So there’s this guy in Ukraine, very right-wing. A Ukrainian Matt Walsh but he’s not a content creator. He’s a publisher. He created a publishing house for conservative literature that publishes all of our favorite books in translation. Friedrich Hayek, Roger Scruton, Niall Ferguson, Andy Ngo, Debrah Soh.
People keep asking him, what kind of patriot are you that you only go for translated stuff. Why is there nothing that’s originally in Ukrainian? And he says, well, it’s not my fault that you, doofuses, don’t write any serious, intellectual, conservative stuff. Start writing, and I’ll be happy to publish.
Of course, I wrote to him back in October, saying, me, I’m the author you’ve been waiting for. Publish me.
But he never responded, and I was thinking, what a shame, my book is perfect for this mega anti-woke publisher.
Then, today I get an email from him, saying, God, I can’t believe I missed this message when you first sent it. Can you please get in touch?
And I’m thinking, drat. It’s too late. I already went with somebody else.
It’s great that I attracted what now is the total of 4 really great publishers but I so wanted to be with this one.
I cannot believe this. This would have been a huge opportunity for me to get in touch with precisely the people I need to reach.
Clarissa's Blog 
Definitely keep in touch anyway. Who knows, you may write another book in Ukrainian!
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Clearly, you will have to write another book to publish with this one!
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That was my first thought as well.
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Does your contract with your current publisher (who is publishing translations of your work) prevent you from simultaneously publishing that work in the original Ukrainian with another publisher?
Presumably the non-Ukrainian and Ukrainian versions would appeal to totally different readerships, so selling both wouldn’t necessarily interfere with sales to either group.
Dreidel
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No, there’s not going to be any translation of this book. I’m publishing it only in Ukrainian. I’m not ready to be unpersonned for my ideas just yet.
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How do you say “time is of the essence” in Ukrainian …
Nah, this guy had an opportunity … and blew it.
Someone dropped your name and then this guy went looking for your name in his inbox.
He could have spent the time in discussions with you, but his business got fat on the Easy Cheese of translations.
So now there’s demand for writing in Ukrainian instead of translations into it, this guy is late to arrive.
Let him gorge on some more Easy Cheese, seems he likes it. :-)
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“How do you say “time is of the essence” in Ukrainian …”
I’m not so sure about Ukraine but in Poland, next door, nothing beats being on the spot. Even phone queries dont’ beat showing up in person (or a personal contact made at a conference or even on the train).
Tell me to call or write an email to check on something and if I care about it I’m going to show up and say “Oh… I was just in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop in and check….”.
Obviously dropping everything and making a speed run through publishers in Kyiv or Lviv wasn’t feasible for Clarissa but missing emails is all too common around here (I myself tend to treat emails from people I don’t know like spam….)
After in person, finding a mutual acquaintance and approaching that way can work but again, not so feasible in this case.
What’s impressive is the interest she did find electronically.
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Right? I haven’t been to Ukraine since 1998. Nobody knows me. And I know nobody. There’s zero name recognition. It was a crazy project to write the book first without trying to make contact with anybody to gauge interest. I’m a crazy, crazy person. But it worked. I’m still kind of stunned.
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That’s a very flattering explanation, so thank you.
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