Rob Wallace
Updated: Jan 2, 2021
Pre-Interview: I am Robb Wallace author of Smartphone Media Production, Smartphone Smart Marketing, Health Made Simple & Steak Bake as well as a number of self-help journals for Meditation, MMA, BJJ and Smell training.
Professionally I work in media and marketing, I am an award-winning filmmaker with over fifteen years of experience in marketing, video production, photography, social media, SEO and the digital frontier. In my own time, I love to spend time with my wife and family as well as meditate, read, and write. I am currently working on my first epic fantasy novel. I am from Glasgow, Scotland.
Author Writer Interview
1.What inspires you most to write?
A number of things inspire me. I think at the core of all of them is curiosity. I love asking questions, I love learning, understanding new things (history, culture, science, religion, spirituality, martial arts, AI, technology, this list could go on and on). Writing is a way for me to explore my curiosity.
2. What is your favorite genre?
General Non-Fiction (I know that covers a lot) and Sci-Fi/Fantasy, the grander the better.
3. Who is one author you admire if any and why?
Dan Simmons, He is an American author that has crossed many genres (successfully). He has won industry awards for Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy. The tales he tells are amazing. The only bad thing is when I re-read a Dan Simmons book, I always feel like my own stuff falls short. But I think that is normal and the nature of anyone striving to better themselves and improve their craft.
4. How do you overcome blank writing spells?
I don’t have them. As Craig Martell once wrote; I plumber can’t have a dry plumbing spell. Or a chef can’t rock up to work and say, “Hey guys, sorry, I can’t cook the chicken today, I have no creative cooking juices flowing”. I see it as a job (not making the big money just yet), and as such I sit down and write every day to improve my skills. Some days I write two thousand words effortlessly, other days it's hard to get 200 down. But every day I make it happen.
5. What legal publishing advice can you give?
Not legal advice, but “piracy is not the enemy of an author, obscurity is”. So, when it comes to folks stealing your work etc. I try to see it as free publicity. However, the creative industries are run by lawyers and accountants, so if you're going into that world with agents and publishers etc., read every contract, understand the language being used and make sure you're happy before you sign. So many tales of creatives that are just happy to get there work out and some greedy lawyer/ scrupulous individual steals their passion.
6. How many books have you written, are any a bestseller yet?
I have written three books, that is three non-fiction titles and one epic fantasy which is at the 2nd draft stage. I have also written and published a short vampire story unlike any other on the market. Bestseller? So, I have hit the Bestseller NO1 spot in three categories on Amazon (both UK and USA), but to be fair that is not hard to do if you understand the Amazon categories and threshold sales per category using a tool like Publisher Rocket. https://robb.link/PublisherRocket
One day when I release my fantasy novel, I am working to be a permanent fixture in the overall bestseller lists. Must have a dream.
7. If you had the opportunity to rewrite one movie script which would it be, why?
I can’t think of one.
8. What are some difficulties you've experienced in your writing career; how do you handle book critiques/criticism?
I was great at math in school and I enjoyed it. English class was a horrendous experience. I did not get it, language, emotion, the story being told etc. But as stated I am curious and when I decided to write my first non-fiction book, I knew I had a mountain in front of me.
My first stories had no full stops or paragraphs, they were just coherent streams of thought. I wrote the way I spoke. I am from a poor working-class Scottish background and that came across, but there was very little formal English in the writing. This frustrated me greatly as everyone who reads my stories rejected them and therefore my ideas because of the lack of commas, sentences, and grammar.
But over the last 15 years, I have persisted, and now with the advancement of technology and a tenacious drive to tell my stories, I have been able to get to grips with the foundations of writing coherent prose.
How do I deal with rejection? Perspective, there are a lot of folks going through a lot harder days than me, so getting upset over someone not understanding my story, that's nothing to complain about. So, I take the feedback as if I had paid for it and get back to work, to make it stronger than it was.
9. What are your best experiences in your writing career?
Getting feedback from my short vampire story “Steak Bake”, reading the review and seeing how folks related to the character and how folks enjoyed the humor and how it made them laugh etc. This so far has been the highlight of my career so far.
I get great feedback from my Smartphone Smart Marketing books and how I have helped many businesses etc. but getting feedback and great reviews on my short story for me was a lot more powerful.
10. Do you prefer to write in silence and or have some sort sound in the background?
It really depends on what is being written and how I feel. I like to put on heavy metal when writing fantasy battle scenes and listen to strange and wonderful tracks from aboriginal cultures throughout the world to get a different perspective when writing my own fantasy characters. For instance, I have been listening to a lot of Mongolian throat singing and aboriginal Australian songs of late.
11. What are some encouraging words you'd give to another author/writer?
Find your passion and pursue it. Have fun, enjoy the process, if it stops being fun, make the changes to make it fun again. It should never be a chore. But never be afraid of the graft. If the Kemet's built pyramids and the Chinese built a wall visible from space and the Romans created an empire half the size of modern-day USA two thousand years ago. Then you can write a book. Also, you're currently on a small blue dot flying through the infinite vacuum of space in a universe that is billions of years old. In comparison, your life is but a blink, what you got to lose. ha-ha
12. How did you decide the pricing of your material; how did you go about promotion/advertising and distribution of your work?
I live by research. I look at what is selling and spruce accordingly.
13. Why should anyone read your book?
My title Smartphone Smart Marketing, why? Because it will show them how to use the powerful content marketing tool they are hiding in their pocket. It is a layman’s guide to content marketing, social media strategy, photography, video production, audio, and live streaming. If you have a smartphone, then you are ready to create and build an audience for your brand or business. You have the technology, and this book will give you the knowledge and practical skills to use it.
https://www.robbwallace.co.uk/books/smartphone-smart-marketing/
Steak Bake: If you want a humorous vampire story that is set in Glasgow, Scotland. Then this is the short story for you.
https://www.robbwallace.co.uk/books/steak-bake/
14. Did you have a book coach?
No
15. What was your favorite subject in school?
Math.
16. Are you self-published or have an established publishing contract elsewhere?
I am self-published. The industry has changed, and we as indie publishers now have the tools and the resources to maximize our potential without a large corporation stealing a slice of our creative pie. Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo, Google Play are all open to indie publishers, in today's world this is where books are sold. So why not go direct and cut out the middleman.
Thanks
Robb
https://robbwallace.co.uk
https://www.instagram.com/RobbAuthor/
https://twitter.com/RobbAuthor