Thank you to those who have reached out regarding The Mookse and the Gripes on Patreon, with a special thanks to those who have pledged support (two so far, and I cannot tell you how nice that is!), or who have donated a lump sum of money (thank you!), or who have in other ways shared ideas and encouragement. For those of you who missed the announcement, The Mookse and the Gripes is now on Patreon — please look at the end of this post to see the details about Patreon, how to support the site, and what the rewards are. See The Mookse and the Gripes Patreon page by clicking here.
Now, to The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast 2.0. The first goal at Patreon is to raise $100 per month to maintain version 2.0 of the podcast. While we are only 1/10 of the way to that goal (which I still hope to reach), the Patreon support plus lump sum donations and encouragement that have come in over the last week have given enough to get the ball rolling, and I’m looking to relaunch the podcast in early 2018.
I find myself in that pleasant state of planning and dreaming before the real work begins! Just what will version 2.0 be. Version 1.0¹ was focused on NYRB Classics (and I’m sure their books will continue to come up in whatever comes next); however, I want to find something more flexible and open. In the quest to create a pleasing book-centric podcast, I’d love your feedback.
Please let me know if you have any ideas for format or content that you’d like considered. There are several great book podcasts out there already, so I’m curious what else you might want or what you’d like to get from The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast. I know people will have different opinions, but . . .
- Do you prefer short and frequent shows (20-30 minutes a few times a month) or long and less frequent (over an hour, once or twice per month), and why?
- Would you prefer a podcast focused solely on books, or one more generally focused on reading?
- Any particular authors or books you’d love to hear a podcast about?
- Is there any approach you would like me to avoid?
- All of the above? None of the above?
This is very much in the all-ideas-are-valid-and-welcome stage. I have some ideas of my own that I’ll share in future updates as this gets a bit more shape. For now, please feel free to comment below, message me on Twitter (@mookse), or send me an email at mookseandgripes@gmail.com. Your input will be welcome and most appreciated!
¹Currently the episodes from 1.0 are not available, but I will be re-uploading them when the hosting service is re-engaged.
What is Patreon?
I announced last week (here) that I put The Mookse and the Gripes on Patreon, a place where anyone can go and sign up to make a monthly contribution to The Mookse and the Gripes. You can sign up for as little as $1 per month (and every little bit helps!), and you can stop your patronage at any time. Depending on how much you give, you may also be eligible for one of the rewards (books, chocolate, bookish treats, etc.).
And, by the way, if you look at the rewards and you think, hmm, I would love to support The Mookse and the Gripes but none of this tickles my fancy, just let me know. All of this is new, and I’m happy to try to run things differently to make this a pleasant experience.
I also love your encouragement and comments here and everywhere!
Hey Trevor – I listen to a few book podcasts, and there are some goodies out there: BookWorm, NY Times, Guardian (patchy), Slate, LRB etc. I’ll tell you what I think is missing: whenever (as I’m sure we’ll do) I get really enthused about a particular author, I search iTunes to see what’s out there. And usually there’s not much. If there is something it’s often very bitty, incomplete and frustrating. So for me episodes that dug down deep in the work of a specific author would be great. Maybe read extracts, interviews with experts, audio of the author, plus your considerations. That I’d listen and look forward to!
Take my comments with a bit of caution, as I don’t listen to any podcasts very often and not any literary ones, so I might be an outlier. But if I were to listen to a literary podcast I would prefer shorter and more frequent to longer and less frequent episodes. Less frequent is bad because it is easy to forget it even exists. More frequent ones can become a part of a regular routine. Shorter also seems better because getting someone to try a podcast that is 90 minutes might be a tougher ask than trying one that is 30 minutes. I know with catching up on TV series it is easy to find time for the 20-30 minute episode and harder to find time for the 60 minute ones.
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As for content, I agree with Lee that authors are better than individual books. With a book I might only want to listen to the podcast if I happen to have already read it or plan on reading it soon. With authors, if I have read anything they wrote I might want to hear a podcast about them and if I have not read anything by them a general discussion of their work seems more interesting as an introduction than a discussion of just one book.
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Other than authors other topics that could make for interesting podcast discussions might be episodes that focus on a particular prize (either a general discussion of a longlist for a give year or even a discussion of trends in awards for a particular prize over many years). Discussions of literary trends could also be interesting as a more general subject. You could even combine an author / prize discussion by doing features on some perhaps lesser-known (to English readers) Nobel Prize winners of the past.
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I hope some of that helps.
Thanks — those comments are extremely helpful! I’m happy to say I’ve been leaning toward making this author-centric, so so far we are on the same page!
Messages here and elsewhere have been very helpful, and I’ve got plans that I think are solidly in place. So tonight I’ve already started getting some books I’ll need for the first episode!
I’ll post more details over at Patreon, but I’m excited to get this moving again!