How to Get Published in Iran

In his May newsletter, Robin Sloan describes the mechanism by which his book Sourdough was published in Iran:

I am permitted neither to sign a contract with an Iranian business nor receive payment from one; no publication in Iran of any U.S. book can be official. Instead, what happens is that an Iranian publisher says, “…can we just translate this?” and you say “uh, sure!” because, what’s the alternative? You can either (1) earn zero dollars and (2) not have a Persian edition, or (1) earn zero dollars and (2) have a Persian edition. Pretty clear choice!

This is similar to the way I got the Publisher of the Peterborough Examiner to allow me to move up from apprentice to journeyman: I agreed to resign immediately upon receiving my new status. This allowed him to avoid the inconvenience of having to double my salary, and allowed me formal recognition of my skills, without the inconvenience of working in the composing room until I died (or was replaced by a Mac, something that, as it turned out, would have happened within a year).