We’re looking forward to introducing you to Benjamin Weilert. Check out our conversation below.
Benjamin, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
There’s this thought among readers that self-published books are lower quality than those produced by traditional publishers. And while it is true the barrier for entry and gatekeeping for quality are lower for self-published works, there are still a significant amount of writers who produce high-quality stories that might not fit within the current trend in the traditional publishing market.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Benjamin M. Weilert, and I’m an award-winning multi-genre writer from Colorado. By not being restricted by genre, I am allowed to write whatever stories pop into my head. I am on a mission to write something in every single genre…eventually.
The variety of my written works spans from poems to a trilogy of novels. I’ve written non-fiction ice cream cookbooks to children’s picture books about complex topics to young adult science fantasy novels that are basically fan fiction for famous scientists.
I’m all about presenting interesting and educational ideas in a way that’s entertaining. If someone can learn something new from my writing while still enjoying what they’re reading, I have accomplished my mission.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
Strangely enough, I did not like writing when I was growing up. The scholastic five-paragraph essay about topics I hardly cared for killed my desire to write. My main focus was on math and physics, and I had no room for writing if I only needed to understand the universal languages of the sciences.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but the creative writing projects I had to do in elementary school and high school planted seeds that would eventually blossom into what I’m doing today. The freedom to explore concepts through writing helped provide that scientific structure that I needed to test my thoughts and ideas. It was in my writing where I could control the variables to create the narrative outcomes I wanted to tell.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
During COVID, I was struggling with my goals as a writer. I wasn’t seeing the success I wanted, despite putting in a lot of effort to advance my sales and reviews. It didn’t help that one of the books I had put a lot of time into and contained a lot of my personal thoughts about the future didn’t do very well. I went into therapy to help figure out the anxiety I had around my writing. What I came to realize was that I needed to pursue writing and publishing for my own enjoyment. If I was chasing trends or “bestseller” status, I wouldn’t be happy with any of it. Ironically enough, my very next book (an ice cream cookbook, of all things) became an instant success and earned a handful of prestigious awards that validated what I was doing as an author.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. How do you differentiate between fads and real foundational shifts?
Genres will come and go. You’re more likely to strike gold if you have a backlog of different stories that may eventually match the flavor of the month. Readers will always be drawn to interesting stories, regardless of what’s currently popular.
The real foundational shifts come in making books more accessible. Mass market paperbacks were more affordable so more people could buy them. Ebooks were cheaper to produce and distribute and allowed those with vision struggles to read at the size that was comfortable to them. Even audiobooks gave people who might have dyslexia or other vision problems a way to experience books.
I think one of the technological shifts that would help is the ability for ebook readers to have speed reading options like Rapid Serial Visual Processing (you focus in one spot and the words cycle through that one location on the screen).
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: How do you know when you’re out of your depth?
While I mostly stick to writing stories in the genres I like to read, sometimes I have an idea that’s well outside my experience. I know people who read those genres have certain expectations for those books, so I need to make sure I hit all the right tropes and story structures to keep those readers happy. This isn’t impossible, but it does require a bit more research into these genres—including reading famous books from those genres as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://author.benjamin-m-weilert.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmwthephoto/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BMWtheAuthor/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtbhVB5QpIaQUGhwH_uyKYA
Image Credits
All photo credits by Benjamin M. Weilert
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
