Yesterday's mail brought a royalty report for the Japanese edition of Black-Eyed Susan, which sells really really well in Japan. (I mean, of course the Japanese edition sells well in Japan, as opposed to selling well in, say, Sweden, but you know what I mean). I find it really remarkable that a novel with an American history setting finds a market overseas, or should I say remarkable in the reverse? What I mean is that I find it hard to imagine an American publisher buying translation rights to a novel for kids with a Japanese historical setting. So few kids' books in translation are published here! The American reader is not interested in other cultures and other people's history, apparently. Or at least this is what American publishers presume: other people are interested in us, but we're not interested in them. So, hats off to the readers of Japan, who actually buy more copies of Black-Eyed Susan than American readers do!
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