Life & Work with Eddie Jones

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eddie Jones.

Hi Eddie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I wrote for my high school newspaper, The Cat Talk, at Millbrook High. While at N.C. State I wrote for the Technician and majored in English with an emphasis in Journalism. (State couldn’t have a Journalism program because a local university in Orange County which tends to think too highly of itself, did not want the competition.) Upon graduation, I went into sales and continued to write. A few years later, I became a contributing writer to a regional boating magazine. Shortly after the Internet sent print publications the way of the horse and buggy, I moved into writing full time. I also launched a small, regional book publishing company which I sold in 2019. Now I write full-time, coach writers, and on Sundays hang out in the south parking lot of Moore Square, where I hand out food and clothing and take orders for those “in-between homes.” (No one is homeless if they have a neighbor.) facebook.com/MooreSquareFriends

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Book marketing remains one of the biggest challenges for writers and book publishers. The Internet has made it easier for writers to be found. In the old days, you had to pitch to publications in hopes of landing writing gigs. Now it seems everyone is a writer. With the ease of getting your words out on the web, the pay structure of writing has changed. With the ease of self-publishing through Amazon’s KDP and IngramSpark, the boom in poorly written, edited, and proofed books have become mixed with those of high quality. In the old days, traditional publishers were the gatekeepers. They still are. But authors can now go around the gates, over the fence—and with KDP, it’s a very short fence—and make a book available. The hardest part of writing remains to produce great works. Too much of what is published needs more time to simmer before being served. I count my works in this category.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I write middle-grade mysteries for boys and a young adult pirate series. Girls remain the bulk of readers, but my heart is for boys who, if they fail to learn to read and enjoy reading, tend to fall behind in learning. If you can’t read and read well, you tend to rely on others for instruction and advice. This is not a hard and fast rule, but those who can read enjoy more freedom. For this reason, I try to write short, fun stories at an eighth-grade level—which happens to be the grade I love best. Probably the thing I’m most proud of is helping launch the publishing career of countless individuals. When I ran our small press, we published the first book for many authors. Our ChristianDevotions us ministry still allows new writers to write and be published on a site other than the author’s blog. Through our Asheville Christian Writers Conference, we teach writing and invite industry professionals—editors, agents, and marketing experts—to meet with new and established writers. My heart is for helping others get their story and message out. I should charge more for my coaching services, and my wife wishes I would, but if someone is humble enough to admit they want to learn, I’m eager to help.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
A life changed by inspired words.

Contact Info:

• Website: writerscoach.us
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealityCoachingforWriters
• Other: Eddiejones.org