Planet Germany

Great pitch--reminiscent of “A year in the Merde”. Having read quite a few books on expat experiences in France, Spain and Greece and living as I do in the Swiss German part of Switzerland, I couldn’t wait to read PG (who came up with the title btw?). I’ve enjoyed and endured similar experiences here (the same rigid use of the French tu and vous; the carnival (love the Bratwurst comment!); the princess-mania that has struck all little girls here; our own “cat-glut”--Mus (my avatar) eats like Benny does!). Have yet to see “Dinner for One”, but will look out for it as we get a smattering of German TV channels here.
Loved eagle-eyed Birgit and her disparaging remarks on all things British (“Being married to someone English is highly impractical. I don’t recommend it.”). Liked the descriptions of the cats, construction (didn’t realise houses ever collapsed or grew old in Germany!) and your culinary failures/experiments best (dread to think what the soup would have looked liked rubbed through a sieve--you probably would all have missed the fireworks too--and loved the exploding EX-mas pudding! The mere mention of Christmas pudding causes my sister in law to grimace in disgust!). Can just imagine the fun you will be having in your “management consultancy, based in the disused pigsty behind the house”! Also liked the way you have broken down your monthly chapters into easily digestible chunks (“Snow and its Impact on Ordnung” is a brilliant title!).
I see that PG is already in print--but for what it’s worth I spotted a couple of typos in chapt 3: “She approaches him o (on) her knees,…” ; “by joining the local sports club which ran a team called the Bambini..” (double full stop).
PG is funny, entertaining (educational even) and onto my rotating shelf it goes! Good luck and keep plugging.

I know this book well and love it. It already has met with some considerable success selling as a self-published title on Amazon and has had some excellent reviews:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1906210489/ref=cm_rdp_product

Please do read this book - you'll enjoy it!

Hello Cathy,
First of all, thanks for the helpful tips, made me chuckle! Planet Germany (great title) was a joy to read. Polished, thoughtful, interesting. Plenty of humour, punchy dialogue and a good sprinkling of descriptive passages, too. I laughed a lot reading it and I liked the format with titles, very reader-friendly. Reading your book reminded me how much I like Germany and Germans and I felt as if I knew your family, too. Let me know when you have more chapters up. Well done, and shelved, of course!
Nicky

Hi! This is great!Funny and I love the way you have shown the German /English difference...really funny!
I like the pace and the way you have done this. Clever and witty. I have family in Germany and yes..they must have a really odd outlook on the brits. well done. this was good! Onto my shelf!

Oh Cathy, this is wonderful stuff - it's hard trying not to laugh too loud in the office at lunchtime which is when I get onto this site. I learnt something straight away (the New Year's Eve ritual) and was so fascinated that I had to look it up myself. I am looking forward to my next lunchtime read - well done - it is very well written and very entertaining, thank you.

This is such a good read. I think that Germany and the way of life there holds a fascination for a lot of people. You capture attitudes so well. I hope you get mainstream publishing.

Great pitch--reminiscent of “A year in the Merde”. Having read quite a few books on expat experiences in France, Spain and Greece and living as I do in the Swiss German part of Switzerland, I couldn’t wait to read PG (who came up with the title btw?). I’ve enjoyed and endured similar experiences here (the same rigid use of the French tu and vous; the carnival (love the Bratwurst comment!); the princess-mania that has struck all little girls here; our own “cat-glut”--Mus (my avatar) eats like Benny does!). Have yet to see “Dinner for One”, but will look out for it as we get a smattering of German TV channels here.
Loved eagle-eyed Birgit and her disparaging remarks on all things British (“Being married to someone English is highly impractical. I don’t recommend it.”). Liked the descriptions of the cats, construction (didn’t realise houses ever collapsed or grew old in Germany!) and your culinary failures/experiments best (dread to think what the soup would have looked liked rubbed through a sieve--you probably would all have missed the fireworks too--and loved the exploding EX-mas pudding! The mere mention of Christmas pudding causes my sister in law to grimace in disgust!). Can just imagine the fun you will be having in your “management consultancy, based in the disused pigsty behind the house”! Also liked the way you have broken down your monthly chapters into easily digestible chunks (“Snow and its Impact on Ordnung” is a brilliant title!).
I see that PG is already in print--but for what it’s worth I spotted a couple of typos in chapt 3: “She approaches him o (on) her knees,…” ; “by joining the local sports club which ran a team called the Bambini..” (double full stop).
PG is funny, entertaining (educational even) and onto my rotating shelf it goes! Good luck and keep plugging.

I have just started reading this and will shelf it. My brother and family live in Luxembourg - so have had a tiny peek at ex-pat life. I think its about time we stopped only looking at the US and more at the rest of Europe - this book should find an audience

Hi! This is great!Funny and I love the way you have shown the German /English difference...really funny!
I like the pace and the way you have done this. Clever and witty. I have family in Germany and yes..they must have a really odd outlook on the brits. well done. this was good! Onto my shelf!

saw nix had backed this so must be good..onto my WL

Hello Cathy,
First of all, thanks for the helpful tips, made me chuckle! Planet Germany (great title) was a joy to read. Polished, thoughtful, interesting. Plenty of humour, punchy dialogue and a good sprinkling of descriptive passages, too. I laughed a lot reading it and I liked the format with titles, very reader-friendly. Reading your book reminded me how much I like Germany and Germans and I felt as if I knew your family, too. Let me know when you have more chapters up. Well done, and shelved, of course!
Nicky

As a non-EU citizen however I think I also experienced the vicious might of their bureaucracy. I think there is so much still to be written.

Hi Anli,

I couldn't agree more. When we moved from Frankfurt to NRW, my (now) husband and I were not married, but already had two kids. At the Ausländeramt there were different rooms - one for surnames A-D... which was mine, and a different one for G-J... which was his.

But because we were a family unit with joint children, we had to be processed together. Neither room could do the whole thing, and neither could part-process the thing without collaborating with the other. (This was in the days of paper records, rather than computer based systems).

In the end we had to queue in separate places and liaise by mobile phone so that we each got to the front of the queue at the same time, and each Beamte had the correct forms, so they could phone each other.

This story isn't in Planet Germany... but it might end up in any sequel. Germany is still throwing up plenty of new material!

Hi Cathy,
I have bookshelved you. I think some our of adaption problems to Germany are similar - anglo-saxon background. Some things here are great and some things I will never get around to.

As a non-EU citizen however I think I also experienced the vicious might of their bureaucracy. I think there is so much still to be written. I last week had another chapter coming up sitting at the Familienkasse which has rejected my application for Kindergeld. Why? because I filled out the forms wrongly. Not once but twice and now I have to appeal!!. I had a long lecture that I should understand how grateful I should be to live in this cold country and whether I realise what it takes to work through a case (subtext a dumb foreigner like you, won't understand). He then read some legal texts and told me that there is no way one can make those texts simpler. I wanted to get on with the day (coffee!!). His parting shot was, if I would not have come past, I would no doubt have filled in the forms wrong again and afer a month (we stupid foreigners don't know what it is to work on a case) he would have again send me a letter to say it is wrong. To which I retorted, I don't even try to fill out these forms, I gave them to my kids and they obviously did not understand either. That got to him and then he said what nationality are you and I came up truimphant - "German these days, but it is only a passport." By now I was seething. They really try and make a serious living out of bureaucracy and then people like me give my kids the forms to fill in!

I will work on my amazon tags. will also try and contact you as I have some questions on PoD.

Hi Anli,

Oddly enough, I hadn't found your book either on my travels around Amazon... we must be tagged with totally different keywords.

Sorry to hear you're off to a funeral. I don't have much advice to give, because at all the funerals I've attended in Germany, I've felt totally out of place and each one followed a different pattern. Wear black and mime the hymns is about the best I can offer! That way at least there won't be one of those moments where the entire congregations turns round and looks at you like a nasty stain on the carpet.

Best wishes

Cathy

Welcome to Authonomy. This reminds me of some similar books on site i.e. experiences of living in different countries as an ex-pat. I enjoyedChaps 2 and 3 when I felt that you began to get into your stride and tell me unfamiliar facts about Germany, or begin to reflect on "being German".

You write in a very straightforward way about everyday events in Germany, bringing them to life in the process. I can imagine this serialised in a magazine.

I shall watchlist this in the hope that you might upload some more.....

Have you self-published this, or similar books? If so, I would be interested to know about your experiences in marketing your work.

Clare

Hi Clare,

Thanks for the feedback - glad you enjoyed the first couple of chapters.

Yes, I self published this book, Planet Germany, almost exactly a year ago. It has done fairly well so far. I think it had the advantage that it appeals to ex-pats (of which there are plenty in Germany) and there is relatively little travel writing about this country (I suspect most people emigrate to places with better weather!)

Marketing has been fairly low key - mainly via ex-pat forums. Also, a lot of ex-pats are bloggers (it's a good way to share news and experiences with relatives back home), and this blogging community has been very kind to me with several very good reviews of Planet Germany.

I was also fortunate to have it reviewed in the Telegraph and it even got a mention on the Book Depository blog. There are links to all of the reviews on my blog, if you're interested.

Best wishes

Cathy

Welcome to Authonomy. This reminds me of some similar books on site i.e. experiences of living in different countries as an ex-pat. I enjoyedChaps 2 and 3 when I felt that you began to get into your stride and tell me unfamiliar facts about Germany, or begin to reflect on "being German".

You write in a very straightforward way about everyday events in Germany, bringing them to life in the process. I can imagine this serialised in a magazine.

I shall watchlist this in the hope that you might upload some more.....

Have you self-published this, or similar books? If so, I would be interested to know about your experiences in marketing your work.

Clare

Hi Cathy,

thanks for backing from rock to kraut. I had no idea that your book existed - I thought I have done my research on similar books to mine. I have watchlisted your book and will get around to reading it next weekend, that is if I don't just order it off amazon (my poor eyes). It seems like we have been in Germany for nearly the same time. I am this week doing the funeral faux pas and cultural differences - oh for a South African wake! will definitely stay in touch!

Anli

Hi Cathy. when I was a kid my friend next door's Mum was German so I thought I knew all the strange customs. Clearly not! is that lead-pouring for real? I think my neighbours got as far as opening their main presents on xmas eve and cooking cakes with holes in the middle (google something?) but I think anything else you describe would have have been banned as satanic by the rather strict and traditional english husband. this is highly entertaining. you may have to work hard to find your readership (check out Nicky - Nix, also Ally - Hallyally) here but it's possible. will return to read more. Ali.

Oh yes... it most certainly is real. Trust me... I live here... there is so much more to Germany than meets the eye.

Hi Cathy. when I was a kid my friend next door's Mum was German so I thought I knew all the strange customs. Clearly not! is that lead-pouring for real? I think my neighbours got as far as opening their main presents on xmas eve and cooking cakes with holes in the middle (google something?) but I think anything else you describe would have have been banned as satanic by the rather strict and traditional english husband. this is highly entertaining. you may have to work hard to find your readership (check out Nicky - Nix, also Ally - Hallyally) here but it's possible. will return to read more. Ali.

I know this book well and love it. It already has met with some considerable success selling as a self-published title on Amazon and has had some excellent reviews:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1906210489/ref=cm_rdp_product

Please do read this book - you'll enjoy it!

Thanks Suzan, much appreciated!

I know this book well and love it. It already has met with some considerable success selling as a self-published title on Amazon and has had some excellent reviews:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1906210489/ref=cm_rdp_product

Please do read this book - you'll enjoy it!