Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jeremiah Jones. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jeremiah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.
About 7 or 8 Years ago I came up with the idea to write my first book. I always had a passion for writing since grade school. I noticed it was a subject that I was very strong in, once I learned the format of an essay and the rules of writing and literature I continued to grow my writing skills. When I attended Valencia College about 9 or 10 years ago I took a African Humanities course and my teacher at the time had me doing a 5-10 page research paper with a grading rubric attached to it. We had to pick a civil rights leader/advocate to research and write about. I picked to write about the great Malcolm X, I began writing my paper and doing research, at this time I had been reintroduce to citing which is a processed used to give credit to another author when you’re using their work as an example or resource and listing exactly where the work was obtained from. I finally finished and turn in my paper, my teacher marked the paper all up in red ink with notes and things I needed to add, change, fix, and or explain more. I still had other classes to complete work for but I put a little more time and energy into this project because it involved writing so it definitely got more of my attention. One day my teacher came to class with a DVD for me about Malcolm X, I gathered facts and notes from the movie and put them into my research paper. She didn’t accept my paper until my 3rd attempt graded it and gave me an A+ on the grading rubric. That experience right there took my writing to the next level, the grading rubric gave me a lot of good practice with writing too especially by it being a college grading rubric. That made me write more thorough, detailed, and structured. 2 or 3 years later I began writing my first book “Gleden Oaks; The Streets Show No Love”
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
My name is Jeremiah Jones and I’m from a town Called Eatonville here In Florida. I am the Author of the Gleden Oaks Book series Volume 1, 2, and 3. I published my first book back in 2018 & gained a lot of media attention shortly after I conducted my Wesh 2 News Interview discussing my back story and new released book. Getting my first book written, published, and on the market definitely took a lot of time, focus, discipline, and execution. The process is very lengthy and expensive but also educational and beneficial in a numerous of ways. My first book was released with a local publishing company that I signed my first publishing deal with, Once I got out of that deal I signed a independent distribution deal with Amazon and published my 2nd, 3rd, and rerelease of my 1st book through Kindle Direct Publishing which is a self publishing platform through the Amazon company. Social media, word of mouth, footwork, marketing, and creating more content has helped me establish myself as an author and make good revenue from selling copies of my books. My titles are urban fiction entertainment coming from a real life point of view. Things that are happening and being faced in urban communities all over the world are illustrated in my novels and displayed through character dynamics which gathers the attention of readers and inspire young adults by the messages given in the context of the story line in each individual book. I am mostly proud to have created such a positive brand, I get complimented all the time on my works as an Author, a lot of people have questions for me in regards to writing and what does it take to be an author. I’m always ready to answer those questions and just seeing the positive response from so many different people and the continuous support behind my book series is amazing and aspiring to so many other people.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
After I published my first book I got into the electrical trade, I got hired on with a contractor and began to build my electrical resume from there. I’m now currently a year 3 apprentice and I’m seeking to get my electrical journeyman license. I feel I had to make this move because it is a good financial backing for my books and for myself as well. Adding on another great source of income is always good and helpful, can create more opportunities and open doors for additional success.
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
I was working at a warehouse at the time building HVAC units and shipping them throughout the country for a company so while working there I was saving up the money that the publisher told me it would cost to publish my manuscript and make the book copies and in addition I had a group of people that had split the cost with me which was a few thousand dollars so that helped me out a lot as well. I setup a meeting with them, showed them my idea and presented them with the publishing contract from the publisher. I was always taught in life that whenever you’re doing something to help get yourself further ahead, it’s positive, and people are able to do it there are a lot of good people out there that will help you out in your journey in life. You just have to ask with respect and be willing to show that you’re helping yourself first. Respect and work ethic can you a very long way in this walk of life.
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