A heart-warming chat with Idle Tom the Publisher
A nice little chat with Idle Tom the Publisher; one of those heart-warming natters that fills you up with a golden Ready Brek glow for the whole rest of the day; the sort of conversation, in fact, that makes you feel just great to be alive.
"So do you like the campaign?" I said. "Do you think it’s a winner?"
"And what campaign might that be Mr Coles?"
"The campaign to get a new cover for The Well-Tempered Clavier. Or at least some stickers which are big enough to block off the more offensive parts of your cover."
"Yes," he said. "An interesting campaign. Don’t think I’ve ever heard of an author attacking his own book in quite the rabid manner that you seem to be doing."
"Tommy! I’m not attacking the contents of the book! I am merely taking a pop at the cover, which, to my mind, is not helping to sell the thing."
"I like the cover. I think it’s got great potential in the crucial cross-over market."
"The cross-over market? What the hell’s that?"
"These pearls are wasted on you. Anyway, as far as I can see your so-called "Cover campaign" consists of precisely two people - you and your toadying lieutenant Julia Boyle."
"Juliet Doyle, actually - though an easy mistake to make. No, I promise you, there are loads of people out there who hate the cover -"
"What - like Sherry and Diane? They’re so obviously made up."
"No! They’re genuine! And I just had another note in yesterday from a lovely woman called Veronica. She’s a music-teacher and she’s telling all her colleagues about the book. Want to hear what she says?"
"Spare me."
"Well listen up! Ahem!
"The cover is truly awful and I had to keep it front-down as I took it to school. I would not want my singing pupils to see that but I have raved about your novel to my piano-teaching colleagues. Thanks from me and for inspiring me to feel the love of Johann Sebastian Bach again.""
April 25th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I AM A REAL PERSON!
and I still violently dislike the cover.