Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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Much Yay

Last week was a very big week for me. I found out that How to Ditch Your Fairy sold in Japan and Liar in France and Germany. (I also had my first lindy hop lesson. Next one is on Tuesday.)

How to Ditch Your Fairy sold to Tokyo Sogensha in Japan, who also publish Diana Wynne Jones. I know it’s tenuous proximity but it makes me happy, okay?

I can’t give more details on the French sale but I can say that my German publisher continues to be Bertelsmann Jugendbuch Verlag, who published the Magic or Madness trilogy in quick succession last year. It’s doing amazingly well over there, which I put down to the glory that is the covers:

Bertelsmann will also be publishing How to Ditch Your Fairy later this year. I met some of the crew over in Bologna last year and they were wonderful. Feels fabulous to have a solid home in Germany, which is one of the biggest book publishing markets in the world. Germans love to read. Bless them.

Sometimes I can’t believe this is real. It took twenty years to find anyone who wanted to publish for my fiction. I never dreamed it would appear in any language other than English. Yet here I am with a whole shelf full of various different editions of my books. Please let this last another twenty years.1 Fingers crossed!

In other yay news, Scott has previewed the final cover of Leviathan. It’s spectacular. And I say that as someone who loved the first version.

  1. Yeah, I’m aware of how great the odds are against that. [↩]

Posted by Justine at 14:55, 23 May 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Vainglory | 4 Comments »

Comments

  1. Tobias Says:

    Those covers do look pretty. Too bad you’re not published in the Netherlands (not that I would read the Dutch versions, but the idea would be nice). I think Maureen once said Fantasy and SF YA does not sell well over here.

    May 23rd, 2009 at 3:34 pm

  2. 2. Justine Says:

    I also heard a Dutch publisher say that they have to be very careful with what English language books they publish because so many Dutch teenagers are already fluent in English and tend to read the more popular books in the original.

    And that they also try to concentrate on publishing Dutch writers.

    May 23rd, 2009 at 3:43 pm

  3. Tobias Says:

    In a way that is true. We start learning English in elementary school. But I don’t think most kids can read an English book well enough until they’re about 15-16. So I guess it all depends on which age group the book is aimed. Maureen’s and John’s books are translated and I think they are aimed quite a young audience (12-16).
    Now I must admit I haven’t read any of your books (yet) so I don’t know at what age group they are aimed. But I have read Uglies and I do get the feeling it is aimed at slightly older audience.

    And the kind of kids who read fantasy and/or SF are usually a bit more geeky (yes, I know, I’m stereotyping) and thus spend a lot of time online and thus have better English skills.

    May 23rd, 2009 at 4:41 pm

  4. Anonymous Says:

    Geeky? You are calling moi geeky? *looks down at T-shirt with math joke* Never mind.

    May 25th, 2009 at 6:22 pm

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