I've been getting quite a few emails from teachers, librarians and readers in the US who've picked up one of my books on an overseas trip or a landfill somewhere and are keen to get their hands on some more. They quickly discover that my books are very hard to get in the US, mostly because the US editions are either out of print or have never existed.

For those of you who are interested, here's a brief history of my US publishing career. In the late 80's, Two Weeks With The Queen was published there by Putnam in hardcover and HarperCollins in paperback. Both editions are now out of print. Through the early nineties I had a happy relationship with Harcourt Brace, who published Misery Guts, Worry Warts, Puppy Fat, Blabber Mouth and Sticky Beak in both hardcover and paperback. Unfortunately sales weren't huge, and the powers at Harcourt started to fear that the slightly uncoventional nature of some of my books might have been alienating some of the more cautious children's book buyers in some of the more cautious states. They said they'd be happy to continue publishing me, but they'd rather wait till I started writing more conventional books. We parted company.

Soon afterwards, for different reasons, I changed publishers in Australia and the UK as well and joined Penguin Books. Call me loyal, call me overly obsessed with symmetry, call me naive, but since then I've been waiting and hoping for Penguin US to start publishing my books. As yet, no luck.

Which is where you might be able to help. If you're keen to get hold of any of my later titles such as Toad Rage (see the US teacher's letter in my Visitors Book), let Penguin US know and perhaps they'll feel moved to publish in the US and save you the hassle of ordering Australian or British editions via the Web.

Drop a line to

Doug Whiteman,
President of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers,
375 Hudson Street,
New York, NY 10014

and who knows what might happen.

I'll let you know. Thanks for your support.

Oo-roo and happy reading

16 October 2000