Off topic--business

I got another thing in the mail from my German publisher for Repossessed, via my American publisher. I've only had a few books sell foreign rights (yay, foreign rights!), and mostly didn't hear anything about them beyond somebody at some point telling me they sold (except I got a couple of copies of Beating Heat in German, which was cool). But for some reason, this is maybe the fourth time I've gotten a clipping from a German magazine that mentioned Repo, usually with picture of the cover. I have no idea what kinds of magazines they are, or what the clips say. They could be complaining about the writing or saying the book is written by an evil American who lives in the same state with George Bush, who knows. But it hit me today, these are the only "reviews" that I get and I'm nothing but pleased to see them. There's no momentary girding of my loins, no tensing of muscles till I know whether I can ungird or not. There's no wondering if the wording represents the book accurately or if it will mislead readers. I know from the second I see these clippings that I'm never ever going to have a clue what they say, and I'm just glad looking at my cover in a German magazine. I think these must be the best kinds of "reviews." Maybe more American reviews should be written in foreign languages.

Also--this is nothing to do with foreign rights--I thought this guest post in Nathan Bransford's blog was interesting:

nathan bransford-guest blog-book sales demystified


Disclosure:

1. No, Nathan Bransford is not my agent.

2. No, I've never met him.

3. Never met Eric the sales assistant, either, as far as I know.