International Publishing

In the month of the Edinburgh International Book Festival and Publishing Scotland's International Fellowship Programme, we highlight Scotland's significant place on the global publishing map. Celebrating the far-reaching impact and influence of Scotland's publishers and authors, we present a selection of books spanning fiction, non-fiction, and poetry across languages and time zones.

Interview with Estelle Maskame

Catching up with the Scottish YA sensation

Aged just 17 Estelle Maskame, based in the North East of Scotland, exploded on the Young Adult publishing scene with her bestselling DIMILY [Did I Mention I Love You] trilogy. Her new YA novel Dare To Fall, published in July, has already caused a social media stir thanks to her global community of fans. In this interview Estelle explains how the book came about and why being a published author is a dream come true.

Estelle Maskame

Q. You started writing when you were only 13 years old and landed a three-book deal with Edinburgh-based Blac...

David Robinson Writes: The Business of International Publishing

This month our columnist dives head-first into the dynamic publishing practice of buying and selling rights in the international arena where risk needs to be balanced against reward. Robinson outlines the incredible journey of Babylon Berlin, bought by Dingwall-based Sandstone Press from a German publisher, as a stellar example of how Scottish independent publishing is truly international in ethos and ambition.

It’s October 2014 and Robert Davidson, publisher at Sandstone Press, is at the Frankfurt Book Fair when a German publisher asks him whether he’d be interested in buying a book from them.

Actually, adds the woman from Kiepenheuer & Witsch, it’s a series. The first four are already published in Germany: not best-sellers, but doing OK. They’re about a detective called Gereon Rath, and when the series starts, he is working undercover in 1929 Berlin. There will probably be another ...

Illustrating Scotland: Showcasing International Illustration in the UK

‘International illustrators have commented how they often see their own culture reflected back at them in our Scottish books.’

Glimpses Of The Middle East

‘We drove out across the desert in the dark to a large fort-like building with turrets lit by neon lights.’

Translating Closer to Home

‘syne your fairheid set it lowein / toun sae skyrie, starnie-splendant.’

I Loved A German

‘A piece of bread only speaks of hunger, which everyone considers to be a vulgar and crude thing.’

Love and the Afterlife with Claire McFall

‘There was something odd about the way he sat there, a solitary figure in this isolated place.’

Writing Out To The World

‘Without doubt there is a desire for Scottish authors to be translated and sold overseas.’

Rediscovering Škėma From The Diaspora

‘The character Garšva is a struggling émigré poet working as a lift operator in a large New York hotel.’

SS Kursk: The Crystal of the Tsar

‘Once at sea a full-blown south-westerly storm developed, placing the Kursk in serious peril.’

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