To say that I am delighted would be an understatement! At last, at least a portion of the wisdom that bursts out of the virtual pages of the ExpatWomen website has been turned into a book. And what a book it is too!

The ExpatWomen confessions page has been a winner from the start. Here, brave, anonymous but hurting women living overseas could ask their questions of an expert and receive lengthy, immensely helpful replies in exchange from the professionals. This anthology contains 50 of them. 50 questions that I’d wager many of us STARS (that stands for Spouses Travelling and Relocating Successfully) have longed to ask at one time or another. Questions that need answers.

Here you have 50 questions and 50 indepth answers on a range of issues from health and finance to parenting, alcoholism, suicide, divorce and depression. Questions that seem as simple as ‘how do I settle in?’ but that don’t feel simple at all when you are new in a town and you don’t speak the language.

This is such a great book that I was happy to throw my hat in the ring and give a prize to Andrea Martins to give away as part of the competition that celebrates the launch of the book she co-authored with Victoria Hepworth. My prize is three 45 minute consultations with me to discuss your writing dreams. Worth just $480 it is actually one of the lowlier prizes on offer.

To have a chance of a prize all you need to do is buy your copy and send a copy of your receipt to Andrea during May.

Competition details can be found here.

Authors need to get publicity and lots of it, every which way, all the time. So, when Andrea Martins of ExpatWomen.com asked if she could interview me about my new online program, called Definite Articles: how to write and sell winning articles based on your overseas experience I jumped at the chance. As the program only went on sale this week and isn’t quite even up on Amazon yet, this only goes to show that Andrea knows the value of being first.

She sent me a few questions by email and this is the result of the piece that appeared on her blog today.

Expat Women: Jo, last time we talked, you had just launched your Write Your Life Stories online program. How did your new online program, Definite Articles, come about?

Jo: Actually, I created this program first (in 2002) and ran it as a live one day workshop for many years.  In about 2005, I turned the notes from the live workshop into an ebook and that became part of an eight lesson correspondence course.  I have been running it ever since in that way.  However, since 2005, I have adjusted, amended and honed the course, adding new stuff to such an extent that it became about twice as long as before.  I added material about blogging, marketing yourself online, pitching and writing a book review too.

Expat Women: You say that your program is for people living abroad.  Is the content only suitable for expats?

Jo: Definite Articles will work for anybody, sure.  But my writing experience is mainly for the expat market, so this is the area I know best. The examples and markets mentioned target this niche too, so I believe the program is of particular interest to people living abroad.

Read the rest of the article here.

The following is my column from my November Inspirer newsletter, now in its seventh year. To subscribe and pick up a copy of ’50 Steps to a Book in Your Hand’ please go to my website www.joparfitt.com

I often tell my students and clients that they need to be Googleable if they are to impress a publisher. I recommend that they start a blog, give talks, use social media tools and go the extra mile towards growing their network. Publishers are interested in authors with a following. If you self-publish you need an even bigger network if you are to sell your book once you have written it. You need to be famous in your field. A bit of a celebrity. Whichever route you take to market it is clear that the bigger your network the more chance there is that your contacts will buy your books. Let me tell you about two people who do this brilliantly.

Andrea Martins, founder of the fabulous free website ExpatWomen.com, flew here to the Netherlands this week from Kuala Lumpur. A long haul in many senses of the word, but one that she felt was worth the effort. Andrea came to attend, have a stand and present a workshop at the Expatica, I Am Not a Tourist fair in Amsterdam. I went along to present a workshop of my own and to help out on her stand. The fair was attended by thousands and we talked ourselves hoarse, and yes, it was worth it. As a result, hundreds of people signed up to Expatwomen, a website that supports and inspires women overseas with its success stories, features, reviews and its hugely popular confessions section. Andrea also keeps an active blog that she uses simply to ‘shout out’ about people she meets or things she learns along the way that she knows will interest her thousands of subscribers.

I only went to the fair to help out, but Andrea allowed me to take my marketing materials along and so I made some pretty decent connections myself. One of whom was the hugely inspiring Melody Biringer, who runs The Crave Company and publishes books about the things women crave in the major cities of the world. She came to Amsterdam from her usual home in Seattle, to bring the concept here. Melody attended my workshop on writing life stories and within minutes had taken out her iphone and sent a tweet to her followers about me. Melody has sent over 6000 tweets to her 2000 followers since she joined Twitter just over a year ago. But in addition, within hours she had posted a blog about what she learned at my workshop too. And tweeted about that, of course.

Sorry, have I lost you? Are you wondering what the point of this may be? It’s simple . . . Andrea and Melody are role models. They want to promote their businesses to as many people as possible, use every means they can and their effort pays dividends. As a result both are well known in their fields. Let me just remind you what it is they do to deserve such status:

Ten Steps to Celebrity Status

1. Attend an expo or conference
2. Run a workshop at said expo or conference
3. Find places to hand out marketing materials
4. Have a website
5. Keep a blog
6. Use Twitter and other social media tools and share stuff regularly
7. Network like crazy both on and offline, talk yourself hoarse
8. Travel if you have to
9. Offer something that people want to sign up to
10. Share what you have with others

But do you really need to be famous if you want to write a book? Isn’t that a bit over the top? No, it isn’t. You see, two days ago I was sitting drinking a rather overstrong coffee in the office of a major UK publisher, in London, talking about the ‘front list’ – the books that are in the front of bookshops, newly published and being promoted like crazy.

’95 per cent of the front list is written by celebrities,’ he said, laying both hands on the table and looking me in the eye.

‘Seriously?’ I said. ‘You are exaggerating, right?’

‘Hum,’ he pondered for a split second. ‘Actually, this time of year, it’s closer to 100 per cent.’ He leaned back in his chair and I blanched. If bookshops favour the front list then publishers favour the front list ergo we need to be famous if we are to stand a chance.

So, there you have it, from the horse’s mouth. If you want to get published you need to become a celebrity, or failing that, just famous in your field. I hope my ten tips above will help to get you started.

Warmly

Jo

Have you heard of EzineArticles? It is a site where experts and authors can post articles and which can then be sourced and used by ezines all over the world. It’s a great way to get publicity. Andrea Martins of ExpatWomen has done it again, and has just written about my new book, A Career in Your Suitcase. If you want publicity, maybe you need to take a look at EzineArticles.