Above, you can see the advance copy of the Polish edition of Open Very Carefully by Nicola O’Byrne and Nick Bromley. We’ve written about this title’s international appeal before here – we’ve now sold it to twelve countries – but it is interesting to see that this is the first picture book we sold to Poland. It is, actually, the first picture book we sold to the, broadly understood, Eastern European market, where fiction and novelty books are much more prevalent – traditionally, books published there for this age group have a much higher text to picture ratio, so it isn’t easy for the booksellers to sell picture books to the public.
Here’s what the editor Marta Lenartowicz from the publishing house Wilga had to say about their reasons for taking the risk and adding Open Very Carefully to their list:
“The main reason we decided to buy this book was its unusual form and plot. We thought it wasn’t “just another children’s story”, but a surprising idea with a particular flair. And the die-cut in the back cover simply delighted us all! Yes, it’s a picture book, but not as you know it.
Whilst we are not planning to make picture books the core of our programme, we are now looking at the picture book market and considering picking out the more interesting titles.”
Personally, as much as I love receiving all of the foreign copies from the printer, there’s nothing quite like seeing a copy of one of the Nosy Crow books in my own language, and I can’t wait to see Open Very Carefully in Polish bookshops next Spring!
You can take a look inside Open Very Carefully below – the hardback edition is in shops and available online now, or you can pre-order the paperback edition (released in March next year) online here.
