Story Valley went live on Spotify: what's my plan here?

I made the commitment, and there's no turning back now. Right now I'm on such a roll with content creation that I feel unstoppable. I've mentioned a few times in past posts that I'd launch a fifth podcast channel, and that's Story Valley.

Read also: My entire podcast and distribution plan, now, later, and tomorrow

The concept is dead simple: stories for kids learning A1 to A2 English. Three to four minute recordings, nothing more complicated than that.

Fourteen episodes in a weekend

Over the weekend I wrote the scripts (with the assistance of AI) and had fourteen episodes ready to record. I wanted to see how much time the whole process would take, from recording to uploading.

Read also: Monday preparations, good to go for the week

It took about two hours to record twelve of the fourteen. I didn't time it precisely, but I recorded all of them in one sitting.

It's a nice change of pace from developing and fixing bugs in a SaaS. I don't see it as a chore. It's more of a healthy switch that keeps me from burning out.

Right now I've got two episodes live, with the rest scheduled one every two days for now.

The plan to hit 365

Eventually I want to record 365 episodes, one for every day of the year. Given how much time twelve episodes took, that doesn't feel unreasonable anymore. But I needed a time buffer first to stay ahead of the schedule.

Part of the reason is that I'm moving into a new home soon, which deserves its own post I'm not getting into here. Looking at my Spotify Creator dashboard, I'm scheduled through October 5th. By then, I should be fully moved in with my desk set up.

Finding my rhythm as a narrator

What I'm still working on is finding my rhythm, getting into the role of a narrator for kids. It's a completely different skill than narrating B1 to B2 stories for adults.

The pace is just as slow, but thinking back on the recordings so far, I should be emphasizing more when a character is talking to someone else or asking a question.

Kids need that clarity to learn properly, and it's the hardest part for me right now.

At first I was nervous. As a non-native English speaker, my pronunciation has to be on point for something aimed at kids. I think it'll get better the more I do this across all five channels.

Subscribers, and the honest numbers

I'm also wondering if I can build up enough subscribers on Spotify. Looking at the numbers on one published episode, the average is only four listens. That's a little discouraging, but it's not going to stop me.

Story Valley will also go out on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, and the other distribution channels. That part is automatic once an episode airs on Spotify.

What's still missing?

Right now, the only place Story Valley is mentioned is as part of Study Brew, which is true, but I think it deserves its own website. I don't have the brain space to build one yet.

I'm still deep in fixing bugs and doing a full check on my flagship SaaS. Once that's done, I think I can spend two days building the site.

Read also: Docs editor SaaS refinements: it's more work than I thought

I also need to check the law around data analytics and disclaimers, since this is content aimed at kids and I don't want to cause trouble.

The plan, simplified

• Record more stories

• Plug the feed into Apple Podcasts and the rest

• Create more characters (right now it's just two, Sara and Lucy the Cat)

• Build a simple website so I can add transcripts

• Expand to YouTube

• Keep recording until I hit 365

I'm honestly a little amazed at how far ahead I already am, and how quickly I got back on track after just one weekend of writing.

This post is also going to serve as a benchmark, something to look back on once Story Valley has its own site and its own shape.

For now, it's four minutes at a time, two hours a weekend, and Sara and Lucy the Cat slowly finding their voice.