Pod-Together 2026 Rules

[shmaylor]

Welcome to pod_together, a challenge where writers and podficcers create together—the writer creating text specifically intended for audio, and the podficcer creating the audio.

You can sign-up as a solo writer or podficcer and be matched into a partnership or group, or you can sign-up as an established partnership or group.

While we encourage participants to read the FAQ, here are the basic rules you need to know going in:

Basic Rules

Minimum Length
The minimum length is 1000 words or 10 minutes of audio. A project is only required to meet one of these minimums, and it can be met by either a single longer work or multiple shorter works.

Final Product
While this challenge primarily produces stories, as long as your submission is a collaboration with an audio component and all group members are happy, the form your submission takes is up to you. This means that meta, filk, or non-narrative poetry, for example, are possible end products.

Remember: This should be a collaboration, with partners communicating with each other and working together across the event. The purpose of this event is to co-create, not to just have a fic generated for you to read or to have a podfic guaranteed to be made for your fic. And while it's an equal partnership, ultimately the writer gets the final say over the words of the work and the podficcer gets the final say over the audio.

Content and Tagging Rules
We have two content moderation rules, and one former rule that is now a strong suggestion. Please make sure you read them before signing up, and let us know any questions you have about them at any point during this round of Pod-Together!

Check-ins
There are 3 mandatory check-ins for those who were matched by mods (those who used Match Maker Sign-ups). Check-ins help you make sure you’re on track to meet your deadlines, give partners specific times to inform each other of progress, and also open up conversations so you can let us know how to best support you. In addition to checking in with mods at this time, participants are required to share their rough drafts/work in progress with their partner(s) at each check-in.

Extensions and Deadlines
Each participant can receive a maximum extension of 7 days past their deadline. If you request an extension, please tell us how long you would like that extension to be. Up to 3 days will be granted automatically to everyone, and extensions of up to 7 days will be granted automatically to those who used Group Sign Ups. For those who used Match Maker Sign Ups, if extensions of 4–7 days are needed, please include a plan for how you intend to finish within that time.

To request an extension, send an email to pod.together@gmail.com or DM a mod via Discord.

After requesting an extension, you should receive a confirmation from mods when the extension request has been received and approved. If you haven’t gotten a message confirming the date of your extension within 24 hours, please follow up.

Failing to meet the date of your extension counts as an automatic drop-out.

If you miss a deadline without requesting an extension, you will be sent a reminder email and be given a 48 hour grace period in which to meet the deadline. Failing to meet the deadline after the grace period counts as an automatic drop-out. In case of such an event, your partner will be offered a pinch hit and your project will no longer be part of the modded challenge. There are no long term consequences for dropping out! You are still welcome to complete your project and submit it as a Party Favor if you’d like.

Posting
All projects will be posted to AO3, so you will need an AO3 account. If you need help setting one up, feel free to reach out to the mod team at pod.together@gmail.com.

If the audio and text are in the same AO3 post, the audio should be at the top. If the audio and text are in separate posts, they should link to each other at the top.

Groups cannot use a text (or podfic) that has been previously posted, unless it is revised significantly enough to merit a new, separate post that will go up during pod_together reveals.

Reveals happen across the course of ten days, with a few podfics from the collection revealed each day. Mods will make and post a reveal schedule before the first day of reveals.

Audio Hosting
Your podfic must be available for listening in both streaming and mp3 download formats. A streaming player directly on the AO3 post is highly recommended, but not required. Our posting instructions link to tutorials that we hope will help with this, and participants are also welcome to ask for support at any time on the Pod_Together Discord! Another option is that we can host your audio for you at paraka's website.

If you wish to remove your component of the project at a later date, you are free to do so, but you may not take down your partner’s work without their consent. For those hosting with paraka, if you ever want/need to have a file taken down, please email pod.together@gmail.com.

Notable changes previous years of this challenge

Last year, we used a separate form for participants to tell us whether they wanted to opt into getting email versions of everything we posted to our Dreamwidth. This year, we're going back to having it be a question on the sign-up form, and the question will be about opting out (meaning the default will be to get the emails unless someone actively chooses not to). We will include a reminder that opting out of the emails means you are committing to monitoring our Dreamwidth or the #announcements channel in our Discord for that information.

We have added reminders in several places that communication with your partner is expected during pod-together, and that if unexpected life events crop up that make that no longer possible, it's important to let your partner and the mods know as soon as you can so that they can be assigned a pinch hit. This is vastly preferable to trying to finish when you're not going to be able to be reliably communicative and engaged with your partner throughout the process.

Timeline

Monday June 1st Sign-ups open.
Saturday June 13th Sign-ups close.
Sunday June 14th Assignments go out to everybody from Match Maker Sign-ups.
Monday June 15th through Friday June 19th Icebreaker week.
Sunday July 5th Check-in #1.
Sunday July 19th Check-in #2.
Wednesday July 22nd Early writing submission date.
Sunday July 26th All writing due.
Sunday August 9th Check-in #3; text must be posted to AO3 collection.
Wednesday August 19th Early podfic submission date.
Sunday August 23rd All podfic due.
Thursday August 27th Reveals start.
Saturday September 5th Reveals end, Party Favors due.
Sunday September 6th Party Favors revealed.
Saturday September 12th through Sunday September 13th Weekend Jamfest listening and commenting event.