Introduction
It’s the two year anniversary of the date we launched the first episode of the Fantasy Inn podcast! (Technically just the trailer, but hey, it’s the thought that counts.) Continuing the tradition of accountability and transparency we started with 2020’s State of the Podcast, we’re back with a retrospective on the last year.
Podcast statistics, income, and expenses are shown for the last year, August 1, 2020 to July 31, 2021
Podcast Report
Statistics
In the last year, we’ve released a total of 46 episodes for a total of 36 hours of audio content. This includes interviews, discussions, panels, and crossover episodes with other podcasts, as well as our Patreon bonus episodes.
And as predicted last year, we’ve switched the podcast release schedule from weekly to biweekly. Frankly I’m amazed that the weekly schedule continued as long as it did, and with my first kid on the way it was time to cut back.
Episode Breakdown by Type
Past Guests
An updated list of all podcast guests can be found here.
Press Kit
If you’re interested in being a guest on the podcast or a publicist looking to schedule an author as a guest, check out our press kit for more information. Fair warning: we’re already booked through the rest of 2021 since I wanted a backlog of episodes to keep the podcast going while I was taking a break.
Audience Demographics
Note that the sample of audience members using Spotify is not necessarily representative of the total audience, and only around 14% of our downloads come from Spotify (see Spotify subscribers over time below). This is still a pretty big proportional increase in Spotify followers (up from last year’s 9% of total audience). The actual percentage may be a bit lower, since Apple changed how it’s subscribers are counted in April 2021.
This is the most in-depth data visible to us. We can’t see anything about specific users.
Podcast Growth
We had a little over 12,000 downloads in our first year, and roughly another 21,000 downloads this year. I’m showing the weekly episode downloads to stay consistent with last year’s data, but you can see how our transition to biweekly releases impacted our downloads by quite a bit.
The colored sticks at the bottom show when each episode was published. March had a bit of a spike, with five Tuesday episode releases and our second bonus episode.
Again, Spotify seems to account for roughly 14% of total episode downloads. I’m not sure how much I trust the Apple Podcasts numbers, though the main impact from Apple seems to be with podcast subscriber count, not episode downloads. There are other agents people used to listen to the podcast, but these were the most significant.
Look at that steady growth! Our Spotify followers grew by over 130% in the last year, which is just incredible. As you’ll probably understand from the next graph, I’m choosing to focus on the Spotify numbers.
Pinecast followers are always a little questionable, since they don’t have a direct way to count up followers from all the different podcast apps. Instead, they count how many apps have pinged the RSS feed each day, starting with zero and counting up with each ping until the day ends.
Our followers steadily increased through 2020, with a slight dip around November/December. Perhaps due to the holidays? Two things happened in April 2021. First, we switched to a biweekly schedule. Second (and my best theory to explain the huge drop in followers according to Pinecast) is that Apple changed how its apps ping RSS feeds on April 20th (date marked by red line). From talking with other Pinecast podcasters, this steep decline after April 20th seems fairly normal. Note that our Spotify followers continued to increase during this time.
Financial Report
Income & Expenses (Aug. 2020 – Jul. 2021)
Below is our income and expenses over the last year. A slightly more detailed breakdown of each income and expense type is shown after the overall summary below.
To date, the Fantasy Inn’s total income is -$1,067.26 (USD). But on the bright side, most of that was from the previous year, since our Patreon and ad sales have been offsetting the costs lately. We have no intentions at this time to ever actually turn a profit, so if we do break even and have a positive income in the future, our plan is to a) reinvest that in the blog and podcast and b) host regular book giveaways on Twitter.
Income
If you’re interested in having us read something on the podcast, check out our sponsorships, advertising, and message board page! We are happy to work with you if you cannot afford our listed prices and are always willing to do ad swaps with other podcasts. We also offer steep discounts to anyone purchasing more than one ad slot.
Expenses
The major expense this year was audio equipment. I just recently bought a professional-grade broadcast microphone (hopefully ending my obsession with researching new microphones), and Tam bought a high quality USB mic to improve his sound.
We also spent around $250 on episode transcriptions, some of which have been completed and some of which are still in progress (transcribing is a lot of work!).
The rest is mostly podcast hosting and the webcam stand I bought to improve the quality of the video interviews available to Patrons.
Patreon Update
We’ve published 30 Patron-exclusive posts in the last year, including:
- 1 Patron-exclusive episode: To DNF or Not to DNF
- 8 video interviews (including some podcast guests whose episodes have not aired yet!)
- 16 early-access episodes (which are also ad-free and higher resolution audio)
- 1 article detailing our behind-the-scenes processes
- 2 short video clips
- 1 short audio clip
- 1 media recommendation post
And of course if you feel like becoming a Patreon, you can visit www.patreon.com/thefantasyinn.
Goals Update
Several of our goals no longer make sense given how much everything has changed throughout 2020. We will be updating these in the future once thing settle down. And yes, I said that last year as well. To keep me accountable I’m listing the proposed tier changes here, so feel free to pester me if I haven’t updated our Patreon yet.
Our main goals with this update are to:
- Provide more value at lower tiers
- Be more realistic about the extra content we can actually provide
| Old | New | |
| $1 Tier | Our thanks | Our thanks Patron discord channels Patron-only posts |
| $2 Tier | Patron-only posts Patron discord channels | Early access to episodes Ad-free episodes |
| $3 Tier | Early access to episodes Bi-monthly book club 2x giveaway entries | Access to video content 2x giveaway entries |
| $5 Tier | Extended episodes Audio extras Vote in book club Suggest discussion topics Suggest interview guests and submit questions Listed on website as producer of the show 3x giveaway entries | Patron-only episodes Listed on website as producer of the show 3x giveaway entries |
| Goals | $5 – Podcast hosting $25 – Blog hosting $50 – Remote recording software $75 – Quarterly book giveaways $100 – Audio equipment upgrade $200 – Theme music $250 – Transcriptions $300 – Monthly giveaways! $500 – Hire an audio editor $1000 – Live con performances | $5 – Podcast hosting $25 – Blog hosting $50 – Quarterly book giveaways $75 – Hire episode transcriptionist(s) $100 – Bi-monthly book giveaways $150 – Mail guests headset mics for high quality audio $250 – Pay guests nominal fee for coming on the show $500 – Hire an audio editor |
Looking Back, Looking Forward
Lessons Learned
- Weekly episodes aren’t feasible in the long run, especially when I’m trying to build a backlog of episodes to keep the podcast active while I’m focusing on being a new dad.
- Really nice mics are worth saving up for and buying early rather than upgrading incrementally
- Overcommitting to Patron perks and not offering Patrons enough value is not a great idea
- Open Broadcaster Software does wonders for video recording quality
- Free virtual mixers like Voicemeeter are awesome. The actual figuring out of how to use them will hopefully come this year.
Last Year’s Goals – Accountability Check
- Prioritize BIPOC and LGBTQ+ interview guests. We’ve already taken steps to improve this but our guests are often booked months in advance. We’re stating this goal here to hold ourselves accountable.
- We went from 0% nonbinary guests to 15%, 16% BIPOC to 29%, and 16% LGBTQ+ to 37%. I’m thrilled with that trend and hope to do even better next year. Note that these numbers are the result of a retrospective analysis of our guests.
- More panel episodes like our Worldbuilding and Book Cover Design episodes. With all the online conventions taking place, an occasional audio panel for people on the go seems like a good target.
- E61: How to Run an Online Convention with L.D. Lewis, Allie Charlesworth, and Adri Joy
- E69: Editor Roundtable with Diana Pho and Nivia Evans
- E74: Podcast Critics Roundtable with Wil Williams and Elena Fernández Collins
- Episodes dealing with the business side of the industry (editing, marketing, agents, convention planning, etc.).
- We had one episode covering editing with some absolutely brilliant editors.
- More collaborative episodes with other creators.
- E47: How We Talk About Books with David Walters from FanFiAddict and Calvin Park from the Under a Pile of Books podcast
- E70: Let’s Talk About Legend with Daniel Greene and Bobby from the A Fictional Conversation podcast
- E71: The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water with Luke and Dan from the Don’t Call it a Book Club podcast
Future Goals
- Continue to prioritize BIPOC and LGBTQ+ guests.
- More panels, collaborations, and other multi-guest episodes.
- Maybe we could talk about a book again? It’s been a while.
- More Inn episodes (time zones and spoons are hard, y’all).
- More Patron exclusive content (private episodes, video interviews, and more)
Closing Comments
It’s been another rough year for all of us. Hopefully the podcast has brought you a fraction of the amount of joy we’ve found in making it.
