Cousins Forever: 25,000+ book sales!

[ 0 ] 08/09/2025 | liza

Good morning from Horten, Norway 🙂

I hope you had a lovely summer -that is, if you live in a part of the world where the summer just ended. We spent the summer holidays, as usual, in my home country, Greece, with family and friends. Once we came back home, we got a kitten, so let me introduce you to our new family member, Kokos :).

And here are some photos and videos from last night’s full moon and eclipse as we experienced it.

When it comes to book news:

1) A Sea of Stars

I’m excited to share with you that this is what I am working on this month, with the expectation of having everything ready by the end of September. The fantastic illustrations are once again the work of Vivi Markatos children’s book illustrator and cartoonist. It’s the same story as in previous editions: it will be published in as many languages as before. However, this time, we’ll meet a dad with his daughter and a dad with his son on the pages.

2) Level up!

As a writer, what I sell is words and imaginary stories that come straight from within my inner world. I hope that my soul will keep burning bright and help me stay in business for years to come :).

In that respect, I have some small (in the bigger scheme of things), but big (for me), news to share. As the quote in the 3rd photo of this post suggests, I’m not so important that I can afford not to blow my own horn. Since there’s no publisher behind me or anyone else to do this on my behalf, I need to do it for myself.

As of right now, “Cousins Forever” has exceeded 25,000 book sales! I published it in February 2021, and with the average self-published book selling 250 copies in its lifetime, and traditionally published picture books considered a big success if they sell 10,000 copies (in the USA), I can proudly say I have written and published a personal “best-seller”. Selling 25,000 copies is considered a rarity in the world of children’s books!

This obviously motivates me to continue creating and learning as I navigate the world of writing and publishing. It’s a great feeling to work on what you love and share it with the world, and at the same time see that love reflected back on you .

The last photo shows the sales figures on Amazon, excluding direct wholesale orders from me.

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In other news, Yoshito Darmon-Shimamori is organizing and hosting again the Grand Multi-literacy Event (a free online event with several guests who are going to share their insights and knowledge, and contribute to our multilingual and multicultural communities). A list of all the speakers in order of appearance:

Dr Eowyn Crisfield, PhD, Catherine McDougall, Lindsay Manzella, Dr Alessia Raineri, PhD, Valérie Besanceney, Inna Figotina, OCT, M.Ed., Chanda Ouk Wolf, Dr Roberto Filippi, Jessika Rabello, Zack Ekert, Dr Ellen-Rose Kambel, Dr Annie Chang Ng, Dr Ramona Gonczol, Dr Alexandra Perovic, Ricky Magee, Soofia Amin صوفیہ امین, Yoshito Darmon-Shimamori, Dr Germaine Koskina, PhD, Dr Ute Limacher-Riebold PhD.

You can download the program here.

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That’s all for now. If you’d like to get in touch with me, you can reply to this email. And thank you for posting your reviews! Even just a few words, like in this case, get the message across. Have a lovely day 🙂 .