meet a deadline you’ve stated in a previous podcast, you bite the bullet and say “My bad!”
Keep up the great work here James, and keep being the person you are. I doubt I would have responded with the class you did. But come to think of it, I met you at Balticon and I know you have more class than I do….
Hey P.G.!
Thank you, sir! Spoken by the master himself! I really appreciate your comments and your support… especially the things I’ve learned from you, both directly and indirectly.
I think that one of the best pieces of wisdom that you ever gave me regarding podcasting was to be myself — which you reiterated in your comments here. I completely agree with that. Podcasting something like this — when you put so much time and effort into it — doesn’t leave a lot of room for a false persona. I’m not a good faker anyway, so it saves a lot of hassle just by being myself.
Besides, the audience is smart enough to see right through any facades I might be tempted to put up.
Anyway, I’ll be the first to say I’m still learning, and yes, I totally understand where Shane is coming from. I’ve thought something similar about some writers I really enjoy. I was ticked off at Alan Dean Foster for a couple of years because he took so long to get back to the Pip and Flinx series. I even wrote him. Although, admittedly, I didn’t say, “F* you, Foster!”
I just appreciate that some of my listeners have caught the FETIDUS bug and I’m honored and blown away they are investing in it. I will try my best to satiate their appetites!
By the way, speaking of classy, you have won the appreciation and loyalty of your fans for your awesome story, podcast and by being who you are.
Best, James
You know, while I sympatize with this listener, the reasons you list in your response are exactly why I don’t complain. Yours was the first podcast nove I tried. It is still the best presentation of such that I have come across. Kudos! It is the quality of your production that keeps me checking in for the next episode. I do hope there are many more to come.
Furthermore, you handled this well. It can be difficult to deal with angry fans and I often see authors either ignore them or sink to their level. You did neither. Kudos again.
Lastly, I wouldn’t be opposed to your accepting of a sponsor. Many less well produced podcast novels have them and we all put up with it. You deserve to get paid for this type of creative endever. I’m also slightly selfishly motivated in my suggestion of this. I hope that this will be a nice long story. I also hope that it will give birth to many other tales and spinoffs. I would love to hear the history of this universe. Accepting a sponsorship would certainly make it easier for you to produce without hurting your wallet.
Keep up the excellent work. I, and your other fans, await the next episode.
-mars
Well I’m not gonig to be so vociferous in my complaint…….BUT and as you can see it is a BIG but, you won a parsec over guys like chris lester and kristof laputka who over a length of time had put together really strong stories and won a large army of fans and now it does seem like you have pdfaded my friend and that to me is a real shame as FETIDUS was a great atmospheric podcast that I relly looked forward to when it dropped.
I wont go so far as to say you have “let the fans down” but I would say you have let yourself down, you had a really solid ahem foundation for a great story and now you have let it just fade into the memory, I mean if you do ever manage to get another ep out I’m wuite sure mostly everyone will have to relisten to maybe the previous 2 or 3 ep’s before listening to the new one as it has been soooooooo bloody long since the last.
I do hope you get your podcasting act together as I look forward to the return of FETIDUS and hope it comes back with the same style ans panache that has gone before it.
A saddened fan.
Thanks for your comments, guys! I take everything to heart and appreciate all your words. Like I mentioned in my initial response to the F**k You, Durham email that triggered this post, I sincerely wish you didn’t have to wait so long as well. And I really do hope that In the end, it will be worth the wait. It’s been a huge learning process on many levels, and I’d certainly do things differently knowing what I know now. However, all I can do is move forward, and I am so excited for the upcoming episodes. I’ll update the status over at the FETIDUS site very soon, but I can assure you, FETIDUS lives on, and is still in hard-core production, and there’s no one on this fine planet who wants to release the upcoming episodes as much I do!
Warm Regards,
James
That is great news James I only wrote wat I wrote as you hadn’t posted in the thread for quite some time and I as looking for some form of update.
It’s great to here that you will be bringing the show back and as I said I hope it comes back in the same style it went out with all those loooong months ago LOL.
Congrats on getting the new content out James, its been a long time coming but Im sure it is well worth the wait, considering the way the last ep ended.
Thanks, Chris! Yeah, it was a tough decision to “relaunch” from the beginning as well… since it had been so long, I thought this would be a good opportunity to fine-tune the original releases and start fresh from the beginning, to do things “the right way,” for lack of a better phrase. I was hoping the long-term loyal listeners would understand this approach. I am so grateful for the support I’ve received since the beginning, and I’m excited to finally get this out again, in a way I feel good about it… even if only as a thank you to the long-time listeners/supporters. I believe that in the end it will all be worth it!