Freshman Jacquelyn Eubanks is a 19-year-old fountain pen and she’s nowhere close to running out of ink. The Hillsdale student is an Amazon best-selling author who has two published novels and has another in production. She’s received a five-star rating from Readers’ Favorite and the 2014 Readers’ Favorite Bronze Award.
“I grew up writing,” Eubanks said. “My grandma especially thought I was going to be a writer since I was in diapers.”
She was not even a dozen years out of diapers when she had completed her fourth novel manuscript.
“I had people constantly telling me that [my writing career] wouldn’t actually happen, but by the age of 12 I had written four novels,” Eubanks said. “So I thought I might as well publish one of them.”
Eubanks’ first published novel, “The Last Summer,” is the first volume of a soon-to-be-completed trilogy. It surrounds the life of young tomboy and baseball fan Charlotte “Charley” Mason who, when faced with the reality of moving away from her hometown, decided to make the most of her summer playing the sport she loves.
“We watched ‘The Sandlot’ in school and I was at a point my life where I was actually obsessed with baseball,” Eubanks said. “It was perfect. It started out as, ‘What would my life be like if I was in ‘The Sandlot’?’ and then it morphed into its own story.”
“The Last Time,” the sequel to Eubanks’ first novel and her second piece of published work, concerns Charley Mason’s life following the moving of her family. She overcomes a new set of challenges and makes new friends. Rather than focusing on her love for baseball, the story surrounds Charley’s character development which hits home with readers.
Eubanks knows better than most that writing a manuscript is only half the battle. In order to publish stories, one must go through the process of finding a publicist, an editor, and a publisher willing to take a chance on the author’s work. Robert McTyre, a writing mentor at Detroit Ink Publishing, filled the editing role that Eubanks needed.
“[Eubanks’] mother has been a client of mine and when Jacky completed her first book, her mother asked me to edit it,” McTyre said.
McTyre, who has worked as a consulting editor for the last 35 years, said Eubanks is the first young author he has encountered that had the capacity to be a published author.
“Jacky is clearly quite special,” McTyre said. “She is a sponge, a continuous learner, and she is unafraid to stretch herself creatively.”
Though she didn’t initially publish with a mainstream publishing business, her parents, with the help of Amazon, orchestrated the marketplace and physical production for her book.
“The great thing, from my perspective, is that she is fully ready to function at professional levels in this digital world of today,” McTyre said. “The essence of the digital culture is words, and she has a love and passion for words and this will carry her very far.”
After a final polish of Eubanks’ manuscript on the part of McTyre, the publishing process began.
“Technically, my parents bought a publishing firm,” Eubanks said. “It’s called VG Publishing. But we used a lot of Amazon’s CreateSpace services to help us.”
Upon completion of this task, Eubanks and her publicist, Rachel Anderson of RMA Publicity, initiated a promotional campaign. This was no small feat.
“I first read her book cover to cover, then prepared a marketing plan,” Anderson said. “I interviewed Jacquelyn about her story and love of writing and used the interview to write up a press kit. I then used that press kit to set up and promote events. [Then, I] called the news media and pitched her story.”
The young Detroit Tigers fan has an already impressive resume.
“I admire the fact that Jacquelyn knew she wanted to be a writer at such a young age and decided to go for it,” Anderson said.
Eubanks passion for writing is evident through her numerous novels, her third of which will be published by a mainstream firm. She is also working to complete a short romance story that she hopes will be available on Amazon Kindle by December.
