PJA Web is a coming together of three talents into one unit.
Penny Swift
Penny is a talented author and journalist with experience in all forms of written media. She has written more than 40 non-fiction books as well as countless newspaper and magazine articles, press releases and content for hundreds of web sites.
She is a seasoned researcher; revels in proofreading to help improve other writer’s work; has done more copywriting for brochures, adverts and packaging than she remembers; and is a master at creating blog posts and effective SEO content for the Internet – for her own as well as for clients’ web sites. Topics are as vast and varied as the cultural divergence of the world’s only true rainbow nation – South Africa, land of her birth and upbringing.
While most of the general books Penny has written are home orientated, primarily focusing on décor and paint techniques, landscaping and water features, DIY, home improvement and construction topics, she has also written a couple of books about horses, and one children’s book, Timothy Toothmouse. Motivation, she says, is largely to do with passion and what she knows best.
In addition to all of these, she has produced more than ten study guides for long-distance learners, on topics as diverse as landscaping, event management, digital photography, entrepreneurship business studies, child day care and wedding planning. Academic books she has written, aimed at English second-language students, have all been construction and welding orientated.
Apart from her own books and ebooks (most of which have been illustrated by her husband and business partner, Janek Szymanowski), Penny has ghostwritten and designed dozens of titles for clients in different parts of the world, primarily Australia, the UK and the USA. Visit her site: http://www.pennyswift.com
Jan Szymanowski
Jan is a talented professional photographer and designer who has had more than 40 printed books published, and has contributed to many more. Born in the United Kingdom, he has lived in South Africa for most of his life, and has a wealth of experience that spans a wide range of different media types and styles. He quit a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry to follow his heart, working first for daily newspapers (including the world-renowned Rand Daily Mail), and then on magazines, photographing everything from wildlife to near-naked centre-spreads for the then hugely popular Scope magazine, and gorgeous moms and babies for the country’s leading family magazine, Living and Loving. Self employed since the 1980s, he continued to freelance for magazines, while building up a client base for photographs, brochures and other printed products. He also launched his own advertising-powered publication, Cape Home Care, which had a circulation of 100,000 copies and was distributed free in the Cape Town metropolitan area. His first book commission was Struik Publisher’s The Complete Book of Home Planning in South Africa, published in 1986, which was followed by Cottage Furniture in South Africa the following year. His passion for DIY and renovation established him in the field of home maintenance and improvements, and he went on to illustrate dozens of home orientated books written by his wife and business partner, author Penny Swift (as well as one about horses). Together they also owner-built three houses, and renovated several more, and both confer that their most successful book to date is the recently updated Owner Building in South Africa. Into the 21st century, Jan’s focus has changed, and today he not only illustrates books and designs client media, but also builds websites, including several of his own. In addition to printed books, he is committed to ensuring that all the books he publishes are available in the increasingly popular formats, including Kindle and ePUB.
Alex Szymanowski
Alex is an experienced web designer and a creative graphic designer who takes on work for clients in any field or niche. The founder and CEO of Just-Hosted.com, a growing internet hosting business, he has sound experience in PHP, HTML, CSS, WordPress development, E-Commerce, SEO and graphic design. In addition to good technical skills that he uses to build top-notch web sites and make sure that they work the way they need to, he also has the creative ability to make them look great.
Currently based in South Carolina, USA, he has a dedicated server in Montreal, Canada that has enormous capacity for data and bandwidth. He hosts many of the web sites he has developed on this server.