Please forward all future mail to Sydney....

So much of what you learn in publishing (and I use the word "learn" loosely since this is a maddeningly slippery world with rules that seem to come and go at random) you learn the hard way... i.e., by experience.

But in the middle of the hard knocks I've had over the last couple of weeks has been a huge ray of sunlight. I got news that the Australian/NewZealand rights sold and that they were going to publish quickly - one day after the book comes out in the US, in fact. So I wrote them offering my author photo, bio, the info I've created for my American website, etc. They were so grateful and so sweet...they said "Our American authors never contact us with anything. If we want these sorts of things for publicity we really have to go looking for them."

So I thought "Hmmm....maybe my other foreign publishers would like this stuff. I could at least offer." I got their email addresses from the foreign rights department of my American publisher and contacted them. Same story. Delighted to hear from me. Grateful for anything I could send.

This has resulted in three things - tighter relationships with my foreign publishers, which I think is bound to help me somehow in the future, a little ego boost in the middle of a lot of ego knocks, and a further understanding that a writer who takes it upon herself to try and help market her book can indeed make an impact.

Feeling helpless sucks. And so much of this process makes you feel helpless. Creating little inroads - even if they lead to Rotterdam and Pisa and Perth - has made me feel (literally) worlds better.