Hachette Livre Australia publisher Bernadette Foley is used to bemused looks at book fairs when seeking international deals for her country's most popular titles.
While most genres translate well linguistically and commercially in other markets, one popular Australian form rarely cracks it overseas, despite melding antipodean culture and international travel in light, folksy prose. With one million Australians living overseas, the expatriate travel memoir thrives Down Under.
'Every time I pitch these books to publishers elsewhere I realise the genre is so much bigger in Australia,' says Foley. 'Australians adore travel memoir as a genre more than other people seem to.'
Sarah Turnbull is its doyenne: the journalist can be neatly described as a J.K. Rowling for young Australian women dreaming of romantic magic abroad.
Turnbull has shifted more than 250,000 copies of her memoir, Almost French, in Australia since its release five years ago. Almost French, like the Harry Potter series, could never be called the architect of its genre, but in a country that starts using the term 'best-seller' when sales top 10,000, Turnbull has been responsible for a thorough renovation.
After 13 years in France and Tahiti, Turnbull returned to live in Australia in November and to pitch a proposal for her second book, which she refuses to discuss beyond describing it as non-fiction.