August ...

I suspect there may be an assumption outside the publishing world, that if your books are published they are automatically sold outside of New Zealand as well as locally. Just as we see all sorts of books from overseas for sale here in New Zealand, so must our books travel to other countries.

But it's not a given. The reality is generally pretty modest. Many books that start their publication life here don't escape the gravity of this country. I guess it's partly that some overseas publishers may find our stories too local in flavour and believe they won't fly in other parts of the world. Or that without the authors/illustrators presence to drive promotion the book might struggle to succeed. Or maybe it's something else. Several of my books have been published and/or sold in Australia in addition to New Zealand which has been great. One of my picture books has had a modest foray into other territories. We all hope that our books will be picked up by overseas publishers. That their appeal and value is international. That they have a life, an audience, beyond this country. I have watched wistfully as some other NZ children's authors and illustrators have had some international success.

So I'm really pleased to say that an English language edition of my picture book Fuzzy Doodle, illustrated by Donovan Bixley, is to be published by Scholastic Asia in October. This is the first time one of my books has been picked up by a major publisher outside of Australasia and it's quite a thrill. I'll post up some more info as it comes to hand. And watch this space as I think I'll have to do a give-away soon in honour of this cool news.

July has been almost solely for writing and I have made good progress on my new WIP. August, however, will be focused on other things and I'll have to manage my time more carefully to enable me to hang out with my manuscript. I have some school visits at the start and end of the month and the big night for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults on August 14. I'm off to Dunedin August 11th and 12th for some events associated with the book awards, and on August 19 I'll be running another workshop on Picture Book Writing at Selwyn Community Education. There will be lots of information on what picture books should and shouldn't be, some hands on writing exercises and some good oil on publishers, competitions and submitting. If you think you might be interested in attending you can find more details and register here. If I don't see you there, I'll see you on the other side.