Informal Tumblr Podfic Exchange

“Fully edited”?

The default expectation is that you will be submitting a “traditional” podfic that you’ve recorded and edited to remove all flubs (at minimum). We understand that in certain fandoms there’s a sub-genre of podfic commonly called a “cold read” which is minimally edited or completely unedited and includes chatty asides and reactions. Please only submit a podfic in this format if your recipient has specifically opted into/requested it in their Dear Podficcer letter. If your recipient doesn’t mention anything about liking cold reads or chatty podfics, then assume that they’re expecting an edited podfic (though if you’d like us as mods to reach out to your recipient to confirm what kind of podfic they’re expecting, we are happy to do so.)

Who can I tell about my assignment?

Keep it secret! (Keep it safe.) Except for your beta–you can tell them. :D

I’m new. How do I find a podfic to record?

Use your recipient’s letter as a guide in terms of story choice. Try to find a story that hits at least one of your recipient’s likes/wants. You must respect your recipient’s Do Not Wants (DNW). Some participants have suggested stories in their letters or bookmarks or have provided information about a close fandom friend who can help with vetting stories. You can also reach out to your participant via anonymous asks or by asking mods to pass on messages if you have further questions!

When finding a gift to record for your recipient, please follow permission norms in your fandom. That means asking for permission if the author doesn’t have a permission statement. Transformative works policies are often found in author’s profiles on AO3.

You can also use the Fanworks Permission Statements list (https://fpslist.org/) as a resource to find authors with blanket permission in your fandom or download the Blanket Permission Highlighter (https://github.com/BrickGrass/Blanket-Permission-Highlighter). The BP highlighter will automatically highlight any author with blanket permission in green when you’re browsing AO3. You will need to have the greasemonkey or tampermonkey extension (if you’re using Firefox or Chrome respectively) installed first.

If you’d like to request permission from an author to podfic a story but are shy about asking yourself, please reach out to a mod and we will be happy to do the asking for you! 

How do I submit my gift?

To submit your finished podfic, you will use the Google forms that will be posted next month.

What are treats? 

Treats are gifts that you can make for people who aren’t your recipient. We will be publishing a spreadsheet of all requests next week that you can peruse. Anyone can make treats–you do not have to be signed up for the exchange to submit them. You can make as many treats as you want, and you can gift a treat to multiple people. (If you, as a recipient, do not want to receive a multirecipient treat, please DM the mods or add yourself to the Opting Out tab in the treats spreadsheet.)

Please note that you MUST submit your main gift first before you can submit any treats. We will not be accepting treats until you have submitted a main gift for your recipient first. 

Do you have any other advice for the gift making process?

We sure do! If you’re planning a long, ambitious project, consider making & submitting a short gift early on first. Long gifts are great to give and receive, but sometimes life happens and this gives everyone a safety net.

We also recommend prioritizing recording your ENTIRE gift FIRST. We can find you editing help if needed; only you can record. 

If you think you will need an extension to finish your main gift at any point, please DM us as soon as you can. We’re willing to work with you, but would rather hear from you earlier than later if possible. 

Okay, I’m excited! What are my next steps?

1. Wait for our message (please be patient, we have no idea how it’s going to go!)

2. Write back to us to confirm you’ve received your assignment and read these rules.

3. Squee on your own blog (tag it with #itpe or #informal tumblr podfic exchange) or in the Tumblr ITPE community. Just remember to keep who you were assigned a secret!

Can I edit my letter/the spreadsheet to add more fandoms?

Yes, as in previous years, we're making the spreadsheet editable, so you can add fandoms you got into after sign-ups to the treats list. However, your main gifter doesn't have to change their plans based on those updates and might not even see them.

What are some spreadsheet do’s and don’ts?

The treats spreadsheet has tabs sorted by AO3 pseud ("Sorted by Name") and sorted by Fandom ("Sorted by Fandom"). Please switch tabs (located at the bottom) instead of re-sorting the "Sorted by Name" tab.

Like last year, we're allowing you to dedicate TREATS to multiple recipients. However if you would like to opt out of receiving a multirecipient treat, we again have a tab where you can add your name in the spreadsheet OR if you’d prefer us to let treaters know privately, DM us.

You may add yourself to the opt out list or DM us about it at any time. Treaters, please make sure to check the opt out list! (We will add a note to the spreadsheet if there’s anyone who prefers to be private about opting out). 

Anything else?

Here are some reminders about the submission process:

Remember, if you ARE signed up, we will NOT be accepting treats before you've turned in your main gift, and we WILL be checking this! If you try to submit a treat without having turned in a main gift, we'll contact you to tell you it has not been accepted and the treat will be deleted from our submissions spreadsheet. Once a main gift is submitted, you are then welcome to re-submit your treat. 

As a reminder, you do NOT have to be signed up to submit treats!

Can we start crossposting to AO3?

Yes, the AO3 collection is open for anyone who is ready to start crossposting! Gift delivery will still be over Tumblr, but the collection will reveal the same day as the masterlist. 

PLEASE ALWAYS SUBMIT YOUR PODFICS TO THE GOOGLE FORM FIRST! This is how we track assignments/build the masterlist. In previous years, we had multiple participants who ONLY uploaded to the collection, leading us to think that some of you had missed the deadline.

If you’re one of the early birds who’ve already started submitting to AO3, PLEASE remember to go back and submit via the google form!

What if we want to make a lot of treats? Filling out the form multiple times can get tedious.

We hear you! Ultimately, we want to emphasize that this is a low pressure, no minimums exchange, so making lots of gifts is not an expectation that we want to put on anyone, but we recognize people want to be generous! As a compromise, if you’re making more than 10 treats, please get in touch with mods and we will provide you with a submission spreadsheet that should hopefully make it easier to submit multiple treats by clicking and dragging information! (This spreadsheet option does not apply to main gifts.)

What are the due dates again?

All main gifts are due December 17th! Treats are due the 22nd! You have as long as it's the 17th/22nd anywhere in the world to submit gifts/treats.

We are also implementing a pre-deadline check-in mechanism this year. If by the day before the deadline we still haven’t received a main gift submission from you, we’ll send you a reminder of the deadline. We will always have a countdown clock to the absolute last second you can submit a gift on our blog.  

“Fully edited”?

The default expectation is that you will be submitting a “traditional” podfic that you’ve recorded and edited to remove all flubs (at minimum). We understand that in certain fandoms there’s a sub-genre of podfic commonly called a “cold read” which is minimally edited or completely unedited and includes chatty asides and reactions. Please only submit a podfic in this format if your recipient has specifically opted into/requested it in their Dear Podficcer letter. If your recipient doesn’t mention anything about liking cold reads or chatty podfics, then assume that they’re expecting an edited podfic (though if you’d like us as mods to reach out to your recipient to confirm what kind of podfic they’re expecting, we are happy to do so.)

Who can I tell about my assignment?

Keep it secret! (Keep it safe.) Except for your beta–you can tell them. :D

I’m new. How do I find a podfic to record?

Use your recipient’s letter as a guide in terms of story choice. Try to find a story that hits at least one of your recipient’s likes/wants. You must respect your recipient’s Do Not Wants (DNW). Some participants have suggested stories in their letters or bookmarks or have provided information about a close fandom friend who can help with vetting stories. You can also reach out to your participant via anonymous asks or by asking mods to pass on messages if you have further questions!

When finding a gift to record for your recipient, please follow permission norms in your fandom. That means asking for permission if the author doesn’t have a permission statement. Transformative works policies are often found in author’s profiles on AO3.

You can also use the Fanworks Permission Statements list (https://fpslist.org/) as a resource to find authors with blanket permission in your fandom or download the Blanket Permission Highlighter (https://github.com/BrickGrass/Blanket-Permission-Highlighter). The BP highlighter will automatically highlight any author with blanket permission in green when you’re browsing AO3. You will need to have the greasemonkey or tampermonkey extension (if you’re using Firefox or Chrome respectively) installed first.

If you’d like to request permission from an author to podfic a story but are shy about asking yourself, please reach out to a mod and we will be happy to do the asking for you! 

How do I submit my gift?

To submit your finished podfic, you will use the Google forms that will be posted next month.

What are treats? 

Treats are gifts that you can make for people who aren’t your recipient. We will be publishing a spreadsheet of all requests next week that you can peruse. Anyone can make treats–you do not have to be signed up for the exchange to submit them. You can make as many treats as you want, and you can gift a treat to multiple people. (If you, as a recipient, do not want to receive a multirecipient treat, please DM the mods or add yourself to the Opting Out tab in the treats spreadsheet.)

Please note that you MUST submit your main gift first before you can submit any treats. We will not be accepting treats until you have submitted a main gift for your recipient first. 

Do you have any other advice for the gift making process?

We sure do! If you’re planning a long, ambitious project, consider making & submitting a short gift early on first. Long gifts are great to give and receive, but sometimes life happens and this gives everyone a safety net.

We also recommend prioritizing recording your ENTIRE gift FIRST. We can find you editing help if needed; only you can record. 

If you think you will need an extension to finish your main gift at any point, please DM us as soon as you can. We’re willing to work with you, but would rather hear from you earlier than later if possible. 

Okay, I’m excited! What are my next steps?

1. Wait for our message (please be patient, we have no idea how it’s going to go!)

2. Write back to us to confirm you’ve received your assignment and read these rules.

3. Squee on your own blog (tag it with #itpe or #informal tumblr podfic exchange) or in the Tumblr ITPE community. Just remember to keep who you were assigned a secret!

Can I edit my letter/the spreadsheet to add more fandoms?

Yes, as in previous years, we're making the spreadsheet editable, so you can add fandoms you got into after sign-ups to the treats list. However, your main gifter doesn't have to change their plans based on those updates and might not even see them.

What are some spreadsheet do’s and don’ts?

The treats spreadsheet has tabs sorted by AO3 pseud ("Sorted by Name") and sorted by Fandom ("Sorted by Fandom"). Please switch tabs (located at the bottom) instead of re-sorting the "Sorted by Name" tab.

Like last year, we're allowing you to dedicate TREATS to multiple recipients. However if you would like to opt out of receiving a multirecipient treat, we again have a tab where you can add your name in the spreadsheet OR if you’d prefer us to let treaters know privately, DM us.

You may add yourself to the opt out list or DM us about it at any time. Treaters, please make sure to check the opt out list! (We will add a note to the spreadsheet if there’s anyone who prefers to be private about opting out). 

Anything else?