Usually when I write about the business of writing, I write from an American perspective, but not all readers of this blog are American, or even native English speakers. Even if you are, it’s important to know what the other major publishing markets are out there. After English, the two highest paying language groups are German and Japanese – if you aren’t making good money from these rights, you need to switch foreign rights agents. I make half my income, some months, from my German translations alone.
This month I’ve got an interview with a German author, Emily Bold. She got her start as an indie author; German indie authors actually achieved more market penetration than English-speaking ones in the early days of indie publishing. In 2013, Amazon.com had 24 indies on average in its Top 100, while Amazon.de had 50. Emily is now hybrid, and several of her books have been translated into English, and I had the privilege of reading and reviewing one, The Curse, early on in her career, and it is fantastic. It’s paranormal romance, but not like you’ve seen it before, and is set in modern day Scotland. I asked her about this, and her latest release, so, without further ado, meet Emily Bold:
1) First off, tell us about your latest release.
My latest release in German is a humorous novella, but I think it is more interesting for your readers to hear more about my latest translation into English. In February Manilla released One Summer Night, my latest romance novel translated into English. It´s the translation of Lichtblaue Sommernächte, a book published by Ullstein-Buchverlage. The novel is about [my main character,] Lauren’s fight against cancer.
Her life seems perfect. But then tragedy strikes and she’s diagnosed with a brain tumour. Lauren wants to fight: to survive, to not give up. But the illness is stronger than she is, and her condition worsens. Lauren feels incredibly powerless and struggles with her impending fate. Even the most beautiful moments in her life are tarnished with pain.
But what if she could decide for herself? Decide when to die? Could that be an option? Piece by piece, Lauren realises that life is what you make of it – and so is death.
2) I’d like to take a moment to highlight your Curse series. I absolutely love what I’ve read of it so far. Can you tell us more about those books?
I spent my honeymoon in Scotland, and since this time I love Scotland so much. This land is so incredible beautiful and the Scots are very, very friendly people. The Curse series is inspired by them. A centuries old curse is „perfectly placed“ in a mystic landscape like Scotland’s. I thought the story of a modern girl who falls in love with a more than two hundred year old, cursed Scotsman would be great – and this way I created three books. The last book Piece of Infinity is available since 04/26/2016.
3) You’ve got such detailed and comprehensive knowledge of Gaelic history and culture. Is this something you’ve got a background in?
No, but I did A LOT of research for this project. And this research made my love to Scotland more intensive. It is hard to find someone today who can translate into Gaelic.
4) I loved your take on immortality in The Curse books. It was quite different from anything I’d seen elsewhere in fantasy. What was your inspiration for it?
I was a little tired of vampires and monsters. I was fascinated by the idea of a „simple“ curse, and finding a way to break it. At the beginning Samantha didn´t know anything about faith, but she had to learn, that her own and Payton’s are connected with each other. They had to find a way to change their destiny against all resistances.
5) What projects are you working on now, and what can we expect to see next?
I actually finished a new book-project with Amazon Publishing but I can´t tell anything yet – only that it will be a romantic novel with a chocolatey background. The release will be in October 2016 at the Frankfurt bookfair.
7) Finally, is there anything else you’d like to share?
Yes, of course! I hope you will love my new book The Curse: Piece of Infinity! I would love to connect with readers on facebook @ facebook.com/emilybold.de! If you are interested in more information about Payton and Sam, I would invite you to visit them at thecurse.de
Thanks for this interview. I know that I’m not nearly as aware of authors in other countries as I should be.
“I make half my income, some months, from my German translations alone.” That’s fascinating, Emily. So you make sure that your books are translated into German? How do you go about finding a translator, and how much does that cost?
I lucked into a German translator finding me. We weren’t sure if the usual publishing economics would translate into self publishing, but for us they have. Germany’s been an excellent market with sales that have been more resilient than the English markets.