Ask the Author

[M@.Price]

I never thought graphic novels were any good, until the Alex Rider by Anthony Horowitz adaption came out. They are a great side along companion to the books, you read the books and flick through the relative parts of the graphic novel at the same time. It really helps bring the adventure to life.

 

[Mark Robson]

I've not noticed those, Matt. I'll have a look next time I'm in a book shop ... which won't be long, I'm sure!

 

[scalem X]

I always find it weird when english people talk about graphic novels. In Belgium they are massive. They outsell novels for sure.
I have around a thousand and most households have at least a hundred or some hundreds. Everything that sells gets made into graphic novels (boybands, tv-series, stand up comedians), but not books. We have anthologies of graphic novels and magazines doing sequences of multiple comics. Do you have those in the UK? Sorry maybe I should ask this in a seperate thread.

 

[Threddy]

when you self-published forging of the sword, did you have to invest quite a lot of money and hope you'd make some money out of it or what?
Ed - Threddy

 

[Mark Robson]

Threddy, when I started I did invest a lot of money - about £6000 actually - but I didn't expect to make money. I treated Sword Publishing as a hobby. People spend money on hobbies and I expected this hobby to be rather an expensive one! Of course I was always going to get some of my money back, but I was willing to lose a lot of it for the fun of getting my book into print. I was really keen to see if people would actually enjoy my writing.

As the book began to sell quite well ... then the idea that I might actually make money from my hobby started to kick in, but that was not for some time.

 

[M@.Price]

How did you publish? Who actually printed the books?

 

[Mark Robson]

I used a company called Technographic, who are based near Colchester, Matt. I've developed a good relationship with them over the past few years, so although I could probably get the books printed more cheaply elsewhere, I would be very reluctant to change now.

 

[Threddy]

Hi, a while back, not sure how long ago, you said your agent was going to get in touch witht he film industry.
How far have you got with this?
Ed - Threddy

 

[Mark Robson]

Your question is quite timely - I must speak with him about this again soon. The bottom line is, however, that until I get a book deal in the US and get some of my titles on the shelves over there, I doubt very much whether anything productive will come of the interest that has been shown to date. I wouldn't hold your breath for a film for a while yet.

 

[M@.Price]

That ties in well with a question I was going to ask
Have you had any offers or hints of interest from the states?

 

[Mark Robson]

Hints, yes. Offers, no. Not yet. I live in hope that sometime this year I will be able to give a different answer.

 

[M@.Price]

well i wish you good fortune in that wish

 

[Threddy]

Hi Mark,
Can you come to our school(Henry Box, Witney) and do a talk and a workshop?
It would be really good - I thought I might ask my English teacher to think about booking you.
Ed - Threddy

 

[Mark Robson]

Hi, Threddy. I'd be delighted to come, but you'll have to get your teachers to approach me directly in order to make it happen. I should warn you that my diary is already fully booked until the Autumn ... and that is filling fast! The earliest I would be likely to come is October unless I get any cancellations.

 

[Threddy]

October?! One of your websites is out of date. It said that you were booked until June.
I'll have to suggest it to my English teacher at some point, but she's quite scary!

 

[M@.Price]

You may well have posted this somewhere, but I can't find anything.
Do you have an official idea of when the next book is released? And if your visitng cribbs again?

 

[Mark Robson]

4th August, Matt. And yes, I'll be coming back to Cribbs later in the year, but I'm not sure when yet.

 

[Lilly]

hi, its been along time since i was on the forum.. veternary science does not allow times for such luxuries!
anyways do have any idea if any of your books are going to find there way to South Africa??? i have to;d alot of my friends about the Darkweaver books and they all seem very keen... i have lent them out but unfortunatly 1 book cant be in 10 different places at once!!!!
Hope everything is going well!!!

 

[Mark Robson]

Hello, Lilly. Nice to see you here again. I'm afraid I still have no news about whether my books will find their way to South Africa. I might have more positive news after the Bologna book fair next week. We'll have to wait and see.

 

[Dylan]

Hey Mark, my first post so better make it a good one. I've just finished Imperial Traitor and ive noticed that theres material to make a 4th do have any intentions to do so? Also i loved the fact you brought Calvyn into the equation, amazing it was like reuniting old friends.