Ep. 187: Eddie King on Why There’s No Right Way of Writing

Eddie King is an author, screenwriter, and television presenter. Born and raised in Hampstead, London, he spent many years working in the film industry as a producer and script consultant on large-budget Hollywood productions. He is a prominent ambassador of American country music across Europe and co-hosts a weekly primetime television series where he interviews some of Nashville’s biggest stars. Eddie has written five novels, all in the contemporary romance genre. His first book, ‘Spoilt For Choice’ earned him a Young Writers’ Award nomination and ‘Southern Girl: Daisy Dukes and Cowboy Boots’ has been adapted for screen. He currently splits his time between London, Los Angeles, and Nashville.

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Transcript

Rachael Herron: [00:00:00] Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.

[00:00:15] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode #187 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. So glad that you’re here with me today. 

[00:00:25] Today, I am talking to the awesome Eddie King, who is doing something with his book. That I have never heard of being done. You want to stick around for how he is using social media and this new release of his, it’s completely fascinating. And he is a super sweetie, super genuine and willing to share. And he talks about there being no right way of writing. And I love that. I am constantly telling people how to write and always trying to remember to add onto the end of that. I’m right. Unless I’m wrong. In which case, you’re right. Do your own thing that is so true about writing, so I know you’re going to enjoy this really interesting and very different interview. 

[00:01:15] And let’s see what’s going on around here. Well, I got my revision letter from my editor and it was so good. She, she spent a whole single spaced page. So we’re talking 500 words or so praising me. And you know, when you get a revision letter from your editor, usually often they say, you know, a few nice things, and then they jump into the meat of the revision letter, which is what you need to fix, which is the job, right? That’s the revision letters job, is to tell you what is broken and what needs fixing and so when you hear the compliments as a writer, all of our brains say something like, well, you know, she has to say that, you know, that’s her job. She’s supposed to build me up before she tears it apart. But these compliments were so specific that in my email, back to her, I wrote something like I actually believe you because this is the difference between somebody saying you look pretty. And somebody saying, oh my gosh, that color is divine. It brings out your eyes. And what skincare regimen are you using? Oh, I’d love to get the name of whatever product you’re using on your skin because you are glowing. That’s the difference? and that’s, that’s that latter one is the thing where I got the revision letter. So that’s great. So I am now going into my fourth, big revision. So I’m going to take moment to kind of break down right now what happens when you get a revision letter from an editor. 

[00:02:44] So I’m working with Hush Little Baby coming out next year. It, I did a terrible shitty first draft, which is the way I write, which is the way I believe most people should write, but there are no, there’s no right and wrong. I do accept that. And I did a massive, massive makes sense draft, which was then followed up by a couple of passes that clean things up and did a little bit of smaller things. So I would consider those my first and second draft. And then I sent it to my editor. Second draft doesn’t really cover what happened after the second draft, before I sent it to my editor where I do the smaller passes of looking for specific things. But you, kind of get the gist, the big, huge, heavy lifting of the second draft was done before I sent it to my editor, my editor at that point I’ve mentioned on the show, just called me it wasn’t-  I, the book needed too much work even to get into a revision letter, honestly. I had to move so much stuff around in the book that it was just a conversation and she said less slow in the beginning, less stabbing at the end, get some more stabbing up front and some emotions in the back. So I rewrote the book in another very big, third draft, heavy lifting kind of thing. And that’s what she got a couple of weeks ago. And now I have the actual revision letter and this is what you get from your editor. You will have an editor, whether you get an agent to sell your work, and are traditionally published, or then your editor kind of works for you and they give you money. And then they edit you, which is a nice part of traditional publishing. If you choose to sell, publish, you have to hire your editor and you’ll get just as good an experience if you know what to look for and it’s marvelous to hire your own editor. I always recommend Reedsy.com, everybody there is vetted most have worked in the traditional publishing industry. I’ve never heard a bad thing about an editor that my students and coaching clients have used. So I recommend that if you’re going to the self-publishing route, no matter what you’re going to get what’s called a revision letter and a revision letter, for some reason, it was always single-spaced who this one was 6 pages long. I have heard of 20 and 30-page revision letters. I think my shortest was two pages and my longest was maybe 10. So this is about average 6 pages and, with the revision letter talks about is the broad stroke stuff this character needs to be expanded, this red herring doesn’t work. And here’s why this entire plot line can and should be lifted out. 

[00:05:29] There were recommendations that you get to choose whether or not you take, I take all of them, because every editor I’ve ever worked with has been way more right about these things than I am. I can’t see the forest for the trees. They are right. So, what I do, this is my process. It is exactly the same process that I use in any other revision pass revision is something, I talk about it a lot that can be learned. It is a process. Once you learn it, you have it forever to use in every revision process. I’m doing it on that book of essays I talked about last week. You can listen in episode number 108 of like a, a breakdown of how I revise, but just real quickly for this one, for an editing letter, for a revision letter, from an editor, I do the same thing I always do. I print out a new and correct an up-to-date sentence outline, which just has a snippet of each scene. Not even a snippet, it has a few words that say what happens in each scene. So I can basically read my whole book in 30 seconds or so, 45 seconds of casting my eye over those. I leave a lot of space in between the scenes so I can scribble in there because this sentence outline will become my map for revision. So I print that out, and then I sit down with the revision letter and I get out my little two and a half by one inch post it’s, and for every idea, my editor gives me. I make a post it, and I stick it in my whatever journal I’m using at the time. Or you can put it on an eight and a half piece of paper by 11, or you could put it on the back of your sentence outline wherever you want. Just stick them somewhere. Every single idea that she gives you, write it down. 

[00:07:15] Then, what I do that probably took me an hour and a half this morning, just doing those post- it’s. Then, you open the document that she sends you, she’ll send you your revised document in word with comments. And what I do, is I just hit that next comment button and I look at all of the comments. I would say 90-95% of the comments my editor this time has put in my document are small line edits, like this doesn’t make sense. What about what happened in the last scene? How does this fit? They’re small things. This editor tends to give me all the big ideas that I have to spend a lot of time thinking about in the revision letter, not inside the body of the document, which is fantastic, but in the past, what I’ve had, is editors who will leave the really big ideas as comments in your manuscript. Totally great. Just as long as they’re somewhere. So what I do before I start any work is I look at every comment and make sure she hasn’t snuck one in there that is, that is like, you know, get rid of this character, or get rid of this storyline. So I scanned my eye down those and make sure I don’t need to make any more post-its I think I only got two or three from that process this morning. And then you kind of sit down with these post-it’s, you sit down with your sentence outline, and that’s when you brainstorm that’s when you start to scribble all over the sentence outline, how can I make this post it happen? Where in the manuscript can I do that? How can I do that- for me, it’s always, when I’m writing thriller, apparently it’s always about increasing suspense because I like to hang out with emotions, not suspense. The suspense is not an emotion. So for me, it’s really about looking at that sentence outline. Where can I increase suspense and decrease relaxation, decrease the break intention. So that’s what I was doing today. And it’s so fun. It’s so fun. And then what you do is you just open your document and you start with revising and you go from there looking at your map, it’s all mapped out. You know, what’s going to happen in the next scene, what you need to fix, you’re going to have ideas on the way. Yay. More post-it’s. I should just call this the post it program. Honestly, you know that I have a problem. It’s such a good problem to have. Okay. So that’s enough about revision. I hope this has answered any questions you might have about getting a revision letter from an editor. It’s not scary. It’s a process. It can hurt. Definitely. This time, this revision letter didn’t hurt because I got the first revision letter verbally just saying, fix the mess you made, which I did. 

[00:09:47] So, what else did I want to tell you? Oh, if you like these tips, you can always become a Patron, at patreon.com/Rachael, R, A, C, H, A, E, L, at the $5 level a month and up, you get to ask me any questions about writing and I will answer them on the podcast in a mini episode. Nobody asks this question about the revision and letter. So it was just in a regular podcast but I figured some of you might be wondering what you do when you get that dreaded, feared and awesome revision letter. I will be recording an episode next week, got a couple of questions. So if you have any, and you are one of the $5 and up Patrons, please leave me any of your writing questions or really, you know, any questions at all. I’m pretty much an open book. 

[00:10:31] Thank you. Speaking of Patreon, to new patrons, Evan Oliver, who has already sent some questions, and Marie, thank you. And Lisa Lucky. I really appreciate your patronage. It means that what I am doing is important to you and I am so grateful to all of my patrons over at Patreon. It is, it’s literally the difference in me being able to afford the time to do this kind of thing, and to write those essays that I write for you and not doing them. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. I think that’s what I wanted to tell you before we get into this interview with Eddie King, please enjoy this innovative approach to publishing. He’s kind of pushing some old boundaries here, so I hope you enjoy it. And I wish you very, very, very happy writing my friends.

[00:11:24] Hey, is resistance keeping you from writing? Are you looking for an actual writing community in which you can make a calls and be held accountable for them? Join RachaelSaysWrite, like twice weekly, two hour writing session on zoom. You can bop in and out of the writing room as your schedule needs, but for just $39 a month, you can write up to 4 hours a week. With our wonderful little community, in which you’ll actually get to know your writing peers. We write from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM on Tuesdays and 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM on Thursdays and that’s US Pacific Standard Time. Go to RachaelHerron.com/Write to find out more.

Rachael Herron: [00:12:06] Well, I could not be more pleased today to welcome to the show, Eddie King, all the way from Germany, Eddie, how are you?

Eddie King: [00:12:08] I’m good. Thank you very much for having me.

Rachael Herron: [00:12:10] I’m so excited to have you. You are a writer who is doing something I have not seen any other writer do. So we’re going to have time to talk about that towards the end of our time. Super exciting. And let me give a little bio for you. Eddie King is an author, screenwriter and television presenter. Born and raised in Hampstead, London. He spent many years working in the film industry as a producer and script consultant on large-budget Hollywood productions. He is a prominent ambassador of- this is so weird, Eddie, and I love it, of American country music across Europe and co-hosts a weekly primetime television series, where he interviews some of Nashville’s biggest stars. Eddie has written five novels on the contemporary romance genre, his first books, “Spoilt for Choice” earned him a Young Writers’ Award nomination, and “Southern Girl: Daisy Dukes and Cowboy Boots” has been adapted for screen. He currently splits his time between London, Los Angeles, and Nashville. I am a, I’m a huge country fan, but old country. I’m not so into the new country. And I was raised, 

Eddie King: [00:13:17] the old country, the Johnny Cash. 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:21] Yeah. Or even some of the stuff today that’s coming out but sounds a little bit older. I actually wrote out a romance trilogy about three countries, singing sisters, which remains probably my favorite romance I’ve ever written. And I was looking at the cover of Southern Girl and it looks like one of my books. It’s pretty awesome.

Eddie King: [00:13:41] Well I like to think country music is a love story, right? It’s a 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:46] Exactly. And you can have an entire romance novel inside one song. Your bio does not say that you’re a song writer. Have you ever attempted that? 

Eddie King: [00:13:56] No, not yet either I’m not very good musically. So,

Rachael Herron: [00:14:03] What drew you to this is not on our list of things to talk about, but what drew you to country music in the first place?

Eddie King: [00:14:08] I think just growing up, I always listened to sort of the, there’s always Johnny Cash playing around my house and a little bit of Rockabilly, and rock and roll and they got into it. And I started visiting Nashville and I fell in love with the new country as well. So, 

Rachael Herron: [00:14:26] Yeah.

Eddie King: [00:14:27] A little bit of everything so, and it was weird because, you know, I’d come back to London and nobody knew about any of these stars and they were like huge in the US, right? So,

Rachael Herron: [00:14:39] Interesting.

Eddie King: [00:14:40] It was, yeah, it was. It was very interesting. 

Rachael Herron: [00:14:43] Did you see that recent mashup video? I think it’s just called Country Music and it basically has all the stars in it? From Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, to all the new people. Have you seen that?

Eddie King: [00:14:55] Yes I have seen that.

Rachael Herron: [00:14:56] It’s so gorgeous. I don’t know how new it is. Maybe it come out months ago but I just thought the other day.

Eddie King: [00:15:02] It’s a really nice. It’s already a nice sort of community. I used to work and the film industry out in LA and that was, you know, it’s still in the entertainment genre. But when you move to work in country music out in Nashville, people are so different and so nice and so welcoming and yeah, and it was something new because, you know, you’re, we had like a big gap in country music, so it was nice, guys in the US and bring some of that back.

Rachael Herron: [00:15:28] That is so awesome. I was supposed to be in Nashville two months ago, but Covid got in the way and I still haven’t been, it’s definitely like a bucket list item for me to go to the Bluebird. Okay. Well, let’s talk about you and your books because you are a busy fella and you’re still getting books done. What is your writing process? What, how and where, and how much all of that. 

Eddie King: [00:15:50] Well, it differs every time. Usually it’s kind of a, at a pub or a bar or maybe a coffee shop. I liked a bit of background noise. Some sort of distraction to get your mind off of it. And it really just matters. I know people say you should keep it of a 9 to 5 schedule and I base a week, but that just doesn’t work for me. So 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:16] I don’t agree with the should’s. That’s why I like the show. We don’t, we don’t worry about the should’s. 

Eddie King: [00:16:23] Yeah. So whenever I’m in the mood, I usually go around sort of 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM and I’ll sit there until I’m done. And that’s usually about sort of 5, 6:00 PM. 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:37] How have things changed since Covid though, since you can’t go out? 

Eddie King: [00:16:40] It’s been tough. Yeah. It’s I think that it’s been, it’s been a bit of both sort of, it’s nice where you can just sit in your pajamas all day and just write from your couch. I should be sitting up at my desk and writing, especially when there’s deadlines coming in, but, yeah, it’s a, but things over here, I’m out in Germany at the moment and everything’s back to normal pretty much. 

Rachael Herron: [00:17:05] Really?

Eddie King: [00:17:06] Everything’s open. 

Rachael Herron: [00:17:08] Can you, you actually go sit in the pub now?

Eddie King: [00:17:11] Yes, yes, yes. So I just take my laptop. The weather has been nice here and you can sit outside as well, so. 

Rachael Herron: [00:17:19] That must be really nice. I miss, I miss things. Yeah. America, we’re not, we’re not handling this whole thing very well, so it’s going to be a bit longer. Okay. So what is your biggest challenge when it comes to writing?

Eddie King: [00:17:35] There’s so many and there’s new one every day. I think 

Rachael Herron: [00:17:40] It’s the truth. 

Eddie King: [00:17:42] Probably like everyone says the editing process. You send your book off and you’ve got your baby that you’ve been working on, comes back with so many revisions and every time I think, okay, they’re going to come back and say, it’s perfect. Don’t change anything. Yeah. But every time it’s like, all right, take this chapter out, take this character out. This doesn’t work. I spend a lot of time on that. 

Rachael Herron: [00:18:05] You have no idea how hard I worked for that. And I love that you say that. I always think that, that this time I’m sending it away and I’ve nailed it. 

Eddie King: [00:18:13] Yeah.

Rachael Herron: [00:18:14] I’m always thinking and then I’m supposed to get a revision back on Monday. And I now know like, Oh, it’s going to be bad again.

Eddie King: [00:18:21] And the bad thing is that they’re usually right, so.

Rachael Herron: [00:18:25] Yes, they are.

Eddie King: [00:18:26] That’s, that’s always the process to sort of, admit it, you have to say it, well.

Rachael Herron: [00:18:31] How long does it take you to realize that this particular editing letters right again? 

Eddie King: [00:18:40] Again, it’s different, you know, with Southern Girl, I was convinced that you know, I wanted to release a sort of a writer’s cut version of it because I was not happy with, but sort of when the sales started coming in and I was like, okay, well maybe they were right.

Rachael Herron: [00:19:04] I’m going to steal that idea for my students. Like, if you really hate those editing ideas, just put your book aside into a writer’s cut. You can always share that later for lots of money

Eddie King: [00:19:13] Yeah. Nobody’s gonna read it, but you know, at least put it out.

Rachael Herron: [00:19:18] And psychologically you have it. And then they’ll see also, we all see after we do our edits, we’re like, oh yeah, the book is a lot better now. 

Eddie King: [00:19:30] Yeah, I mean, I’ve got all types of ending for most on my books

Rachael Herron: [00:19:35] You know, that’s funny. I have alternative books for most of my books. I rewrite so much. What is your biggest joy? 

Eddie King: [00:19:43] What’s the biggest what? Sorry. 

Rachael Herron: [00:19:45] Oh, What’s your biggest joy when it comes to writing?

Eddie King: [00:19:48] I think when it all comes together, right, there’s always sort of points when you’re writing and you’re just, you think, Oh, actually this works, and sort of things that surprise you while you’re writing. So usually have a plan of what you wanted, where you want to take the story, but then something pops in your head, take it in that direction and it works. Yeah. And then when you sort of stopped connecting with characters that you were writing, I think that definitely whether you’d like them or hate them, if you have any feeling about the characters that you’re right. That’s always a nice feeling because you sort of, kind of, as a writer, you live in this world where there’s all these fictional characters around you. When you, kind of see that they’re real people in your head, that’s, that’s fun. That’s a good proper writing I would say.

Rachael Herron: [00:20:43] That’s such a delicious feeling to think of them as friends and to kind of miss them.

Eddie King: [00:20:48] The sad thing as well, but 

Rachael Herron: [00:20:50] Yeah,

Eddie King: [00:20:51] The writers’ well

Rachael Herron: [00:20:53] Speaking of your plans moving as the characters take you, are you more of a planner? A plotter or are you more of a seat of your pants or something in between? 

Eddie King: [00:21:04] I try to plan more and more and it does help. And I’ve been trying to get into this habit of, before I stopped having a solid plan, but I hardly ever stick to it or something to preach. And a lot of the stories are right at to current affairs as well. So you have to, dig in, just what’s happening around you. And I’m very impatient, so if I hear something or if I see a truth about character, I just want to get it in this book. I didn’t think about sort of two or three books. I tried just cram everything and 

Rachael Herron: [00:21:40] I really believe in that. I really believe and if it wasn’t Annie Dillard said something like, Save nothing. Keep nothing back. And it was much, it was a beautiful, long quote, but you know, I’ll spend it all play it all. Because as soon as you spend it all and play it all, and put it in this book, you, you know, we all have that worry. Like, well, the next book won’t have anything, but it backfills with these new ideas. Yeah. I love that. Can you share a craft tip of any sort of as regards to writing? 

Eddie King: [00:22:14] I would say. There’s no right way of doing anything. And I’ll explain that a little bit. I think a lot of people, starting out with writing, they, you know, they do all this research of how to write and even how to format stuff. And I try to break, I deliberately going to break the rules, but I think, you know, those rules are there to be sort of bent and you can play with English and you can, you can just do whatever you want. There’s no right way of doing it. And there’s no one way of doing it. And as great as all these sort of writing books are, and stuff, I think the advice I give to all sort of new writers and young writers is just go out there and just write and just start, just get pen to paper, just get words out there and you pick it up along the way. I mean, look at Shakespeare the greatest writer, you know, he just made words up the way he wanted to.

Rachael Herron: [00:23:16] He made a lot of words and he made a lot of them up. Yeah.

Eddie King: [00:23:19] Yeah. So I think you can play around sort of being a fiction writer, anyways, you can play around with words and sentence structure and a lot of, sort of the stuff I write kind of sentences border into poetry. And so I think, you know, there’s a lot of space there to do what you want and you should just be yourself and not try and imitate anyone else. Yeah. I think that would be it. There’s no rules with writing and just be yourself. 

Rachael Herron: [00:23:50] That is such a huge tip that it is not one that we talk about a lot. We talk a lot about the specific ways to be better, be stronger. All of these things, you know, what books we should read. And we read all of the books and we listen to podcasts like this. But what we forget is that we’re all completely unique. But the one thing that we all share is that we learned how to do it by doing it. 

Eddie King: [00:24:13] Yeah.

Rachael Herron: [00:24:14] None of us learned everything by reading all of the books, putting it together, perfectly in our brains and being able to sit down and do it. We all had to learn on the job. 

Eddie King: [00:24:16] Exactly. And that’s the best way of doing it. Plus, get all your comments right.

Rachael Herron: [00:24:28] That is for someone else. I always think that is what a copy editor is for, they are not that expensive, you know? Yeah. Yeah. They can, every time I get copied edits back, I’m like, I am the world’s worst writer. Like I have no idea what a comma is, you know, I think I do. I don’t.

Eddie King: [00:24:43] Yeah, that’s so funny.

Rachael Herron: [00:24:40] Well, and then you have that frustrating thing where different copy editors do things differently. You’re like, I just learned how to do this, then you’re doing it differently. Yeah. What thing in your life affects your writing in a surprising way?

Eddie King: [00:24:052 I think maybe well, unsurprisingly people I think just, I think people inspire me. I sort of, I’m one of those people that goes and sits down and just people watches and that’s how I get inspiration for actually writing. And then somebody might come into your life and they’re just sort of this, this force. And that sort of encourages me to write. I use people as muses all the time, whether they know it or not. Love again, you know, I’m one of those people that falls in love three or four times a day with people. 

Rachael Herron: [00:25:35] Me too

Eddie King: [00:25:36] So that really encourages me to write and then probably more surprisingly music as well. I take a lot of inspiration from music. And I often have songs in my head while I’m writing and I sort of play them over and over again, and it could be anything from sort of a gangster, rap song to get me all pumped up to sort of some classical music to calm me down or a little bit of Taylor Swift, you know, just why not. 

Rachael Herron: [00:26:09] I really liked her latest documentary. That was good. 

Eddie King: [00:26:13] Yeah, and I think, again, she’s such a times at songwriter. And I think there’s so much talent in music and just the stories and they get to tell a story in such a short amount of time, so, yeah. Music, surprisingly, people not so surprising. 

Rachael Herron: [00:26:31] It’s interesting. Would you agree that, and this is a thesis I’m just making right now, so I could be wrong, but would you agree that most writers have to be somehow in love with people? I think there are some legends, yeah, I think there are some, probably some curmudgeonly writers that aren’t, and perhaps they write because they kind of hate people. Maybe we fall into different camps, but I am one of those like you, I fall in love constantly with I’m in love with you right now, you know, you’re going to be inspiring something that I do later. 

Eddie King: [00:27:05] But that’s the thing, even if you hate somebody, there is an element of love in it. 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:12] Yes.

Eddie King: [00:27:13] Love is sort of a feeling of passion and

Rachael Herron: [00:27:16] Fascination

Eddie King: [00:27:17] So if you actively go out and hate everyone, there’s something loving about that in a weird way as well.

Rachael Herron: [00:27:26] Yes. In terms of intention, yeah.

Eddie King: [00:27:26] But yeah, I mean. I think you can’t- you can’t write characters and you can’t write about people without loving them or loving the idea of the diversity of the world really 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:42] And loving them completely, including all the flaws that we have to build into our characters. We don’t write books with perfect people. 

Eddie King: [00:27:50] Exactly. And, you know, there’s that old phrase that writers feel more, writers love more, writers hate more. 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:59] I’ve never heard that. And I love it. 

Eddie King: [00:28:02] Yeah. It’s kind of true. I think.

Rachael Herron: [00:28:04] Yeah

Eddie King: [00:28:005] all the time, so

Rachael Herron: [00:28:07] My wife calls that being a drama queen, but everything affection, 

Eddie King: [00:28:14] I get told that as well, all the time. 

Rachael Herron: [00:28:16] Maybe that’s what writers have in common. What is the best book you read recently? And why did you love it? 

Eddie King: [00:28:26] I should be reading more. I, you know, that’s one thing is a, that’s one of my flaws. I just don’t read enough. But then when I do read, I sort of read everything from an author in one sitting. 

Rachael Herron: [00:28:40] So you’re a binge reader

Eddie King: [00:28:41] Yeah. But sort of author wise. So I, recently re-read all of Fitzgerald’s, but yeah. 

Rachael Herron: [00:28:50] Oh really?

Eddie King: [00:28:52] Yeah. And there was a collection of short stories called Flappers and Philosophers. 

Rachael Herron: [00:28:54] I just saw that the other day. 

Eddie King: [00:28:58] Yeah. and so I read that recently. I really enjoyed it, but I had sort of mixed feelings as well after that. Cause I, I read it, I enjoyed it. And I thought, okay. That it’s been a while since I’ve read some of this, some of them I haven’t read, but then I saw a show like Amazon or Netflix show about Zelda Fitzgerald. And it’s sort of a mini documentary about Fitzgerald, he was, he didn’t come across as the nicest person in the sort of in the series. So it kind of put a bit of a sour taste.

Rachael Herron: [00:29:32] That’s difficult. Yeah. That’s difficult to put those. I hate it when a favorite author lets me down in some big way. Well, not over some other ones. Okay. So now is the time that we talk about you, and what you’re doing, where people can find you, but please tell us about this latest book that just came out this week as record- as we record, so it’ll be about two weeks when it goes out. And what is different about this book? 

Eddie King: [00:30:00] What isn’t different about this,

Rachael Herron: [00:30:03] First, tell us the title. 

Eddie King: [00:30:01] Yeah, it’s called the Lost Romantics. So it’s about three friends, three wealthy friends from London that are trying to navigate sort of love, modern love and relationships in the digital world with sort of Tinder and Bumble, and instead of, and it’s, the concept is that these guys are tired of swiping. They’re tired of online dating. They’re tired of sort of not going out on real dates. So they’re coming together to bring romance back. To make romance cool again, as it was right again. But yeah, so I think there’s, sort of a lot of people I feel anyways, or they will be in this sort of early to mid-thirties that are kind of rebelling against social media and updating and online dating. And it’s been fun for a while and it’s been a new thing, but this is nostalgia factor that kicks in, and everyone’s sort of remembers the old times and, you know, going out and picking up a girl at her house for a date. Taking her, you know, having dinner and you know, it’s sounds like such a simple thing, but a lot of the time, these days it’s, they’ll meet at the bar, have a drink at lunchtime or something. You know, it’s a,

Rachael Herron: [00:31:30] Yeah

Eddie King: [00:31:32] I think those stories of romance are at risk. And you know, I’m not saying it’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s just a different thing.

Rachael Herron: [00:31:42] Is this a, is this a trilogy or will all three friends end up in the end with love? 

Eddie King: [00:31:48] Well, you’ll have to stay tuned. 

Rachael Herron: [00:31:51] Okay. And how do we stay tuned? 

Eddie King: [00:31:54] Yeah. Well, that’s a weird thing. I mean, this book is actually available for free, on Instagram if you follow @thelostromantics or you follow me @eddieleeking. I publish, I think, 10 to 15 pages a day at the moment. And it’s just the next chapters that keeping coming out, coming out.

Rachael Herron: [00:32:18] And it’s in the stories function.

Eddie King: [00:32:21] Yes

Rachael Herron: [00:32:22] So basically your, your most recent pictures on your feed, basically say how to go to the stories and you have this really clever thing. So a story, you know, a story only lasts for a few seconds. But you have that little heart to kind of show where a right handed person would put their thumb. 

Eddie King: [00:32:40] Yeah, I’ve got all those people telling me, you know, I can’t read that fast cause you only get sort of 10 seconds. 

Rachael Herron: [00:32:46] But you explain it clearly! They were not reading directions.

Eddie King: [00:32:50] So there’s a little heart in the corner where you put your thumb, you rest your thumb, and it holds the page. And you can read the whole book it’s in the highlights section story.

Rachael Herron: [00:33:01] Yeah. So you keep the highlights those are always there. We’ll, I just think it’s such a fascinating model. And what I really love about it is, the tension that you hold between these people wanting out of social media and swiping and everything like this but, 

Eddie King: [00:33:14] Yeah I mean, that’s, the irony it’s not lost for me

Rachael Herron: [00:33:19] Well, I love it. I think it’s, it feels really intentional to make the reader think about what is going on in the book while they’re holding their phone. What will happen when all of the pages are in, will you then publish the book as well as a standalone or where you always have to go through Instagram? 

Eddie King: [00:33:38] Yeah, I know. So this is kind of just for the release. So there’s three books at the moment and there’ll be released over Instagram, but I think the first book is available on Amazon.

Rachael Herron: [00:33:55] Oh, it is? okay.

Eddie King: [00:33:56] In a copy, I think in two weeks. 

Rachael Herron: [00:33:58] Okay

Eddie King: [00:34:00] And then in bookstores, I should know this, but I think it’s around six weeks. 

Rachael Herron: [00:34:08] Is this your idea to do this, or is it your publisher’s idea, or?

Eddie King: [00:34:13] It was actually my publishers and I, you know, I have to admit this was another thing I was totally against because I was like first of all, I was like, how are we going to give this book away for free? And then it was sort of, I’m a big fan of sort of paperbacks and hardbacks and actual physical books. And I’ve always thought that corner, or, you know, I don’t even like reading eBooks or audio books. I’ve never sort of got into it. So I was against the idea from the beginning. But then like everything, sort of they broke me down and it sort of kind of made sense. And I liked the fact that it is free, for people to go out there read because you know, times are tough, especially now with Covid and everything. Spending eight, nine pounds or $12 on a book, you know it’s a luxury sometimes, and it’s a whole new book as well.

Rachael Herron: [00:35:13] Think the thing, it’s a whole new audience and I think the thing that I hope that you find is that you’re, I’ve seen this with friends when they publish a book on their blog, like in pieces is people still buy the book. 

Eddie King: [00:34:26] Yeah

Rachael Herron: [00:35:27] And these people, will be like, well, I kind of wanted to reread that chapter and I don’t want to go back through the stories, I’ll just buy the book. And they are going to be telling their friends and it’s such a fascinating model.

Eddie King: [00:35:37] Yeah and that’s the thing, you know a lot of sort of a, you know, when I write, I write for a certain audience and, you know, that’s completely the different audience that I get. But you know, people spend so much time on Instagram or on social media looking at sort of all sorts of rubbish. Yeah. This is sort of a way to say, well, actually I’m doing something good on my phone. I’m actually reading book.

Rachael Herron: [00:36:03] Yes

Eddie King: [00:36:04] and you know, it’s in the Instagram, you know, you’ve got all of your friends, things and vacation pictures and all sorts of things. So it’s nice to break it up a little bit with a story as well.

Rachael Herron: [00:36:17] And I get, I personally get really stuck in stories. I really, really like them. So, and in fact, 

Eddie King: [00:36:23] It just keeps going on and on, right

Rachael Herron: [00:36:24] Yeah, exactly, they just keep turning. In fact, I’m going to try to remember today, and also when this comes out to put your first page in my stories so that people can see that that would be really cool. And that’s what a great way to share too. Like free book. Here you go.

Eddie King: [00:36:39] Oh yeah, that’s sort of the idea, and sort of a lot of brands, and a lot of influences and people are mentioned within the books, sort of from a mass view of point, they all share and it gets bigger in that way so

Rachael Herron: [00:36:51] And you can tag them on those pages when they’re shared. 

Eddie King: [00:36:57] Exactly, so 

Rachael Herron: [00:36:58] Oh my mind is blank. I’m never ever going to do this. This sounds like a nightmare to administer 

Eddie King: [00:37:04] I mean yeah, the logistics items, I couldn’t even get it formatted. Yeah. Me trying to put a story together is a nightmare. So luckily, it goes that.

Rachael Herron: [00:37:13] The format is beautiful. The format is really well done. I think, it’s just 

Eddie King: [00:37:17] I mean, you know, it’s not, it’s, on such a small screen, sometimes it well, it must be hard to read, but I think they’ve got the balance right, you know.

Rachael Herron: [00:37:26] They got the balance right. These are, these are 47-year-old eyes. And as soon as I see something that’s a little bit too small, I leave it. I’ll pick up a book in the bookstore and go, well, can’t read that. And yours was like, Oh, I’m in it. I’m reading. So, yeah. Fabulous. Okay. So tell us again where we can find you and all of these things. 

Eddie King: [00:37:44] Yes. So Instagram is probably the best way to go. So the book’s called the Lost Romantics and the handle is @thelostromantics and me, you can find also an Instagram @eddieleeking. And the book is published on both places and you can find out information about like my previous books and upcoming books and all sorts of stuff. That’s probably the best way.

Rachael Herron: [00:38:08] Thank you for being here and for being so different. 

Eddie King: [00:38:14] Thank you for having me. Yeah

Rachael Herron: [00:38:17] Of course, I’ve never interviewed an author, an author just like you. And I enjoy that.

Eddie King: [00:38:24] That’s a good thing

Rachael Herron: [00:38:25] So it’s been a wonderful thing. I was really looking forward to this interview and you did not disappoint. So thank you so much for being here and happy writing and may it fly from the Instagram and also the paid for shelves.

Eddie King: [00:38:27] That’s so cool.

Rachael Herron: [00:38:40] Thanks, Eddie

Eddie King: [00:38:41] Alright. Take care.

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/Rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.