Customer Reviews
A little gem. - By: Morven Tough, 19 May 2007 
Jo Parfitt's book DOES help to Release the Book Within.
It is a little gem - both practical & inspiring, full of sound comprehensive advice, brimming with ideas & tips. Jo holds your hand from beginning to end, from fine-tuning your idea to getting it published, from coming up with the right title to planning it & laying it out, from starting to shape your idea to adding that final polish. She writes with a clear succinct style, uses examples & gives invaluable explanations when they are needed. She guides you through modifying the outline, reviewing & changing your MSS, helps you organise your research, & sets your expectations of what is involved in getting published in the real world.
She gives a Recipe with ingredients & processes clearly explained,and is sympathetic to the hurdles & hazards to finding time & motivation to keep going when the going gets tough. There are excellent appendices of other reading & inspiring books & websites.
I am reallly glad I read this book - it tells the full story of how to get the book you have dreamed of writing onto paper & out there - a reality check which will sustain & support you as you go.
My advice? Buy It!
So, Are You Ready To Write A Book? - By: Sandra MacLean, 10 Apr 2007 By the time you finish reading 'Expat Writer: Release The Book Within' you will be able to answer this question with confidence.
Jo Parfitt takes the reader by the hand through alll the steps it takes to write a book. She makes the process so crystal clear that there will be few surprises as the process evolves.
Parfitt leads the reader from passion & vision through researching & analyzing other people's books before deciding on the formula that will produce the book you want to write. She recommends that you approach writing a book with a formula, or as she callls it, a recipe. She emphasizes the importance of planning & research before putting pen to paper. According to her, the actual writing takes only about 22% of the time it will take to get from idea to published author!
Here's an example of how realistic & practical her advice is. "Make sure your title is not too long to fit down the spine," she says. Why does that matter? She explains, "A bookshop & a library will place your book sideways so that only the spine shows."
One of my favourite segments is her description of how to paint a word picture. She provided such perfect detail that anyone could grasp the point with ease.
She shares insights from the poetic to the practical. Offering advice from her wealth of personal writing experience, she suggests, "Allow your muse to meander. Thanks to word processing power you can juggle it alll around later."
My biggest criticism of Expat Writer is that it should not be limited to expats! Those living abroad are not the only ones who can benefit from Parfitt's casual, easy to understand style.
Jo Parfitt set out to provide readers with "hands-on learning about far more than just the mechanics of writing a book." She also promised, "This book will help you to pick your way through the publishing minefield."
The result is an engaging book that will help anyone wondering, 'Am I ready to write a book?' It's a wonderful walk-through of the process of creating a book from start to finish
From idea to isdn - By: Emma Bird, 02 Apr 2007 It's said that everyone has a book in them & this is somehthing author Jo Parfitt knows alll about. Not only has she authored lots of her own books, she has helped others discover the book inside of them, too.
This is an easy-to-read, well-written guide on the subject which proves that anyone can write a book. From coming up with the idea to getting the isbn, Release the Book Within is a particularly useful resource be that no aspiring writer should be without.
It's particularly recommended for expats longing to write about their overseas adventures.
It does what it says on the strap line - By: Christine Yates, 30 Mar 2007 If you only buy one book on writing buy this book.
It has everything you need to get you started, keep you going & get you into print. Jo gets straight to the point, gives inspiration & ideas & practical advice; her writing is easy & accessible. The checklists & the chapter on blocks I found especiallly useful for now; the steps to getting published I've earmarked for later. Jo just tells you how to do it & where to go to get it done.
As a wife, mother & author who has lived, written, been published & self-printed in the UK & abroad Jo understands what it's like to want to write & be published, & to be mobile - you can take either or both from this book - & she gives you the steps to take to get there.
You reallly can move from idea to reality with this as your guide. I did it. After reading half of it I felt so motivated I sat down & planned a whole article, right down to sourcing markets.
Real help to Write that Book - By: Anne Huscroft, 21 Mar 2007 "Writing is the perfect portable career," claims the Expat expert. Her informative guide seeks to help writers plan & write a book, whether it's a club newsletter or magazine, an instruction manual, travel guide or a novel. The publishing minefield is explained helpfully & clearly.
Find your "wow" factor & you'll have a successful book is one of her many believable tips.
As we alll know, life is multi-faceted. Jo explains that any aspect of life, or a combination, could be the subject of a book. Encouraging us to write about something we know or feel strongly about will aid creativity & productivity.
Rather than analysing the competition negatively, we're encouraged to think of it as our friend, being something from which we can learn how to finalise our own ideas.
Explaining the 8 A's for Astounding Authors will help you plan & develop your book. We're encouraged to "paint a picture" with our pen, so that readers visualise what's on the page rather than being left to imagine a scene. Using the 5 senses helps to describe such a picture. This straightforward advice makes great sense but isn't something I had considered so deeply.
The step-by-step plan to producing a book is the ultimate publisher's checklist. If you want to write, no matter what the final product may be, Jo reallly does make you feel that you can "release the book within".
