Jo Parfitt » Jo Parfitt

My writing life story course recommended in The Guardian and The Week!

Jo Parfitt, Summertime Publishing — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 08:30:27 +0000

I am jumping up and down with glee… We have taken The Week newspaper for years, as it’s a fab round-up of international and British news in a handy A4 size. We love it. It’s long been an ambition of mine to create something – a course, a book, a service – that I could advertise in The Week, knowing that largely, its readers are my target market.

Then this week it happened without any intervention from me…

There was a list of recommended writing courses… sourced from The Guardian newspaper… and THERE I AM!!

Double-whammy, advertised in two great papers.

Guess, I must be doing something right!

It’s a brilliant opportunity by the way to follow the entire How To Write Your Life Story program in a beautiful environment and with lovely food. Thanks to Lois and Bill, who run The Watermill at Posara for inviting me.

Me and my career and publishing secrets – the video

Jo Parfitt, Summertime Publishing — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:50:26 +0000

On Sunday, Doris Fuellgrabe interviewed me by the magic of video for the Expat Coach Association website. In this 54 minute film I share my journey starting with my experience, before discussing expat writing and publishing market opportunities, the main reasons expats get into writing, how the publishing industry has changed, where to focus your writing attention, how automation can help you be present in several platforms, how to go from blog to book, and when you know that a book is ‘done’. We finish up by talking a little bit about my first novel, called “Sunshine Soup,” also the featured item of their newsletter .

Write Your Life Stories workshop goes to Italy

Jo Parfitt, Summertime Publishing — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:48:26 +0000

If you have been thinking about taking a course in how to write life story but wishing you lived in the Hague so you could attend my workshops, you will now be pleased to know that How to Write Your Life Stories is going to The Watermill at Posara, near Pisa, Italy, next October (2012).

If you would like to learn how to add SPICE to your writing, how to write compelling prose about your experiences and discover how to write in complete stories, then this is the course for you.

Held over one week in sumptuous surroundings with all food, accommodation and transfers taken care of, you will not regret taking a week off and joining me in Posara next year.

There will be lessons every day, homework to do every afternoon and yet there will still be time for feedback and exploration. You even get a day off in the middle precisely for that purpose!

How do I know that this course will really be that good? Because I attend one of Lois and Bill Breckon’s workshops myself, at the Castle of Park, over four years ago and that is where my novel, published this month, was born thanks to the tutelage of Anita Burgh.

Book before the end of this month to enjoy the Watermill ‘price freeze’

Book before the end the year to enjoy a £75 discount.

Book soon to make sure you don’t miss out. Places are very limited.

Find out more here at the Watermill

Writers Abroad Radio Show no 10 – I talk about my new novel, Sunshine Soup

Jo Parfitt, Summertime Publishing — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:48:27 +0000

This week’s radio show is a bit different. This time I am the one in the hot seat!

Global writer and journalist, Renata Harper, interviews me about the agony and the ecstasy of writing my upcoming novel, Sunshine Soup. I talk about how long it took, how I took a risk, how hard it was to write and how I coped not only with the knockbacks but that well-known moment, when you can see the finish line, and suddenly think that every word you wrote was utter rubbish. See, I’m normal, just like everyone else!

Click here to listen to the show.

Sunshine Soup’s official launch is on 1st October. Yes, it’s my first novel!

My time – I get interviewed for my Writers Abroad Radio Show

Jo Parfitt, Summertime Publishing — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:03:49 +0000

I’ll fess up. We recorded this show first – eight weeks ago – before I recorded all the other shows. But I forgot to upload it!

So here you have it, Rachel Flower, of Live Your Brilliance, interviews me, brilliantly, about writing.

Please listen to the show here.

How to judge, and sell, a book by its cover

Jo Parfitt, Summertime Publishing — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:55:52 +0000

People take about 30 seconds to make up their minds whether to consider buying a book or not. The list below will help you to hook them before they even open the book:

10 ways to grab a book buyer’s attention

Have a great title – funny, punny, alliterative are all good
Have a clear subtitle – ensuring the keywords people use when they search for books on Amazon are in there somewhere
Beg, cajole or bribe someone famous or eminent to write your foreword and put their name on the cover
Beg, cajole or bribe more famous people to review your book later and put their words on the back cover.
Take the best review quote you have, from the most influential person, and put it on the front cover.
Ensure your book design fits the book’s message, your purpose and your brand
Offer a bonus, some free stuff and promote that on the cover. Stephanie Hale, author of Millionaire Women, Millionaire You invites readers to collect tons of great reports from her millionaire vault. Arvind Devalia, offered a free coaching session with Get a Life, Marcus Buckingham offered a free online assessment with Now Discover Your Strengths.
Write a compelling description of the book and what it will do for the reader and add that to the back cover.
Put your photo on the cover. A professional one!
Put your website on the cover, and make it memorable, then, even if they don’t buy the book, they may look you up later.

These tips, and many more, from the Book Promotion Seminar, in London, April 2010, will appear on my blog over the next few weeks. Make sure you sign up so you don’t miss out.

Do you have more tips to share on how to ensure your book is judged and sold by its cover? If so, please share them here.

Top five takeaways from the book promotion seminar

Jo Parfitt, Summertime Publishing — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:51:36 +0000

As many of you know, last weekend I both attended and spoke at a book promotion seminar in London. Led by Kavit Haria, England’s answer to Tim Ferris (4 Hour Work Week, this twenty-something knows all there is to know about using social media to make you money, selling your books, while you sleep. Only Haria does not sleep – instead he travels. India, South Africa, Alaska this year alone. Also on stage were the blogging expert who has also sold over 5,000 books using offline methods, Arvind Devalia and Stephanie Hale of RichWriterPoorWriter fame, who, like me, helps people to write, publish and importantly make money, from their books.

But you want my top tips, right? I’ll warn you, I filled an entire exercise book with notes on seminars from Kavit, Arvind and Stephanie, so sign up to my blog for much more to come. It goes without saying that my own tips will be shared here too, over the next few weeks.

Top five takeaways

“The most effective tool long term is blogging. The best short term tool is Pay Per Click and the best medium term tools are Facebook, YouTube and Twitter,” Kavit.
“Create a buzz about yourself by posting book extracts online, asking for feedback, getting reviews, contributing to blogs, forums and social media,” Stephanie.
“Marketing is something you need to do every single day of your life if you want to be successful,” Kavit.
“Be inspired by others who are successful and look at the site for The Leader Who Had No Title by Robin Shama as a fabulous example,” Arvind.
“Your story is vital. Your story as an author is paramount – do you have the authority to write your book? What makes you an expert? In addition, the stories you tell in your anecdotes and case studies must leap off the page,” Jo.

Kavit is running a blogging workshop this weekend and a two day hands on seminar that will get you started with all the social media tools you need in May.

Kavit, Stephanie and Arvind all run mentoring schemes. Follow them on Twitter and be sure you don’t miss out: Kavit, Arvind, Stephanie

Write something new today

Jo Parfitt, Summertime Publishing — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:39:10 +0000

It’s January, traditionally the month we pledge to do new things. Writers should never tire of trying new styles and methods and so here, to spur you on, are 11 ideas for you, as seen in my January column at The Hague Online, where I am writer in residence.

Are you going to try something new today?

Read the full article here.

Why writing saves lives

Jo Parfitt, Summertime Publishing — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:13:00 +0000

Thank goodness I am a writer. If I weren’t then I doubt I’d have survived this merrygoround they call a mobile life. In the last 28 years I’ve lived in 6 different countries with four different languages, lost my identity and found it again. Boy, am I glad I ‘saved’ my life. Not only in the form of my memoir, A Moving Landscape, but using writing as a form of therapy has been a godsend. Read my post on the superb Expat Harem blog and be sure to have your say . . .

When it's time to leave home

Jo Parfitt, Summertime Publishing — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:01:49 +0000

The following article also appears in my monthly Inspirer newsletter, designed to inspire, support and inform writers. If you would like to receive your copy each month please sign up at my website www.joparfitt.com and pick up a copy of 50 Steps to a Book in Your Hand at the same time.

Here goes:

When it’s time to leave home

I’ll cut straight to the chase and tell you about the thing that has dominated my thoughts since my last newsletter. My son has left home. It was not unexpected. It was inevitable, anticipated, we were prepared. Last year he completed his A levels and the year before he had applied to university in London and been accepted. He started packing the moment he heard he’d got the grades he needed. But when it was time to wave him off, two days ago, it was no less heartbreaking for me. Sam, on the other hand, had a new life to lead, alone, without me to wash his clothes and check he had enough to eat. But even as we drove off through the streets of Islington, back to the Eurotunnel, I could not suppress a slight smile of recognition, that this sweet sorrow mirrors my life as a writer.

You see, they say that a painting, like a piece of writing, is never finished, it just stops in an interesting place. They say that there comes a time when the editing must stop. A time when you actually make things worse by over-refining them. A time when you have to let them go. There comes a time when you must admit you have done your bit leave your work to find its own way.

A couple of weeks before Sam left, I had a day when the enormity of the hole his departure would leave in my life and my nest kept creeping up on me, like the children tiptoeing behind me in a game of What’s the Time Mr Wolf? I had climbed into bed with sinking heart and picked up the copy of The Muses Among Us, by Kim Stafford, that lay on my bedside table. It opened on page 38. I read:

‘One day, it is time for the child to leave home. To remain longer would reverse the principle of healthy growth. That day comes when the child is mature enough to go out into the world, and the parent has other things to do. In the terrifying words of Donald Graves, we should not linger so long with a piece of writing that we begin “giving a manicure to a corpse.”‘

Since reading those lines my feelings about the departure of my firstborn became calmer. If could totally empathise with Stafford’s beliefs as a writer then it followed that if it was time to let go of my son, it was time to let go.

Back in May I had finally finished my novel and realized that it was time I stopped trying to improve it and let it go, too. I printed out a synopsis, cover letter and three sample chapters, put it in a padded bag and sent it out into the world. It is now doing the rounds of the agents. Sure, I keep thinking about it, missing the days I spent writing it, lost in a parallel universe with my characters. But I know I was right to let it leave home.

In my experience as a writer’s mentor, I have seen many instances where overworking ends up spoiling a very good piece of writing. Sure, you have to ‘murder your children’, as they say, and cut some of the best bits. Sure, you have to cut superfluous or empty words, repetition and to keep things simple. But there comes a time when you can cut too much and may have nothing left. I am also a firm believer in the principle that often the thing you think of first may be the best and that, as Hamlet says in the ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy: ‘the native hue of resolution //is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.’ It can be dangerous to think about something too much or too long.

And so, as I sit at my desk in the knowledge that we now have a spare bedroom again, I ask you to think about your writing, to let it flow, to try not to stunt its growth and to recognise when it is time to let it go.

If you like this, and would like more of the same, take a look at the Publishing Academy, where I am a faculty member. It is packed with information and inspiration for writers, just like this.