Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Joe Perrone Jr. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Joe thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.
I would put more emphasis on preparing students to make a living. Not everyone is suited for college studies, and many would most definitely benefit from skill training in fields such as plumbing, electrical, building, and so forth. Skills such as balancing a checkbook, investing in securities, and even cooking should be taught to both male and female students. There should be more emphasis on healthy eating and exercise, as part of an overall life plan. We need to get back to teaching the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Many students today cannot even write a simple sentence, and most cannot spell even common words.
Joe, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am an author, publisher, and publishing consultant. I began my writing career as a sportswriter for a major Metropolitan New York newspaper. From there, I branched out as an advertising copywriter. I began to write seriously around 1997, and published the first of my eight books in that year. To date, I have written six novels and two non-fiction books. I am most proud of my Matt Davis mystery series, consisting of five titles: “As the Twig is Bent”; ” Opening Day”; “Twice Bitten”; “Broken Promises”; and “Deadly Ransom.” When it was first released, As the Twig is Bent reached #24 best seller in the category of police procedurals in the Kindle book store. My other novel is a coming-of-age story entitled “Escaping Innocence: A Story of Awakening.”
Four of the five Matt Davis mysteries are set in the small Upstate New York village of Roscoe, where I was a professional fly fishing guide for 10 years. Because of my association with Roscoe, in 2012, the Roscoe Chamber of Commerce invited me to be its celebrity first caster on opening day. Later, I was the guest speaker at the annual Two-Headed Trout dinner, a tradition dating back nearly 100 years. It was an honor that I will never forget.
The first non-fiction book I published was co-authored with Manny Luftglass (now deceased) and was entitled “Gone Fishin’ with Kids (How to Take Your Kid Fishing and Still be Friends). It sold more than 10,000 copies, The other non-fiction work is “A ‘Real’ Man’s Guide to Divorce: First You Bend Over and . . . “ All of my books except “Gone Fishin’“ have been published in print, ebook, and audiobook format, Many of my books have been translated into other languages, with the Matt Davis mystery series most recently having been translated into Italian.
About ten years ago, I started Escarpment Press, offering publishing services to other authors, including editing, formatting, and cover design. To date, we have published over three dozen books for aspiring authors. We take no royalties from our authors, and charge only for the specific work we do in bringing their books to market. We help our authors to publicize their work through social media, including Facebook and Twitter, and help readers to get to know them through our exclusive author interviews.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Well, most definitely I wish I had discovered the Internet sooner. It has been the single most useful tool in my career.
Have you ever had to pivot?
During the first 45 or so years of my life I worked at many, many different jobs, a number of them in retail. For a while, I even owned my own sporting goods store, and was president of the local chamber of commerce. In 1989, I was working as a: limousine driver, real estate agent, and house painter. I was struggling to find my identity. Then, one day, a thought occurred to me. I was never going to make anything of myself unless I chose a particular endeavor and stuck to it. Because a good deal of my work experience had centered around retail sales, I answered an ad for a stock clerk position in the fishing department of one of the stores in a medium-sized, family owned outdoor store chain. I had to swallow my pride in accepting what amounted to an entry level position. However, I quickly advanced and was made manager of the entire fishing department in one of the three, family owned stores. Around the same time, I obtained my NY State fishing guide’s license and began guiding and instructing fly fishermen on the historic Beaverkill River in Roscoe, NY on the weekends. I remained with that company for 10 years. One thing led to another, and I eventually applied my experience in fishing, sales, and writing into a full-time career in the latter. Taking that entry level job changed everything.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.joeperronejr.com, www.escarpmentpress.weebly.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeperroneauthor/
- Twitter: @authorjoep