I would love to see the permission culture in podfic change, when I started (for me at least) there was such a power imbalance between the podficcer and author. My permission requests were basically me falling all over myself telling the author all the reasons they could say no if they wanted to. My accent, my newness, their lack of knowledge about what podfic was, their general dislike of the idea. And that power imbalance hasn't really changed much, we're still at the authors mercy to either say yes, no or choose not to answer at all.

I kind of cringe to think of myself back then. People can say no if they want, obvs. But it felt very fraught and somewhat like they were doing me a favour.

And now I feel differently about it, authors aren't gods anymore. And I do feel like putting the onus on the podficcer to seek and find permission is a little hypocritical. Who on earth is it hurting if someone makes a fanvid/artwork/podfic/translation of your story?

I don't know how articulate all this is but I've word vomited enough for now. I liked your post!:)