Mark Stay's Blog, page 23

Everything you need to know to publish and market your book…

A bold claim! Come along to the Maidstone Literary Festival this Saturday for a double event with me and Kelly Weekes. My talk is titled ‘You’ve Written Your Novel… Now What?’ and I cover…

Being an author in 21st centuryHow to earn a living from writingThe pros and cons of traditional and self publishingThe different kinds of publishersAnd how to sustain a career as a writer…Q&A…

Then Kelly’s event covers finding readers and forming a marketing plan that resonates with your audience! The good folk at Madistone Literary Festival are offering a special reduced priced for tickets if you go to both events. Grab yours here.

MCM Comic Con, London 27th-29th October, 2023

I’m going to have a table at the MCM Comic Con the whole weekend where I’ll be selling and signing copies of all my books and there will be a few surprises too (I still have loads of Holly King chocolate to give away!). So pop along for a chat or come and get your books signed.

I’ll also be at the following panels…

We’re always told to “write what we know” but satirists have always excelled in using other worlds to hold up a funhouse mirror to the foibles of our own world. Join Mark Stay (The Holly King), Gabby Hutchinson Crouch (Darkwood), David Wragg (The Hunters), Eddie Robson (Drunk on All Your Strange New Worlds) and Thomas D. Lee (Perilous Times) as they discuss the challenges and joys of writing fantastic comedy fiction.
Sat, Oct 28, 2023 • 5:00 PM – 5:45 PM
Location: Creator Stage

This will be followed by a signing at the Forbidden Planet stall:
Author Signing – Humour in Fantasy and Fiction
Sat, Oct 28, 2023 • 6:00 PM – 6:45 PM
Location: Author Signings

Are you ready to publish your book, but you’re not sure where to turn? One option chosen by an ever-increasing number of writers is to self-publish. Join this panel of experts as they discuss the process of, and challenges and opportunities, presented by independent publishing.

Sun, Oct 29, 2023 • 3:00 PM – 3:45 PM
Location: Creator Stage

A Jolly Good Time at the Holly King Launch!

Had an amazing night launching The Holly King at Waterstones Canterburytonight. A huge thank you to everyone who came, to Claire for the cakes, Emilyfor the photos, and Merlin and Katie (aka Raven) for looking so amazing and for their incredible gift of a Holly King staff. And thanks of course to Martin and the gang at Waterstones! Still buzzing.

A captive audience. Literally. We locked them in. Wot?? Fiona from the academy! Malcolm, aka FMA Dixon! A signed copy for Raven. Claire, Merlin and Raven. With Andy who designs my short story covers and animations. Raven and the Holly Staff she gave to me! Overacting again…

Ten Years On: Robot Overlords Financiers’ Screening

Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the filming of Robot Overlords. Some of the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here). 

Such a pivotal day for the film, and looking back it’s strange that we didn’t do better with it in the end. I guess the lesson to learn is to be wary of excitement and hype, but my memories of that day were that we bloody loved it and it was going to be a smash…

Thursday 26th September – Molinare, London – Financiers’ screening

Today saw the financiers’ screening of Our Robot Overlords. Jon warned me that these can be brutal affairs, where the money people wonder why they bothered to invest in the first place, and who the hell hired these clowns and I don’t understand the ending, so let’s go straight to DVD and cut our losses.

I didn’t need to be there, but it was being shown on the big screen in (post-production facility) Molinare’s in Soho and I wanted to take notes for the book.

Jon and Matt were both outwardly calm, but nervous. Piers arrived with an infectious energy about him, which definitely helped the mood. The financiers started arriving soon after. People from NI Film, Pinewood, Steve Milne from Molinare, Natascha Wharton and Jamie Wolpert from the BFI, and our sales team and producers Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar.

What I saw was a much slicker cut of the film with a few VFX and pre-viz sequences. It’s far from finished or perfect, but it’s really feeling like a movie. There were cheers at SBK’s death scene and effusive applause at the end, and I blubbed a bit.

The lights came up and Tim gave Jon a bearhug and congratulated him on a job well done.

There were one or two notes, but nothing unfixable and that we hadn’t considered ourselves already. It could not have gone better and we were all buzzing afterwards. Already people were talking about sequels, TV shows, games and even theme park rides! If all goes to plan I could end up writing nothing but robots for the next ten years, but I don’t think I have a problem with that… yet.

As an added bonus the new issue of Total Film arrived. SBK was interviewed and mentioned Robots as one of a number of ‘wonderful scripts’ he’s worked on. I am currently floating on air.

Oh, and I spotted dad and Lou McGhie in the film. Claire, Emily and I are still in it. No sign of George*.

*He’s in it, behind Tamer Hassan when he’s just fired the shotgun. We just weren’t looking hard enough.

Just a few days before I was chatting to Tom Fickling about doing a comic strip adaptation with The Phoenix comic (which is a terrific comic if you’ve not encountered it before) and the talk of theme park rides wasn’t just a flippant remark. Our financiers knew people who could make these things happen. A few weeks after this my agent said one of the financiers was ready to pay for a sequel script (that money never arrived) and everyone thought that Sky would be interested in a TV series. All we needed was for the film to get wide distribution backed with proper marketing and it would be a smash! Hmm…

One big note that we did get from this screening that plagued us over the coming months was to add an expository voiceover from The Mediator character at the beginning. Looking back, I regret caving to this request. It has the poor viewer doing sums in their head as they try and figure out how long the robots have been here and how long it is before they go etc… None of it’s important and the mystery would have made them all the more enigmatic. Hey ho, you live and learn! But despite all that’s happened since, this was an amazing day and I really was floating on air and anything seemed possible. I guess another lesson is to enjoy those moments when they come along, because there haven’t been that many since!

Pure Writing with Jesse Sutanto

We regularly hear from people on the podcast who struggle to find time to write. I think this is because writing is romanticised as this thing where you shut yourself away from the world for an intense period of time, then emerge blinking into the sunlight with a perfectly formed novel.

Jesse Sutanto revealed her secret in this week’s Bestseller Experiment podcast: pure writing. That is, four 15-minute sessions dotted through the day where she doesn’t even stop to take a sip of water. Working this way she manages to finish a draft of a novel in two months. So if you’ve been struggling to make time then maybe give it a go… Even just one fifteen minute session a day could make all the difference.

The episode is a corker and Jesse is a delight. We also discuss writing about specifics that become universal, Terry Pratchett and Oprah Winfrey and much more. And in the extended edition for our Patreon supporters and Academy members I dig into world building. Bring your shovel and support the podcast here.

DO, meet your heroes

The adage “Never meet your heroes, for if you do, it will always disappoint” has been ingrained into us over many years. Yet, I find myself in strong…

DO, meet your heroes

Talking UNWELCOME with On The Slab

Had a great time chatting about UNWELCOME with Greg Flanagan for the On The Slab show. We discuss viewer reactions to the film, working with the actors to develop their characters, why we definitely need more banshee movies and much more…

Tip-Top TikToker and Author Suzie Edge

Suzie Edge has been a listener and supporter of the Bestseller Experiment podcast for many years, so it’s been such a joy seeing her rise to fame as an amazing TikTok star and a bestselling author. Her new book is Vital Organs, which delves (if that’s the right word) into history’s most extraordinary body parts. Suzie is great fun as always and regales us with some very icky historical stories and lets us know what it was like to release Mortal Monarchs, a book about dead royals, when real royals were actually dying!

And in the extended version for Academy members and podcast Patrons, Suzie answers listener questions on creating TikTok content that increases her following, balancing writing and social media, and much more! You can listen to that by becoming a supporter of the podcast here.

Indiana Jones and the Cup of the Vampire on Authorized

It’s always a treat to go on the Authorized Podcast, but this was a different and extra special episode for two reasons: instead of film novelisation, we were discussing a choose-your-own-adventure book called Indiana Jones and the Cup of the Vampire, and secondly because my son George joined for this episode. To discover why you’ll just have to tune in (not that people actually ‘tune in’ to podcasts, but you get what I mean) and you will also be rewarded with some excellent insight to the Club Penguin phenomenon…

The Holly King is out TODAY

As if I haven’t been banging on enough about this, but… THE HOLLY KING is out today!

Here’s a whole bunch of links on the Witches of Woodville website. Click on the order button and you should see a whole plethora of retailers pop up. Depending on your browser and device you might need to scroll down a wee bit.

Of course if you want a signed paperback you can get that from me here.

And in the last few minutes it’s been launched on Kindle in the USA and Canada.

A huge thank you to everyone who’s read it and shared my social media posts or left a review or rating. These things really do make a difference.

Right… better get back to writing book five!