2 Eoghan Egan

SATURDAY SPOTLIGHT 2: EOGHAN EGAN

Hello everyone. Complementing the author spotlights I ran from 2011 to 2016, today’s Saturday Spotlight, the second, is of Eoghan Egan. If you would like to take part in a spotlight, do take a look at Saturday spotlights.

A native of Co. Roscommon, Ireland, Eoghan wrote his first story aged nine.

At college, he studied Computer Programming, works in Sales Management & Marketing, but his passion for reading and writing remains. In 2010 he wrote two full-length novels – that’ll never see the light of day – but it gave him the confidence to continue creating characters and potential storylines. In 2012 he began attending writing courses to learn the craft and in 2015 he completed a year-long Certificate in Creative Writing for Publication at Maynooth University, Co Kildare, Ireland, under the tutelage of John McKenna and Shauna Gilligan.

Eoghan’s work got shortlisted for the 2018 Bridport Short Story Prize, and Listowel’s 2019 Bryan McMahon Short Story Award Competition. His novel was a contender in literary agent David Headley’s opening chapter Pitch Competition, and during March 2019, Eoghan’s entry won Litopia’s prestigious Pop-Up Submission.

Always keen to develop his writing skills, Eoghan constantly explores ways to increase his knowledge in the art of writing, and spends any spare time attending literary festivals and enrolling in literary courses, including, for example, Curtis Brown’s Edit & Pitch Your Novel Programme, and crime writing courses under the guidance of bestselling author Louise Phillips.

Eoghan is also a heavy metal fan and divides his time between Roscommon and Dublin. Most weekends, you’ll usually find him lurking around bookshops, or in the mosh pit at a rock gig.

Hiding in Plain Sight, the first in a crime fiction series based around the Irish Midlands, was published by City Stone Publishing on February 23rd 2023.

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And now from the author himself:

Born into a family of bookworms, I’ve never known a time that I wasn’t reading or writing stories. From an early age, I collected articles of interest and wrote down words or phrases that resonated or conjured up ideas in my mind. I still do this.

Fast-forward to 2012. I read a newspaper article about a spate of disappearances, so I wrote the story, with a lot of “what if” questions in mind. By year end, I’d a full manuscript, and I enrolled in a writing course titled ‘The Second Draft,’ run by the Irish Writers’ Centre with author Mia Gallagher as tutor. This was the first time my work was critiqued by a peer group… and the expected validation didn’t materialise!

Mia’s feedback showed me I’d a long way to go. She became my mentor, pulled the story apart and taught me how to build it back up again, scene by scene. (That last sentence summarises four years of painstaking work). Interestingly, during that time, the opening and closing sentences never changed, but everything else got shifted, deleted, toned down or ramped up.

Each draft seemed like a finished product and I began submitting to literary agents. A handful commended me on the characters but didn’t ask to read the full script. Most didn’t reply. (I learned that within the publishing industry, no reply means “I’m not interested.”) Rejection is a bitter pill that makes staying motivated very hard, but you’ve got to believe in yourself and your work. Writing is subjective. One person’s dismissal is someone else’s masterpiece.

I kept rewriting, attended courses and literary festivals, learning my trade. Every completed module stretched and increased my knowledge, offering new perspectives on the work in progress.

As my publishing knowledge increased, I realised that while agents are a superb addition, it’s a myth that they do everything for their stables of authors. Yes, mainstream publishers execute a lot of the heavy lifting with regards a sales force, vital exposure, marketing muscle and distribution channels. But writers have to promote themselves – now more than ever – and when the initial book launch euphoria dies down, they must keep the momentum going by becoming their own agent, publisher and marketeer.

Self-publishing gives independent writers creative control, but requires several skill sets and platforms they have to juggle. The options are:

A) Do everything yourself.

B) Continue writing and project manage the operation by delegating social media, book cover designing, copy editing, formatting, narrating, advertising, publicity and promotion.

C) A mixture of A & B. It’s an exceptional person who has a flair for every phase of the procedure, so C is the preference for most indie authors. Each writer has to do the best they can with their own set of skills, and then buy in the services of professionals to cover the rest.

Another alternative is hybrid publishing – also called “author-assisted,” “partnership” or “co-publishing.” This model allows writers to find high quality publishing services within one company. Obviously, there’s a cost, but in some cases the publisher will carry a portion of the financial burden for editing, printing or marketing, since both author and publisher will share in profits from the book sales. That’s what differentiates this standard from vanity presses.

So, from concept to final edit, took me many years of writing, editing, redrafting, deletions, rejections, revisions, attending and learning from writing courses and literary festivals, and getting feedback from beta readers. There are no short-cuts.

This writing journey continues to be a fantastic learning curve. Yes, scary and at times overwhelming because there’s always something new to conquer, but ultimately rewarding. Isn’t life great? There’s still so much to learn.

You can find more about Eoghan and his writing via…

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at Saturday Spotlights or email me for details.



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