The Marks are at it again! Duck and Dive‘s cover refresh and my website are briefly discussed on the latest episode of the Bestseller Experiment podcast, along with how I’ve used emojis to give potential readers a flavour of what to expect. But, to put it in context I’m going to back it up for a minute…

This week’s podcast episode starts off normal enough with co-hosts Mark Stay and Mark Desvaux covering the weather, book updates, and writing habits. The wheels start coming off as they move on to Zoom backgrounds and a cardboard cut-out Boba Fett, before reminiscing about working in local video shops in their youth, including chat about Sister Act posters, the smell of sausages, and the awkwardness of renting out soft-core pornos.

Things start getting back on track once they hit the 12-minute mark in the lead up to the actual guest interview with Adele Geras, which is a great listen. This interview wraps up at about 37:30 when the two Marks spend some time reflecting on the interview before moving on to recent wins from their regular listeners.

First off the blocks is the publication of The Girl from the Island, the latest release from Lorna Cook, bestselling author of The Forgotten Village and The Forbidden Promise.

And then it’s me! 🥳 My brief mention is from the 49:50 mark, where the two Marks discuss how I approached our author group to get feedback on my redesigned book covers, and then how I’ve summarised what’s in my books with emojis on my website.

After that, there’s chat about the 200 Word a Day Challenge and the co-hosts’ co-authored novel, Back to Reality, which was written, published, and marketed during the first year of the podcast. Then they wrap things up with a brief discussion of ‘enhanced’ ebooks and TV adaptations.

You can listen to the full interview yourself by heading to Episode 312 on the Bestseller Experiment website and clicking play. If you want to jump straight to my brief mention, it’s at the 49:50 mark. I’ve included the transcript of the short segment below. Though, I do recommend a full listen!

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The Bestseller Experiment podcast, Episode 312, transcript from 00:49:50–00:51:30:

Mark Stay: Also happening on Patreon – and this has been absolutely fascinating – this is Gavin Ralph, who writes as G B Ralph, and he’s got a gay romcom novella series. He’s got Duck and Dive, Slip and Slide, Over and Out. And he’s been re-tweaking his covers. You know, we were talking about new titles and what have you, but he’s been working on his covers. And he was using the group to sort of beta test it, and he will put variants up there and get feedback from them and make changes accordingly. So he’s just relaunched his series. And it’s absolutely fascinating because I thought I’d go and have a look at his website, and his website is brilliant. It’s gbralph.com, and when you click on the books – you look down, each book has it’s own separate page. But he says, you know, here’s what you’ll find inside, and he’s got these little emojis of what you’ll find inside his books. And I think this is brilliant, so what you’ll find inside his first book Duck and Dive: banter, gays, romance, comedy, quiche—
Mark Desvaux: Quiche?
Mark Stay: Quiche!
Both: [Laughter]
Mark Stay: —coming out, nosy neighbours, funny old people, pleasant surprises, sculpted arms, shameless innuendo, and bingo. [Laughter]
Mark Desvaux: I mean, who doesn’t want to read that?
Mark Stay: Exactly! Go to gbralph.com, look at one of his books, and he’s got these wonderful sort of emojis there. I think it’s such a clever idea.
Mark Desvaux: Brilliant.
Mark Stay: It just sums everything up for you. So, you know, what are your emojis listeners? What emojis would you be using to describe your books? Let’s start a conversation about that. So, congrats on that G B Ralph. Brilliant stuff.

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Again, check out the interview on Episode 312 on the Bestseller Experiment website and, if you haven’t already, see what Duck and Dive is all about!