By his own admission, David Perlmutter has “led a very colourful life, with some episodes so noteworthy that so far they have produced three thrilling true stories, with more to follow.”
You probably know him as a best-selling author, which he most certainly is, but you may not know about other facets of his “colourful life.” For example, when he is not writing, David is a volunteer Cancer Campaigns Ambassador for Cancer Research UK, for whom he does many book signing events to raise money, as he says, “for a cause that is very close to my heart.”
During the C0VID-19 pandemic, David has self-isolated like the rest of us during the day. From 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., however, he is a volunteer superhero stocking those empty shelves at his neighborhood grocery.
When he is not penning best-selling books or performing selfless acts of charity for his community, David Perlmutter is also a film actor with his own imdb page. (In typical self-deprecating fashion, David refers to himself as “actor-ish.”)
Notwithstanding the many faces and talents of David P. Perlmutter, I sat down to ask him about his life as an indie author, in particular. I know writers and readers will be fascinated by his remarks. Here is the text of our interview.
IRIS: David, what inspires you to write?
DAVID: I started to write about eight years ago when I was living in Portugal. But it wasn’t a book, it was blog that I started, which now has over 300 books from authors that I feature, including yours, plus over 300k page views.
[Note from Iris: Check out David’s blog and featured books from many authors at http://thewrongplaceatthewrongtime.blogspot.com/?m=1]
Anyway, back to where and why I started to write and what gave me the inspiration. As some sort of therapy, I started to write as blog posts of what happened to me in Marbella, Spain. The events were very dramatic and even to this day, I still think about the events and have nightmares. So, I thought I would write it, as it might and did make me feel better.
After I wrote two posts, my friend who was also an editor, wanted to read it, so I emailed her what I had written. Just to say at this point I have never written a book before at all. She came back to me and said,”David, this is far too good for just a blog, you must write a book.” So I did, and nine months later we pressed the self publish button on Amazon together.
[Note from Iris: Readers, get your copy of Wrong Place, Wrong Time on Amazon US or Amazon UK.]
IRIS: Are you an outliner? Or are you a seat-of-the-pants writer?
DAVID: I am for sure a SEAT OF THE PANTS WRITER. Yes, I write a few notes down, which I can’t read as I have illegible handwriting, so I actually write the plots as I go along.
There is a third and final book of this series, which I have really enjoyed writing. Like my true stories, it’s written in the first person and is about an author, who is debt ridden, and commits a hideous crime, gets paid for it, writes a book about it and that book becomes a bestseller and a movie. Iris, it is a fiction. Honest!
IRIS: When you write fiction, like Write to Kill and Write to Live, Do you listen to, or talk to, or interact with your characters?
DAVID: Iris, I talk to myself at the best of times, but oh boy, do I interact with my characters, especially on my crime fiction series.
I have acted out certain scenes, trust me. My family walk past me when I’m doing this and they think I am mad. Well, they know I am.
But it gets me involved with the characters and I try and make the writing as realistic as possible, so much so, to make the reader feel part of the story. That’s what I hope to achieve anyway. The reviews say that, so acting out my books seems to work.
IRIS: What is the most important or most frequent advice you give about writing?
DAVID: I met Anthony Horowitz at a book signing in London. He gave me two minutes of his time and had a photo, and had become an online friend. He told me, that when he was writing his, I think SIXTEENTH book, this was BEFORE he even made it, he told his wife, this has to be it, make or break. That book was his break. He told me to never give up.
I’m nowhere near to his accomplishments, nowhere near, will never be close, but with the movie, once coronavirus is gone, and my crime fiction, which readers would love to see as a TV series, I will keep going until I’m too old to see a laptop, too old to push the keyboard. Until then, I’m afraid I’m going to be around for a few years yet.
[Note from Iris: Find Five Weeks, A True Story, on Amazon US and Amazon UK.]
IRIS: How did you decide whether to self-publish or traditionally-publish your work? What would you advise new authors to explore?
DAVID: Always self publish, and I also say Amazon. When people want to buy a Kindle, it’s always Amazon, no matter what people think of Amazon. Without Amazon, you, me and FOUR MILLION authors would not be authors. Look at EL James – Fifty Shades, or Paula Hawkins with The Girl On The Train, S J Watson with Until I Go To Sleep, and many others, they all started as an ebook.
Also, do not go to vanity publishers, they will charge you a fortune and do nothing for you apart from getting the book printed. No marketing and full of promises.
IRIS: What would you change about the world of writing and publishing, if you could?
DAVID: If I had the money I would like to set my own publishing company up and really change the way of e-publishing, but Amazon has that, and again, I will never knock them.
IRIS: Where can readers and writers find you and your work on the Internet or social media?
DAVID: Google me. No really, Google. I can be found on Twitter (like every hour), my three Facebook pages, Instagram, Linkedln, everywhere really. I’m a bit of a social media whore. Can I say that?
IRIS: The Amazon links to several of your books are provided in the interview notes above, but, in general, where can we find all of your books?
DAVID: On Amazon of course, just put in David P Perlmutter. You must add the P in as there’s another David Perlmutter (quite a few), but this particular David Perlmutter also comes up if you don’t put the P in. He’s a doctor and author of many great books. So much more intelligent than myself, trust me.
IRIS: You can claim that Doctor Perlmutter is smarter than Author-&-More David P. Perlmutter, but we won’t believe you until they make one of HIS books into a movie!
Thanks so much, David P. Perlmutter, for spending time with me and my readers and for sharing with us the knowledge gained from of your “colourful” and impressive experiences.
Finally, David, we urge you to stay safe and healthy during the corona virus pandemic, because we are all looking forward to many future books from (as far as we’re concerned) the only real David P. Perlmutter.
Connect with David P. Perlmutter at these links:
www.davidpperlmutter.com
or
http://thewrongplaceatthewrongtime.blogspot.pt/
or
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MovieWrongPlaceWrongTime MOVIE
also
Linkedln: www.linkedin.com/in/davidpperlmutter
or
Be one of David’s 50,000 followers on Twitter! @davepperlmutter
Some folks think Lloyd Schifflebein is crazy, because he’s a young bachelor planning to adopt six special needs kids. Some folks might think Lloyd is crazy because his teapot talks to him. Either way, Lloyd sure has a funny way of building a family.
SCHIFFLEBEIN’S FOLLY
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Author_Iris_Chacon 
That was very interesting and helpful! Thanks for posting that.
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Good to hear from you, Nick. I always enjoy your posts. Stay safe and well.
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