publishing a book in finland by a non finn

[maryanneloop]

for Tizlit: Hi!

Yes, few months ago I called Otava and sent the manuscript but they first told me that they don't publish books which are written in English, they have to be originally written in Finnish. That's how i understood. Well, you are right, many writers have been turned down so many times before publishing important works and I am that kind of person that doesn't discourage herself so easily.
And about the writing bussiness: thanks for your suggestion of writing something else but i believe if you are really a writer you should never compromise yourself and publish something for the benefit of others, for the public to accept you or for any other reasons that are not related to your ambition.
That is why I would never translate my book which is written completely in English just for the sake of Finnish public. I will have a Finnish version inside the book but that's it. And I don't care if it's more difficult like this.
The idea is to never compromise yourself when trying to make it in any kind of businnes. That's how writers, painters, musicians succeed by never compromising.
That's why artists are so different because they do exactly what they like and how they like it.

regards

[EP]

The idea is to never compromise yourself when trying to make it in any kind of businnes.

Not quite so, at least not in writing books. There is a whole league of people called editors, and if you want to have your books published (at least the first one) you do what they tell you to do. The one and only book I have ever written turned out quite different from my original idea. Still today I think my original version was better, but to get it published I had to the required changes.

[maryanneloop]

Hi, EP.
I wanted to ask you what did you write about in your book and was it published in Finnish?
It seems that the publishing houses that I've visited lately DO NOT publish in any other language except Finnish.
Even Johnny Kniga, though I've seen on the website that they publish in other languages, too. They still require the original books to be in Finnish and they only translate foreign books from other countries to publish them in Finland.
I asked the director if there is any publishing house in Finland to publish in English and he said there isn't.
I really don't know what to do and which publishing house to visit now-it seems that everybody gives me the same line.
Do you know other publishing houses that could really consider to publish in an English version, too?

Regards

[EP]

Hi, EP.

I wanted to ask you what did you write about in your book and was it published in Finnish?

I wrote it in Finnish, and the core was Finnish folklore, it was not 100% fiction. So it was very Finnish.

Really, offer your manuscript to some publisher in an English speaking country. That seems logical to me. Way more publishers, way wider audience. No translation expenses to the publisher. (And the publishers have more money.)