Mentor

​​I can remember the moment I started mentoring so clearly. I was attending a networking event in Birmingham when I met a chap called John Sealey.
​“What do you do, Jo?” he asked me.
“I help people to write books,” I replied, the words just fell out of my mouth and were as much a surprise to me as they were to him.
“Then you are just who I need,” John replied, handing me his business card.
​John was my first mentoring client. It was 2002.
Since then I have mentored hundreds of people to write books, articles and life story. I call myself a mentor rather than a coach because I give so much advice. With 32 books and hundreds of articles to my credit, I am an authority on all aspects of writing non-fiction. Now so many of my clients have published books or embarked on writing, blogging or communications careers that I have proof my methods work.

Your Book From Scratch

My intensive 12-month programme will help you brainstorm, plan, create and perfect your book from scratch
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​You can work with me for as little as four hours or for as long as it takes to create your book, from ‘brainwave to bookshelf’. In 2017 I created my ​Book From Scratch Mentoring programme, so that, for a reduced monthly fee and the commitment of a year, I can work with you, mentoring, editing and cheerleading you towards the eventual publication of your book. Most clients move on to publish with one of our imprints – Summertime Publishing or Springtime Books – but there is no obligation to do so.​
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Whether you want someone to assess your manuscript, read your first chapter and proposal or just help you to polish a few stories and poems about your own life I am happy to help you. With my personal experience of having lived abroad and running a business it's inevitable that I specialise in these areas and can lend my vast knowledge of the subject and the experts within it to my clients’ work.

I’m told I am encouraging and helpful. I am also told I am honest. If I think your idea could be improved I won’t shy away from telling you so. When you work with me, you are safe in the knowledge that I only work with a limited number of people at a time and that I will think about your book in the middle of the night or when I am out walking in the woods. I take my clients’ work seriously and strive to do my best to help you produce the best work you can.

Testimonials

Your Book From Scratch

​“What a joy it is to work with Jo on my second book! Why do I work with her? Because she intuitively sees into my heart, mind and soul. And with that insight, she draws from me the book that’s bubbling inside. She uses a magic mix of nurturing and care with a clarity and discipline… that demands nothing but the very best from me. That’s what brilliant mentoring and coaching does. It’s rather like being sprinkled with fairy dust.”
David Scarlett, author of The Soul Millionaire and The Flight of The Soul Millionaire
"Your comments are just what I needed. I felt like there was something missing and you have hit the nail on the head!"
Mentoring client, Matthew Smith, New Life Financial Planning, England
​“This is perfect for anyone, like me, who wants to write a book and has no idea where to start. Without you I would still be sitting in the garden thinking about it. I could not have done it without you. And thank you once again for being so amazing to work with. In the middle of all the end of year craziness, I paused to look at my book and feel very proud of how its been written. Truly feel that thanks to your help and advice, I'll be putting the best version out there."
Mariam Ottimofiore, author of This Messy Mobile Life

Mentoring and Editing

​"I would like to thank you for the time, effort and commitment you have given to Homeward Bound over the last year.  Your vision as an editor has taken a fledgling idea into its current, highly regarded form."
Robin Pascoe, author of Homeward Bound
“You have a rare gift for getting the best out of me. You always know just what would work both objectively and for me, taking our own taste and abilities to ‘see’ and ‘perceive’ into account. While talented yourself, and with your own style, you are able to look into the world of others, inhabit it and understand how it can be enhanced. And then to take us further than we could have envisaged for ourselves. I may now realise the potential of which there has always been a hint. How can I thank you for that? I feel more fulfilled than I have done throughout my (relatively) successful professional career. Jo Parfitt you are helping to record the miracle of life. Thank you always.”
​Lesley Pendlebury
“Jo inspired in me a fresh love for writing and has been encouraging and supportive from start to finish. I know I can trust her and that means a lot when writing a memoir.”
Shirley Knights, author of memoir, Hidden Girl