Foreign Sales and Foreign Travel

I just found out today that my March book “NEWS BLUES” was bought by a publisher in Estonia. Kind of random, huh? I had to look it up to find out more about the country. Turns out Estonia has its own language that is similar to Finnish. It’s one of the smallest members of the EU with 1.3 million inhabitants. It’s bordered to the north by Finland and the west by Sweden and to the south by Latvia.

Anyway, pretty cool that a country I barely knew existed is publishing one of my books! I always get such a kick out of foreign sales. And it’s so fun to hear from readers. I get so many German kids writing to me saying they’re doing book reports on “Boys that Bite.” I love it!

Here’s the list of counties my books have been put out in. Doesn’t count places like Canada and England, which use the American versions. I’m talking special, translated editions with unique covers.

Australia
France
Germany
Japan
Sweden
Estonia

I really, really want to see the Japanese cover of Boys that Bite! I’m hoping it’s manga style.

Speaking of Japan, I booked the Ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) that Liz and I will be staying in for part of our Japan visit in June. It’s going to be so interesting; the place is decorated in the old Edo style and you sleep on mats and eat traditional food, and can even bathe in traditional communal baths. Should be quite the experience!

Here's a room shot I stole off someone's flickr of a typical room at our Ryokan.



I’ve never been to any foreign countries except Mexico and Canada before this. No warming up on Europe for me! I’m going to jump into the foreign travel thing with two feet! Can’t wait!

Marianne