Here is a delightfully mad project.

A German publisher called Erik Schreiber is looking to put together an anthology of 80 SF stories from writers in 80 different countries. The book will take two forms.

1. A paper version with all of the stories translated into German, which Erik will sell through his publishing company, Saphir im Stahl.

2. An ebook edition of the stories in their original languages, which authors will receive as their payment.

I suspect that there may be some technical difficulties with part 2, if only because having an ebook that mixes Latin alphabets with Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and Russian could be a nightmare. I’ll continue talking to Erik about that. I’m also still checking on the exact contract details. But it does seem an entertaining prospect if people have a story that they are prepared to donate.

Translation is the other issue. Erik apparently already has the resources to translate from English, French and Spanish. If people from countries that don’t use those languages are able to submit in one of them (probably English, I guess) that might help. But equally there are many competent German translators out there (hello Monique!).

For further information, and a list of the authors already signed up, see the project’s website. I note that Erik is cheating slightly in allowing the Republic of California as a separate country, but it used to be one, albeit briefly, and I’m totally on board with that. Maybe Emma Newman can donate a story for Kernow.

If you want to talk to Erik, he does have some English, but I recommend that you talk to my pal Dirk Weger whom I met at Finncon this year and whose English is superb. I’d be happy to put potential authors in touch. And if you have questions, please ask them in comments. Dirk and I will do our best to answer them.