Podcast: The Bestseller Experiment

Join author and screenwriter Mark Stay with coach, entrepreneur and recording artist Mark Desvaux, as they discover the secrets to writing a bestseller and challenge themselves and you to write, market and self-published a bestselling book in just one year. Each week, they are guided by and interview million-selling, chart-topping authors, publishers on the inside, editors, agents, social media specialists, and many more big names who play a part in the bestseller process. From the writing to marketing, plotting to publishing, learn the secrets to help you write your way to the top of the charts.

EP451: Scarlett Brade — “Take Those First Steps”

Scarlett Brade was born in London, but as a child she spent her summers in Toronto where she fell in love with reading. She self-published her first novel aged twenty-three, but then decided to experience life a little more before returning with her am…

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EP450: Deep Dive — Knowing your Readers

Kelly Weekes answers listener questions on discovering who your readers are in a conversation that takes in social media, comparable authors, visualising your readers, writing to market, goals, pain points,

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EP449: Sue Watson — “You’re Looking for the Answers”

Sue Watson was BBC TV producer until she wrote her first novel and was hooked. Now she’s a USA Today bestselling author and has sold over a million copies, but that success came as a second act in a writing career where she switched from romcoms to thr…

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EP448: Jonathan Whitelaw — “Turn The Idea on its Head.”

Jonathan Whitelaw started out as a journalist, writing darkly satirical fiction on his commute to work. Jonathan tells us how he went from thinking that he could never write a crime novel, to creating a new cosy crime series with The Bingo Hall Detecti…

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EP447: Jessie Keane — “Don’t Be Afraid.”

Jessie Keane has Romany heritage and her Gran — who had ’the sight’ — foretold that that Jesse would not only write, but be famous for it. 6.5 million copies later and with each book becoming a Sunday Times top ten bestseller,

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EP446: Katy Brent — “Doing Something Meaningful”

Katy Brent is an award-winning journalist whose debut novel How To Kill Men and Get Away With It is perfect for fans of How To Kill Your Family and Killing Eve. Katy tells us how the novel evolved from a fun idea to something that drew on the Me Too mo…

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EP445: Amita Parikh — “Don’t Be a Victim.”

Amita Parikh’s debut novel The Circus Train took six years to write and has been earning praise worldwide, but it might never had happened if she hadn’t found herself lost in London, asking for directions. Amita tells us how she bounced back from rejec…

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EP444: Deep Dive — Experiments with ChatGPT with Jeevani Charika

Jeevani Charika is the author of Playing for Love, Picture Perfect and more, but she’s also a scientist and has been experimenting with ChatGPT to discover if writers should fear our AI Overlords or embrace them.

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EP443: JS Monroe — “Weird Alchemy”

JS Monroe worked as a foreign correspondent in Delhi, becoming a full-time writer. His psychological thriller Find Me became a bestseller in 2017, and, under the name Jon Stock, he is also the author of five spy thrillers.

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EP442: Deep Dive — Bookouture with Jenny Geras

In this special deep dive episode we speak to Jenny Geras, Managing Director at Bookouture. Jenny tell us what it is that makes this innovative digital first publisher so different, and she answers our listener questions on submissions,

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