Tag: facebook

Metadata and other mysteries…

Howdy hey!

Yes, that’s the BBC microphone muffler I found in the gutter in Oxford Circus last week…

I mention this as it’s one of the many highlights from last week’s Bestseller experiment live show that are now available to plug directly into your earholes via the medium of podcast. Click here for audio fun time.

Thanks to snowmaggeddon I had to record this one at home, but the usually flaky BT broadband actually held up and a splendid time was had by all. We discussed…

  • The dark secrets of metadata and how you can make it work for your books
  • How you can make a blog work harder
  • Tips for when you’re stuck on your outline
  • Why you should celebrate weaknesses
  • The pros and cons of present tense versus past tense
  • We discover what “brain tabs” are, and we discuss top tips for avoiding distractions while writing

The question from Edward Kane on tenses was a fun one to answer, though I’ve since realised that my erudite rambling could be cut down to two simple principles:

The present tense works better for unreliable narrators

The past tense works better for reliable narrators

And the less we will say about the future tense the better*

And here’s a link to the Action Force Palitoy book we mentioned in our conversation about crowdfunding. It really is ace, if that’s your thing.

And speaking of crowdfunding… did you know that Betseller Experiment listeners get 10% off when they pledge for my new book The End of Magic? Go here, click pledge and type bestsellerxp when prompted.

Oh, and Dominic did me a new sting…!

Thank you and till next time, happy writing!

Until next time, happy writing!

Mark
*I made a bad grammar joke! Am I not funny?
PS. That novel I wrote with Mark Desvaux is still getting lovely reviews. Grab your copy here and tell us what you think.
PS. Oh, and if you want to support our work on the podcast, we now have a Patreon. Do please support us and we can keep this crazy train rolling.

Five days to go!

In the third of our daily mini-episodes in the run-up to publication of Back to Reality (out on October 16th!) we look at Beta readers and reviews and how to cope with feedback.

You can definitely hear the mania beginning to set in with this episode. We recorded all of these on one night last week, and it was around the third episode that our banter became babble… but there’s some great stuff here. Our beta group on Facebook has been incredible: they have forensic attention to detail and they’re wonderfully supportive, which we really need as we careen towards our publication date (DID I MENTION THAT IT’S OUT ON OCTOBER 16TH???).

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW…

Robot Overlords UK trailer, poster and release date

Well, it’s been all go the last couple of weeks and I thought a quiet Sunday afternoon might be the best time to summarize the latest Robot Overlords news.

First, we have at last a UK release date of 27th March and a trailer:

And a quad poster to go with it (clicken to enlargen):

RO Quad Poster

We also have an official Facebook page, and I’ve started collating images from the film and the book over on Pinterest.

And the book is out this week, too, so there’ll be quite a few interviews and blog pieces from me over the next few weeks.

We’re very nearly there: after over four years of writing, filming and post-production, the film will finally be out in the wild. It’s a thrilling and slightly terrifying feeling: like sending one of your kids off to school for the first time. Hopefully the other kids will play nice…

As soon I have more new of the UK release I’ll post it here, in the meantime check out this clip over at Empire online. It features one of my favourite bits of Christian Henson’s score, so play it loud…