CELEBRATING NEARLY A DECADE OF JILL BURKINSHAW ON THE OCCASION OF HER RETIREMENT

We will really miss Jill! We’re very grateful for all she has contributed over the last nine years. She has been a vital part of the team, always with our authors’ best interests at the heart of everything. From keeping track of their sales rankings to her epic parties with handmade gifts, she has been a wonderful part of Team Joffe.

Jasper Joffe, CEO

We have had such great times at Jill’s amazing launch parties . . . From Guide Star to the present day, we’ve had so many laughs, and we were all certain that they were our lucky talisman for getting up those charts! Big thank-you, Jill, for all your incredible hard work with the blog tours and the parties, and for making such fantastic and creative competition prizes! We are going to miss you!

FYI, I have 86 handmade mini books (keyrings and fridge magnets).

Joy Ellis, author

Jill has done umpteen launch parties for me and other Joffe authors. Each one has been brilliant and lots of fun, with the games, prizes and banter. Whatever is planned for future launches, Jill is one hard act to follow.

On a more personal note, we became great friends. Jill, Joy and I regularly chat online, helping each other through life’s little trials and celebrating the good — something that won’t stop now that Jill has retired. She knows I love her, will miss her and that I wish her the very best for the future. Xx

Helen H. Durrant, author

Working with Joffe Books by Jill Burkinshaw

My relationship with Joffe Books began with me sending an email asking if they were looking for anyone to work remotely in any area. I had been reading, reviewing and blogging for some time. Books are my passion, and Joffe Books was and still is my favourite publisher. I was absolutely thrilled when I received a reply saying they were looking for someone to organise blog tours. I will always be so very grateful to Jasper and Rudi for taking a chance on me. It was a steep learning curve for me and I very nearly gave up at the first book. However, the support and encouragement I received from everyone at Joffe Books, including the authors, persuaded me to keep going. It soon came together, and we all worked together very well with one aim in mind: to do everything we could to get amazing books written and published to as many readers as possible. My contribution grew as I took on other tasks.

Joffe Books was relatively new at the time I joined them. It was a small but friendly and very supportive team, and we all became friends. As new authors joined, they were welcomed into the team and supported by us all. It was obvious at the start that Joffe Books was destined for great things and it has been an absolute pleasure to have been a part — albeit a very small one — of the phenomenal growth to become what it is today: an award-winning independent publisher. Awards that are very well deserved. 

I have loved every minute of my time working with Joffe Books and I am really sad to be leaving, but as old age creeps up so does the need to slow down. It isn’t really goodbye because I will still be reading, reviewing and blogging the brilliant books they publish. I seem to have come full circle back to where I started.

I would like to say a massive THANK-YOU to everyone at Joffe: Rudi and Jasper for having faith in me, the authors, many of whom are now lifelong friends, and the team in the office, which seems to grow by the day, but all are friendly and supportive. Nine years living and working my dream — it has been the very best time and I can’t thank you all enough.