In 2010, I was planning my first visit to Japan for the first time. I had just finished my kitten manga Mjau! for a Swedish publisher, and decided to take the chance and send it to some Japanese publishers, to see if I could book a meeting.

I sent the first book (a small one with only 64 pages) to 8 publishers and magazines in Japan. I also included a letter about me and the manga and asking for a meeting, all in Japanese (I studied Japanese for 2 semesters at the University, but I also had a bunch of friends with Japanese knowledge to help me a lot with the letter!).

Four of the publishers replied in email, and out of them there was two that said yes to a meeting, but only one of them replied to my email response. It was editor Y (I will disguise their names) at Shueisha's Ribon, one of Japan's biggest shojo manga magazines. We booked a meeting and I planned my trip to Japan!

More in part 2...