[7RQ] Tweet / WTF Marketing / Greenwich / Bradford

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GDPR LOL RT

My most popular tweet in years was a cheap meme gag sent two minutes before Monday’s Apple keynote event. By the time Tim Cook actually did walk out on stage it was already up at several hundred likes. Still, if the shoe fits…
https://twitter.com/AntonyJohnston/status/1003682399174217728
FREE AS IN NOPE

In conversation with my friend Glenn Fleishman the other day, on the evergreen freelancer’s gripe of being expected to work for free, I was reminded of an amusing incident from a few years ago.

Regular readers will know I was the scriptwriter on the videogame DEAD SPACE, which has come to be regarded as something of a classic and was credited with reviving the survival horror genre’s fortunes. It was a decade ago (yikes), but classics endure — to this day I still get asked about, and thanked for, my part in the game.

So it wasn’t a great surprise to be approached by a marketing company handling another big budget horror videogame, part of a very well-known multi-media franchise. As part of the game’s promotion, they wanted to make a ‘video outreach series’ of interviews with developers and writers of well-known horror games, explaining why we love the genre. These interviews would then be compiled into a video series used to promote their game on social media, gaming news websites, and so on.

Sure, I said, I can do that. What sort of fee are you offering?

Oh, he replied. Oh no, we won’t pay you. We just thought it would be cool for you to be involved, so you can demonstrate your love of the genre.

…

To clear, let me emphasise: this was not a game in which I had any involvement whatsoever. I'd never worked on it, had never been involved in any iteration of its franchise, or approached to do so.

So let me get this straight, I said. You want me to help you promote your enormously profitable multi-million-dollar game, in which I'm not involved at all... for free? Is that really what you're saying?

(Narrator: It was.)

Suffice to say, I did not make that video for them. I also never saw any interviews with the many other famous names they dropped in that first email. I mean it’s possible everyone else gladly took part and I just completely missed the marketing campaign…

(Amusing to anyone who knows them: two of those other names were Warren Ellis and Rick Remender, both of whom also worked on DEAD SPACE. I'll just let you imagine for yourself the reaction they probably got from Warren...)
Tech journalist, type historian, and two-time Jeopardy! winner Glenn Fleishman: https://twitter.com/glennf
Not quite the same thing, but if you've never seen Mike Monteiro's deservedly-infamous Creative Mornings talk Fuck You. Pay Me, now's your chance: https://creativemornings.com/talks/mike-monteiro--2/1
THE BEAST, PART 2

The second WASTELAND Compendium, a 620pp beast completing the epic post-apocalyptic saga, goes on sale July 11 — and that means you only have a little over a week to place a pre-order with your comic store. Give them order code MAR181798, and clear a couple of inches on your bookshelf.

(Of course you can buy it after the pre-order period. But this is a $40 book of immense size; don't bank on your comic store keeping a bunch on the shelf.)


RATINGS GAME

THE EXPHORIA CODE currently sits at 49 ratings and an average of 4.14 stars at Goodreads. If you've read and enjoyed it, but haven't rated it yet, now would be a really good time to do so and help push it over the 50-rating mark:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36599741-the-exphoria-code
(Of course, a rating on Amazon would be even better 😉)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0779FR5HG/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/178563061X/

SAT JUNE 16: GREENWICH BOOK FESTIVAL WORKSHOP

I'm running a workshop on writing graphic novels at the Greenwich Book Festival, using the ALEX RIDER graphic novels to explain how I go from prose to print, and encouraging the audience to create their own characters and stories. It's mostly aimed at kids, but adults (with or without their children) are also welcome — so long as they're willing to join in!
https://greenwichbookfest.com/2018-want-to-write-graphic-novels/#more-735

SAT JUNE 30: BRADFORD LITERATURE FESTIVAL

I'm appearing at the Bradford Literature Festival, being interviewed about ATOMIC BLONDE at 2.45pm on Saturday June 30 by David Barnett at the Norcroft Centre. He'll be asking me about the process of bringing the graphic novel to the screen, and according to the brochure, "the secrets of my success." LOL.

For the rest of that day and the Sunday, I'll also have a table at the festival's inaugural "ComiCo" event, alongside a bunch of other graphic novelists and cartoonists, where I'll be selling and signing my books and graphic novels. Do come along.
ATOMIC BLONDE event tickets: https://bradfordlitfest.ticketsolve.com/shows/1173587278

BLF twitter: http://twitter.com/bradfordlitfest

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