Ghost stories keep this publishing family busy

When Paul Eno launched a family business editing and publishing trade newsletters, he didn’t set out to become one of America’s best-known ghost hunters.
But that’s exactly where his business got him. Today you might find him speaking at a Mensa convention, or talking about spooks and apparitions on Art Bell’s “Coast to Coast” radio show, or sitting at a table at a Barnes & Noble, signing copies of his latest tome “Turning Home: God, Ghosts, and Human Destiny.”
“I’ve been doing paranormal investigations for 40 years,” Eno said. “But at one time, I didn’t tell too many people about it.”
The Woonsocket resident worked for many years in the newspaper business, eventually landing as an editor on the wire desk at The Providence Journal. He left that post in 1990 to care for his two young sons, Jonathan, now 24, and Benjamin, now 16. His plan then was to find some sort of home employment while his wife, Jackie, worked as a paralegal.
Before long, Eno heard that the Rhode Island Builders Association was looking for an editor for its monthly magazine. He approached the chairman with a different proposition: Why not hire a freelancer? The association gave him the contract.
Eno then established New River Press, and began churning out publications for other trade associations as well. A cousin in Springfield, Mass., had journalism experience and he signed her on as a contract employee. Eventually he would hire another cousin to help with marketing and warehousing.
At the same time, Eno was traveling the Northeast investigating paranormal events, something he started doing back in the 1970s. In the woods of Pomfret, Conn., he says, he heard conversations among the long-dead residents of an abandoned Colonial village. In a Massachusetts school he watched unseen hands rearrange furniture in a haunted classroom.
In 1998, New River Press published its first book, “Wheels Up” by Jim Nesbitt of Westerly, a pioneer in the aviation industry. It was not a big seller, but Eno wasn’t discouraged. Dipping into his own experience as a paranormal investigator, he put out two books of his own, “Footsteps in the Attic” and “Faces in the Window.”
“I liked the idea of getting both the author’s cut and the publisher’s cut,” he said.
Both books caught on with the New Age crowd and fans of New England lore. Before long, Eno was in demand as a speaker and as a guest on TV and radio talk shows. He then began publishing books on the paranormal by other writers.
Book publishing has been so successful that Eno has cut back on the trade newsletters and the company has hired its first full-time employee, the Enos’ son, Jonathan. As executive assistant, he handles most of the day-to-day business, working from a desk in the family home. Their younger son, Benjamin, now a student at Mount St. Charles Academy in Woonsocket, joins his father on ghost- hunting expeditions. The two are also planning a radio show. Besides Eno’s cousins, the company also has several other contractors who help with editing and marketing.
If it all sounds easy, it’s not. Running any family enterprise can be a challenge, especially when it comes to working at home.
“If you have someplace in your home where you can operate the business — someplace totally separated from the rest of the house – that’s the best situation,” said business coach Bob Miller of Warwick, who works through The Entrepreneur Source.
Eno agrees. “My wife says we don’t work at home, we live at work.”
Eno says he’s fortunate to have a basement room to use as an office. “You do lose track of holidays and sometimes you get annoyed by them,” he says. “We keep weird hours. You get a lot done at night, when the phones aren’t ringing.”
The business continues to expand, but Eno still publishes the Rhode Island Builders Report. “After dealing with a pesky poltergeist all week,” he said, “it can be therapeutic to sit down at a desk and write about land-use issues.” •