Indonesia Calls You is the slogan of the Indonesia Tourist Office, and in my case this has turned out to be true: the call coming in the form of an offer from the Jakarta firm of Serambi Ilmu Semesta for the Bahasa Indonesian rights to The Einstein Girl. Which I have been happy to accept. Not that I shall be winging my way out there any time soon, much as I would like to. I shall have to content myself for the time being with the thought that the Bahasa Indonesian edition of my book will probably make it onto an achingly beautiful beach like the one above, even if the author doesn't.
Apparently initial print runs for English novels in Indonesia are generally in the four figure area. So at, say, five thousand, that's one copy for every 47,500 inhabitants: the population of Havant in Hampshire or the Prime Minister's home town of Kirkcaldy in Fife. Still, I expect the Indonesians pass their books around a lot - lightly impregnated with fine white sand.
