This guide was made by another fellow fan, named Zoe aka Zoe_emi0923, who is in no way related to the author or the story <3
Keep in mind that there are many other official translations from different languages regarding each novel, and manga, however on this case im focusing solely on Japanese and English. If you need links to any other official translation, let me know.
日向夏, Hyūga Natsu or also known as Natsu Hinata is the author for the novel The Apothecary Diaries. She has been writing the novel since 2011, but she also has other works to her name. You can follow her social media here -> Hyuga samas twitter
Her mascot is a wild boar named: Uririn (yes she's beneath the costume) She loves cats, she has a bunch of her own (super cute) •Probably why she wanted Maomao to be like a cat*
The Apothecary Diaries is not a Shoujo, it's a classical era drama, mystery, with some aspects of romance.
The main ship’s name is Jinmao (Jinshi and Maomao). They are not enemies to lovers, like many believe; it's actually a slow-burn romance while learning about mutual respect and trust.
WEB NOVEL : The web-novel is the official primary source, where the story has continued to be written since 2011 by Hyuga san. It's written in Japanese on a JP writers blog (that's how I call it) Syosetsu writers page, it gets pretty updated by Hyuga all the time for her readers :3 <- (currently on chapter 5 vol 17)
LIGHT NOVEL: The light novel is the main source for adaptations for other medias. The light novel for 薬屋の started when the japanese publisher corporation of Shufunotomo got the rights to start serializing it into Light Novels in 2014. The light novels expand the world of the web novel.
The english official translations didn't begin until 2020 (Also when I started to read the books) when J-Novel started to translate. (Purchase required) J-novel translations fun fact, the translator's name is Kevin Stenbach. The ones in charge of printing on paperback are Square Enix. The English printing also started recently in May 2024. You can buy your paperback copies here -> VOL 1 PAPERBACK