An Interview with Eddie Aucoin
Live The Dream: Get Paid to Play Baseball
Can you tell us a little about yourself, your background and writing career?
Sure. I’ve spent the last 12 years working as a ballplayer, both in the U.S. and overseas. Baseball has provided me with a great number of opportunities, not the least of which has been the chance to see quite a bit of the world. Not only that, the schedule of a baseball player allows for a good deal of free time. A number of years ago, I decided that I wanted to use this time to research and write a book that would help young ballplayers chase the dream of playing baseball for a living. There’s so much important information that players and parents just don’t know-information that I wish I knew-that can make the dream so much more attainable. So that’s what I did. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, and plan to do it again.
What genre do you write?
As a first-time author, my “library” is obviously limited to the genre of baseball. I have quite a few other ideas bouncing around as to which direction my next book will go in. While baseball is certainly my area of expertise, I see the possibility of branching out into other genres in the future.
What work(s) are you best known for? Could you please tell us about them?
My book is titled “Live The Dream: Get Paid to Play Baseball” (www.playprobaseball.com). It’s essentially a guide for players (and parents) that hope to one day go pro, written in a format that aims to entertain as well as educate. Along with thorough advice and detailed information, readers will find stories scattered throughout to keep things interesting and further illustrate the content.
What’s unique about the book is the fact that it not only guides players and parents that wish to market themselves to Major League Baseball scouts, but also players that have already been overlooked in the draft and are seeking pro opportunities outside of MLB. These include the professional independent leagues in North America as well as a great number of opportunities that exist to play ball overseas in places like Europe, Australia and South Africa.
Can you tell us if you are working on a new project and what your goals for the future?
My primary focus at the moment is marketing my current book, but I absolutely plan on beginning another project in the near future.
How did you start writing?
I enjoyed writing in both high school and college. It wasn’t until my mid twenties that I decided to pursue writing as a professional endeavor. Like many writers, I imagine, I find myself better able to communicate through the written word.
How do you write? (That is, where do you get your ideas, do you write in an office at home, do you write full time or do you have a fulltime job other than writing?)
Baseball is still my job for about 6 months out of the year, and I have another full-time job in the off-season; so I am a part-time writer. I actually enjoy writing in coffee houses and cafes. Much of my time is spent in Europe (I will play in the Netherlands again this upcoming season) and I find that my creative juices flow when I walk into a coffee house or a café, order a large coffee and plant myself at a table with my laptop and research material. If it’s loud, I pop in a pair of earplugs and get to work.
Are there any particular authors who have inspired you in your own writing career?
I find that biographical works can be inspiring. Oddly enough I recently finished an autobiography of a professional wrestler that I found inspiring from a writer’s point of view. There are a few fiction writers that fall into this category as well; Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane and Lee Child to name a few.
Do you attend workshops and seminars to hone your writing skills?
I do not, although I would be open to doing so in the future.
What themes do you pursue in your writing? What are your concerns?
With only one book, I’ve had one very specific theme. This is all about arming aspiring ballplayers with the knowledge to maximize their chances of playing pro baseball.
What is the goal of your writing?
I want everyone that reads my work to feel that they made the best investment they possibly could have in their baseball career, and to feel that they were thoroughly entertained while learning.
Do you have any useful tips you might offer other up-and-coming writers?
Two tips come to mind. The first piece of advice is a very simple one: Write! There will be days when your creativity just isn’t there. During those times, I believe it’s important to just get something down on paper and go with it. You can always edit, rework or even scrap it later. But you’ll likely find that once you force yourself to put something down, you get into the flow and produce usable work.
The second piece of advice is to leave yourself a good place to start at the end of each day. By that, I mean end your writing in a spot where you look forward to picking up again the next day. You’ll likely find that you’ll jump right back in without missing a beat, without wasting time deciding where to begin and what to do.
Have you chosen to e-publish any of your work? Was there any particular reason for this and would you recommend e-publishing to other writers?
I haven’t decided yet, but it looks like this is one avenue that seems to be gaining momentum. So most likely, I will e-publish.
Have you had literary failures? What did you learn from them?
I’m fairly new to the writing game, but there are small successes and failures throughout the entire process; both with writing and marketing. The best I can do is try to take something from every small failure and attempt to turn it into a positive in the future. A failure isn’t necessarily a failure if you learn something from it.
What do you read?
Mainly fiction (crime/mystery novels for the most part) but I also enjoy a good biography/autobiography from time to time, particularly if the figure is someone that’s interesting to me.
What difficulties, if any, did you face in writing a fact-based book?
One difficulty I faced was changing information. For instance, one chapter in my book deals with professional baseball contracts. Every 5 years or so, Major League Baseball’s owners and the players union come together to renegotiate the terms and conditions of their agreement. In some cases, certain aspects of the contract get totally revamped, which was the case when I was writing my book. The result was a heavy dose of editing/rewriting a number of sections of the book.
Click on the link below to read an excerpt from Chapter 2 of “Live The Dream: Get Paid to Play Baseball”:
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