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Podcasting

Can It Replace the Serials of the ’30’s and ’40’s?

by Lisa Cotoggio

A while back I moderated a panel for the Mystery Writers of America’s New York Chapter Dinner. The topic was “Solving the Promotional Mystery.”

Now while I thought that I had assembled an interesting group of publicists, marketers, and authors, who, I must say, gave an excellent overview of all authors can do to extend the sales and shelf-life of their books, the audience seemed to focus all their questions on one single point: Podcasts. Which, by the way, can be attributed to Jonathan Santlofer’s keen insight on the subject.

Jonathan is podcasting his novel, Anatomy of Fear (jonathansantlofer.com) to what has become a hugely growing audience. He explained how he sets himself up in his writer space, which is located in an old furrier loft on the lower West Side of Manhattan and reads one chapter a week to his listeners, who just love the idea of not only being able to picture his characters come to life by the very author who scribed them, but also imagining the old furrier loft from which he does his esteemed work.

As an author, it made me ponder the thought: are we as authors missing out on a generation of readers whose maturity has impaired their eyesight? Though the answer to that question is quite obvious. We now, through the magical technology of Podcast, have the ability to change it in our favor. And why shouldn’t we?

Looking back to the early days of my childhood, my father used to tell me of the nights he spent with his family gathered around the radio listening intently to every word of The Shadow, The Lone Ranger; and of course, The War of the Worlds, made infamous by the actual belief of an alien attack.

And while I belong to the tail end of the “Babyboomer Generation,” the opening lines to those three shows still haunt the dark corners of my mind merely through memories of conversations with my father, born during the era known as the “Silent Generation”:

Who knows what evil… lurks… in the heart of men? The Shadow knows!

A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty ‘Hi-yo, Silver, away!’ The Lone Ranger!

We interrupt this program to bring….

Riveting. Wouldn’t you agree? Of course you would, which brings us back to our topic: Podcasting. A series of audio or video digital-media files which are distributed over the Internet by syndicated download through Web feeds to portable media players and personal computers. The radio of the future.

Wouldn’t we all like to have that kind of gripping attention by a beloved audience of readers? Yes. And they on the same hand would love to have us read to them. The thought of being able to relive a fascinating part of one’s childhood is a cherished moment, especially late in one’s life.

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A top ten finalist in the 2002 Nevada Film Office 15th Annual Screenwriting Award, Lisa Cotoggio has worked as a script doctor for Summer Moon Productions and with Classical Alliance as a TV series creator and writer.