The idea for today's blog post came to me in church. There was no singing allowed, apart from the choir, who sat two metres apart. The congregation too sat apart and only every other pew was used. A churchwarden opened the door to our pew and handed us our orders of service with recently sanitised hands. These are unusual times.

There is a point in the communion service when we are asked to give a sign of peace to each other. How were we to do that when hugging and hand-shaking are forbidden? I soon discovered that instead of stretching out my hand to those in reach I did all that was left to me: I scanned the space and sought out people's eyes and when I found a pair looking in my direction we locked eyes more firmly than ever before. With limited resources we did what we could, smiled broadly in an attempt to elicit a twinkle and gave a slight nod. The depth of connection in those moments touched me, causing my heart to give a little flip. Never before have I felt so engaged to those I was able to greet. And this is when the topic for today's post hit me...

You have to find a way to connect with your reader. You have to connect in the purest, simplest, most fundamental of ways and you have to make them notice you, really notice you.

For it was in the brief, deep moments of engagement in church that day that it was clear that real engagement is a two-way thing. Without us both taking it seriously there could be no engagement.

Seven rules of engagement

So how do you, the writer, connect with your reader? Sure, you make them notice you by making them laugh, entertaining them or writing exquisite prose. You can create tension and have a fabulous plot and a stunning cast of characters that keeps them turning pages. But it is only when you connect at a deep level that you can make their heart flip.

Here are some ideas to help you engage with your readers at that deep level:

1. Allow your words, characters or story resonate with the reader so that they can empathise with the story.
2. Be vulnerable and authentic. Write your truth. 
3. If you are writing a how-to book, include case studies of people who are like your ideal reader and personal anecdotes that will get your reader nodding in recognition.
4. Be relevant.
5. Be accessible, keeping language simple so your reader can understand.
6. Use names for your characters. Call your father Daddy, Papa or Da, rather than "my father".
7. Omit self-indulgent writing about things that interest you but maybe are not needed by the book.

It's a brand new year and I'm excited to share this brand new section with you this month. As you may know, since the start of the pandemic, I have been conducting Zoom interviews with skilled authors and experts on various aspects of the writing process. I call them In Conversation Masterclasses. I hold an average of one a month and it's always free to register. Not everyone can manage to attend the live sessions but they are always a goldmine of inspiration and information. So, now, every month, I am delighted to share some snippets of wisdom in both written and video form.

Below you will find extracts from my discussion with Dr Anisha Abraham who recently published Raising Global Teens, published by Summertime Publishing.

On 12th December I was lucky to host an hour-long talk with Dr Anisha Abraham about how she went from expert paediatrician – but un-confident writer – to landing CNN interviews and having her book in USA Walmart superstores. 

Her book – Raising Global Teens – is an inspiring topic in itself as it teaches parents to raise thriving teenagers in a globalised, cross-cultural world. However, Anisha's tips on how she found her writer's voice, disciplined herself to stick to clear deadlines and fine-tuned pitches to end up on national TV networks will inspire both new and published writers.

The below snippets were cut from an hour-long interview with Dr Anisha packed full of fascinating insights – you can watch the whole thing here. 

1. How to find your writer's voice 

Dr Anisha first came to me about two years ago as a mentee, joining my year-long mentoring programme. In this snippet we recall the moment she found her writer's voice. Writing the complete draft of a book is not the same as finding your voice – indeed you can write thousands of words of a manuscript without a clear voice. But your book will be all the better for having a clear purpose, or a 'mission' as Dr Anisha called it during our In Conversation Masterclass.

With a defined objective and a picture of your ideal reader you can write your way into your voice.

​2. How to work with deadlines

Dr Anisha was a highly experienced paediatrician when she came to write Raising Global Teens. As she explains during our In Conversation Masterclass, however, the confidence she had in paediatrics did not immediately translate into confidence as a writer. In other parts of our talk she emphasises the importance of self-belief and persistence – in this video, however, she shares a useful tip to stay motivated and efficient as the book took shape: deadlines.

Work with a mentor or buddy who will check in with you regularly to keep you on track.

The final part of my In Conversation Masterclass allows the audience to ask the author their own questions. Here, we field a brilliant question concerning the clout of small publishing houses compared with the well-known companies. 

My publishing house, Summertime Publishing and its sister imprint, Springtime Books, are well known in the expat and FIGT worlds though cannot hope to have the impact of the big name megapublishers out there. Dr Anisha explains in the video that's not good enough for national print media. As she goes on to explain, however,  you still could have a great chance on TV and radio with the right pitch sent out at the right time. 

Time your pitches right. Find a contemporary hook to get the media to notice you.

​If you want to stay up to date with my In Conversation Masterclass series, please like my Facebook page for announcements and reminders. A list of upcoming events is also available on my Virtual Events page. You can, of course, also subscribe to my YouTube channel where you will find all previous Masterclasses and much more.

Dr Anisha Abraham can be found on Facebook and Instagram. Her book can be found here on our ExpatBookshop page.

This month, for the first time ever, someone else has written this blog.  Joshua Parfitt is a trained journalist and now freelances as a digital news editor, content  creator, sub-editor and writer. Summertime Publishing and Springtime Books are now among his clients.

When we work with our author clients we create a style sheet that sets down the rules regarding layout, style and spelling for the publication. Without this it is hard to stay consistent. One thorny issue is the handling of emphasis. Will we use bold, or italic, capitals, first letter capitals or quotation marks? What follows is an in-depth discussion of the use of single quotation marks...

                                              * * *
The quotation mark/inverted comma may look nothing more than an upside-down comma, but its origins are divine.
 
In the 7th century, Isidore of Seville described contemporary scholars’ usage of the Greek forefather to modern quote marks:
 
“Our copyists place this sign in the books of the people of the Church, to separate or to indicate the quotations drawn from the Holy Scriptures.”
 
Whether the common comma slipped out of place, had its destiny revealed in a dream or just got bored, we will never know.
 
But we owe them a great deal – quotation marks have bequeathed one of the most profound qualities upon otherwise squiggles on a page: authority.
 
As with everything in this ‘post truth’ era, however, authority has come under scrutiny and even disdain.
 
Did you miss it? 
 
I just put the words ‘post truth’ in quotation marks – did you notice? 
 
The use of single or double quotation marks around a word or phrase, rather than a complete sentence as above, is also known as a scare quote.
 
Not scary in a haunted-house sense, but let me explain to you why, as a writer, you should still watch out.
 
Scare/Sneer Quotes
 
Editor Greil Marcus once described this usage of scare quotes as “a writer’s assault on his or her own words.”
 
(The usage of single quotation marks in this way are also known shudder quotes, quibble marks or, my personal favourite, sneer quotes.)
 
I too believe these pernicious inverted commas have everything to do with dismantling the very authority they were invented to portray.
 
As you may have noticed, earlier I quoted post truth without strictly quoting anything.
There was no according to research at the School of Oriental and African Studies to give academic back-up to my quotation… there was no as conspiracy theorists seeking to undermine the status quo say to offer an opinion… and there wasn’t even a simple as my granny says to tell you who’s responsible for the quote.
 
No one is taking credit for my quote or its meaning – not even me, the ‘author’!
 
See how I did it again?
 
Sneer quotes are also used by writers to question – or sneer – at the authenticity of a term without offering any more explanation than two (or four) lazy upside-down commas.
 
Does ‘author’ mean I’m a fake author? An ironic author? Or am I just wearing a funny hat? Sneer quotes are literature’s version of the boy who cried wolf – they draw attention but provide no knowledge.
 
Sneer quotes allow an author to make a judgement without explaining what’s wrong or even putting their name to said pseudo-judgement.
 
If writing is about taking abstract ideas and making them understandable and reproducible, then sneer quotes are the opposite: sneer quotes turn understandable and reproducible forms of communication back into abstract ideas.
 
Sneer quotes promote ambiguity; they let go an opportunity for an insight into the author’s world. 
 
Sneer quotes should be every writer’s enemy.
 
This consecrated comma
 
At Summertime Publishing we believe in the divine origin of the quotation mark.
We find it interesting that Serbian-American playwright Steve Tesich first coined the term ‘post-truth’ to talk about the Watergate scandal – I may have just Wikipedia-ed that, but you good writers out there should be doing the work for the reader, not dropping a sneer quote and exiting the sentence in a dazzled haze.
 
We also believe in calling a spade a spade – I’m not an ambiguous ‘author’, I’m a bloke who gets upset over 1,300-year-old upside-down commas. 
 
(See how the lazy sneer quotes snatched an opportunity for a joke away from me?)
 
In sum, we believe that proper punctuation develops your writing, encourages ingenuity and shows you know your stuff.
 
And now that you know this, maybe you too will get upset at the misuse of 1,300-year-old upside-down commas – perhaps the scariest thing of all.
 
Joshua Parfitt
​

​This time, once again, I was not sure what to write about in this month’s Monthly Inspirer and again I went for a walk with Ian. Last week we moved into a flat in Crouch End in North London and so our daily walks no longer take us through the streets and parks of central London. Now we explore the Parkland Walk that runs on a disused railway track between Highgate and Finsbury Park and the streets in our villagelike neighbourhood. 
 
A couple of days ago a walk down Crouch Hill took us past Friern Manor Dairy Farm, a 19th century building of warm red stone (apparently the same stone used for Hampton Court) decorated with seven inset sgrafitto panels. It was from the panel, shown above, that I found my inspiration for this month’s Inspiring Bit.
 
And so to milk
 
Back when I earned my living writing features articles I soon learned from my mistakes. And, looking on, while my son trained and then began life as a freelance journalist too, I saw him make exactly the same mistake too. We all make it. Motivated by our own enthusiasm we put our all into researching, interviewing, writing, editing and polishing a piece. We sell it and move on to writing another, completely different one.
 
Your mistake
 
In time, you start to do the maths and realise that you put a huge amount of effort into each article and sell it just the once. You are shocked to see that actually your hourly rate has been below the minimum wage. This is a situation you cannot afford to sustain long term. So what do you do? You have two choices:

1. You spend less time on your articles (which may mean you write something you are less than happy with).
2. You use the material you gathered for that article again.

 
Savvy writers go for the second option, though there are some restrictions. You can’t sell the same sort of piece to the same sort of publication so that it appears at the same time as the original. You can, however, sell the same sort of piece to a publication destined for a different market, or at a different time.
 
I call this ‘milking it’. Spinning it in different ways, like unravelling a jumper and reknitting it into a scarf.
 
A few decades ago, when the boys were at school, I had financial responsibilities that were not optional – like school fees. I needed to earn a decent living so had to be clever about how I spent my time. To achieve this, I’d attend a conference or a talk and take copious notes filled with quotes from the speakers. I’d network with experts, ask for their business cards and then connect with them later by email and on social media. This alone ‘fed’ me with enough fuel to write and sell countless articles.
 
Start spinning
 
So, say I attended a talk on starting a business as a florist by a Bristol woman who left a 20-year career as a teacher. This is how I might spin the content gleaned from that single one-hour event into a range of articles:

1. How to start a business as a florist – an entrepreneur magazine.
2. What does it take to start a business as a florist – magazine issued by a bank.
3. Mid-life career change – woman’s magazine, aimed at over 40s.
4. Is there room for a new kid on the block? – florist magazine.
5. Creative careers – craft magazine.
6. Focus on a local new business – a Bristol magazine.

 
By speaking to a number of other florists, or women who started a new career over 40, or ex-teachers I could then create even more ‘spins’ on the original article.
 
If you want make a proper living out of your writing you too need to start milking your content.