The Carnage report was lucky enough to catch up with Benjamin Wallace, author the the 'Dumb White Husbands' series and this was the result, enjoy!!!
What got you into writing?'
I can’t recall anything specifically
that got me interested in writing. It’s just what
I always wanted to do. I’ve always loved books, movies, comics, radio shows—stories of any kind. And, to me, it just made sense that anything
I enjoyed observing might be something
I’d enjoy doing. I was never comfortable
just being a fan of something. I always wanted to try my hand at it as well. This didn’t work out so
well for my rock star ambitions and you’re probably
aware that I’m not a world famous race car driver but writing and just plain making things up was something I
never stopped loving.
Do have any influences
in your writing or work?
My influences come more from outside
of the literary world. I grew up watching
the comedies that always make the top 100 list and they, no doubt, shaped my sense of humor. Harold
Ramis, Steve Martin, Pat Proft and all of those
guys probably had more influence on my writing than Hemingway or Adams did. Them and the writers of SNL
from the mid-80’s to early 90’s. I should probably throw a little
credit to sleep deprivation as well.
In a blog on your site,
you wrote about your time spent on marketing as opposed to writing, who do you
think you could redress the balance?
Hopefully, I can. We’re about to
launch a new advertising agency that will specialize
in book marketing. We’ve been pouring over marketing surveys and have found a lot of interesting things that
lead us to believe that we’ve been marketing
books the wrong way. Authors put a lot of time into blog tours, Goodreads and social media sites for
very little return. We think a mix of traditional advertising and new ideas can take the
marketing burden off of authors so
they can spend more time writing.
What do you think about
the current self-publishing revolution?
I can’t remember another industry
shift that popped up and started granting
so many wishes and making so many
dreams come true. That is from the author’s
perspective, of course. I know it was bumpy for readers for a few years, but it seems that the gold rush
mentality has faded and the authors that
are left in the game are those that are truly dedicated
to the craft. I think this has lead to better books and a better experience for everyone.
If there were changes
you could make to the publishing industry, what changes would you make?
Can we tone down the snippy remarks
from both sides? I could do with less snooty comments from the traditional publishers. And the indies need to drop the David and Goliath bit. After
that we’ll all meet in the middle, shake hands
as authors and marketers and figure out what works best from both sides to start connecting readers to
great stories.
What do you think of the
use by authors of social media as it has been less than communication and more
about selling?
This is one of things I was talking
about in regards to our wasted efforts. Only 4%
of readers have ever bought a book because of something they saw on Twitter. But, I’m going to say 132%
of my timeline has become tweets about books. You can find readers on Twitter but
it’s by being social and not blasting ads at them.
That’s how you lose readers. We should keep social media social.
It’s better for everyone that way.
Would agree that the
internet has made marketers of all of us ?
Absolutely. With Facebook we finally
get to present our friends with the perfect
version of ourselves. We selectively share the message and photos of our life to help craft the world’s
opinion of us. Except for the people that play Candy
Crush. They don’t give a damn what anyone thinks or who they annoy.(And I’m as guilty of that as the
next person).
Do you have a particular
writing process?
I’m what some people call a
putter-inner. I outline pretty extensively and then I blaze through a bare-bones first draft as fast as I can. The
second draft sees the addition of
description and grown-up sounding sentences. Then it goes to my proofreader and my wife. They’re both
great at finding things that don’t make
sense I’ve tried writing a lot of other
ways but this is the way that works best for me. It also helps if it’s dark out. I’ll
usually hit a stride right when it’s time to go to bed, because my muse either hates me or loves coffee.
How do you fight
procrastination, the scourge of every
writer?
I trick myself. There are a lot of
things I like to do. I like to draw and I’ve convinced
myself that I can draw things people like. When the words aren’t flowing, I’ll stop and draw something. Sure,
I’m still procrastinating, but it makes
me think I’m being productive. The fear of not moving forward frustrates me and makes me
procrastinate even more. If I can convince myself I’m getting something done, I avoid that downward spiral.
I’m also pretty easy to trick.
What do you prioritize, character or plot?
My ideas almost always start with
plot but the characters take over quickly. My
plots aren’t really unique. Few are. What I enjoy is taking a genre story and placing ill-equipped characters
in the middle of them. Sure, I could write a
regular zombie story with all kinds of awesome violence, but I find it a lot more fun to write a regular zombie
story and throw three bickering suburban dads
in the middle of it. Their perspective is going to make it a lot more interesting and unique than just another
retelling of the Walking Dead. Funnier,
too.
Most people can name the
best book they have read, can you name the worst?
I hesitate to because I think that
every book has an audience. That’s what makes
the self pub revolution great. Readers can find the kind of book that speaks to them even if it doesn’t
speak to anyone else. For years I went looking for funny
books. There was Douglas Adams, Christopher
Moore and a few others but it was really hard to find funny novels. It turns out
that funny is hard to market, so publishers didn’t really put a lot of funny fiction out
there.
But that’s not what you asked and I
won’t flake out. I wanted to start reading Harry Turtledove’s alternate history books. I started with World War: In The Balance. I tried to read it several times and
then just gave up. I couldn’t get past
the writing or the story and the alien race probably had a Deux Ex Machina generator on their ship. I’m sure
he’s great. I’m sure the book is fine. It
just wasn’t happening for me. It’s really too bad that a bad book
can’t be enjoyed on the same level as a bad movie.
Final Question, what are
you working on now?
I’m finishing up the Dumb White
Husbands vs Zombies story that I began as a serial
this summer. After that it’s a sequel to Post-Apocalyptic Nomadic Warriors. That’s been a long time
coming and folks are starting to get pushy. We’re
also looking to launch the book marketing agency, Monkey Paw Creative, soon. Those are the main
things, but I’m always playing around with something
or other on my Facebook page and Twitter and dumbwhitehusband.com
and ... okay, I’m starting to act like a kitten with a ball of yarn, but, you have to trust me, it’s all fun stuff. If
it wasn’t, what would be the
point?
Connect with Benjamin on twitter @BenMWallace. Check out and purchase Benjamin's best selling work at Amazon Here
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