Category Archives: Events

Marketing Funnels and MA Students

Recently, I spent a couple of hours with MA students at London’s City University as part of their module, Developing Creative Content.

I was asked to speak about being an indie author and particularly about marketing.

Now, I’m no marketing expert by any stretch of the imagination. Proof of that is the drawing at the top of this post by my global marketing friend explaining the concepts of the marketing funnel to me over a pint. But, as a result of his patience, a few pints and the penny dropping, I now get it.

It’s about letting people know you’re there, letting them try stuff for free and making a connection with those that like it. And, that’s what I’m doing.

Of course, there’s a shed load of marketing and sales advice out there so I focussed the talk on my own experiences, explaining what I’ve done and why.

As ever, when doing these sorts of things, I learned a lot from preparing the talk and a whole load more from the questions on the day. I was especially pleased with the invaluable insights the students gave me on the look and feel of my free offer.

So, firstly a big thanks to Brenda Stones from City University and secondly if you have students that want to hear from and question a real-life indie author, please drop me a line.

Brain zappers, artists, academics and me.

Brain hackers, brain professors, brain artists, the human brain project, a brain curious audience and me.

We were all there for the Virtual Futures Salon about NeuroStimulation.

It was my first ‘gig’ as the Author in Residence and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. The venue was a bar in Soho, London and the place was buzzing with conversation, debate and towards the end with electricity being zapped through some willing brains.

My story, written especially for the evening, is set in a call centre of the future and based on the notion that NeuroStimulation has become the everyday way of boosting your brain.

Check out the event and read my story – Everyday Stims – on the Virtual Futures’ website.


Boost the brain with a quick zap. Is this the future of the workplace? #SciFi #FlashFiction Click To Tweet

Would anarchy maintain the status quo?

A couple of weeks ago I spoke at the Greenbelt Festival on whether a mature and confident society should encourage people to opt-out; if we have a successful and attractive way of living (capitalism and consumerism) then the number of people wanting something different would be insignificant and we should go out of our way to accommodate them, rather than bully them into our way of thinking.

Exploring this idea led me down a number of paths you might find interesting: Continue reading