Entry for 8th October, 2008 - My overseas reader

My book royalties have arrived! It is very exciting. I have been striding around the house pondering (loudly) how I shall spend MY ROYALTIES. Unfortunately it is not a life changing amount of money, but it will allow me to buy a gadget or two that I have been craving. I will view my spending as my own little contribution to kick-starting the economy.
I have sold 402 copies however, which I am very pleased with. The publishers also say they are pleased. It is a nice change for me to have them say this, since until now they have only said things like: “The deadline was over two years ago”, “Can we please see a completed chapter?” and “We know you’re in there, let us in.”
Oddly, 31 copies have been sold to “overseas” customers. These must be very peculiar people indeed, since the book is about Scots law, and a very particular niche of that already narrow subject. I like to think some eccentric gentleman from Sri Lanka has a copy, and on a quiet Sunday evening, he sits under a palm tree reading about the finer nuances of pension sharing orders as the sun sets beneath an azure ocean.