Quiet, I'm can't hear myself talk!

As you can see below I finally got around to recording my first podcast. You can download the mp3 by clicking the title of the post, or you can subscribe to it manually in iTunes by clicking 'Subscribe to Podcast' in the dropdown menu and pasting in the following URL:

http://www.whatwritesatmidnight.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

It's also on Google Reader and I'll try get it linked to a few more places.

Just a warning first of all - it is really quiet. It's fine on a home PC but if you're listening to it while on the move it's pretty much impossible to hear. I'm working on that - it is partly because I speak quietly (I realise now that most of the other podcasts I listen to are done by shouty Americans), but also I need to get some proper audio editing software really. If I figure out a way to make the next episode louder I'll amend this one too and upload it again.

I also realise I could do with more upbeat music at the opening. I wanted to put something there but fearful of copyright violations I used the only piece of music I have permission to use, which is a piece my brother composed for a short horror film I directed. The only copyright-free music I've managed to find so far is 1920s Ragtime music, which may or may not work out better.

What I thought would be the hardest part, actually recording the thing, was fairly easy. I ended up talking for way longer than I thought I would and I mumbled a lot, but otherwise it was fun to do. The problem is it took forever. Recording it took about an hour and a half (yes, there were out-takes, but not very interesting ones). Editing it took another hour. Then figuring out how to a) post it on the web, b) link it to my blog and c) get it to show up on iTunes took hours. I am quite tired having gone to bed in the early hours of the morning. And I still haven't figured out c) yet. I've submitted it to iTunes but I think it may get rejected as it's not really of a listenable standard yet, and there's only the one episode. So you can subscribe to it manually as mentioned above but I might not be able to get an official listing for a while.

Anyway, it took ages, meaning my one free night of the week I spent talking about writing rather than actually writing anything. Which is fine at the moment, I just hope it gets quicker and easier otherwise it will be a writing podcast about doing a podcast, because that's all I'll be doing...if that makes any sense. Just like this is a writing blog about recording a writing podcast.

So please do download the episode, I apologise for the length and the volume but hopefully I get that right next time, and feel free to leave me feedback in the comments.