The Well-Tempered Clavier

Proof positive - if ever it were needed - that the Idle Publisher’s book cover for The Well-Tempered Clavier is KILLING sales.

 

Crucifying them, more like.

 

Just received a ch-ch-charming e-mail from a teacher at a girls’ school, where apparently the Clavier book is whistling around the music department. (Slightly concerned to see that it appears to be just ONE copy that’s going round the department. Honestly - it hurts me. If you’re one of these teachers, drop me a line and I’ll send you a copy. On the house - and signed.)

 

Anyway, this teacher - no names, no pack-drill - said that she’d liked the book, however …

 

"- although in view of the cover we’ve so far refrained from passing it on to our pupils. I’m sure they’d love it too but I suspect the hierarchy might consider it unsuitable for a girls boarding school …"

 

What a disaster! Still - I have high hopes that I may yet be asked over to the school to talk to the girls about … about what ever they damn well want me to talk about.

 

"This cover," I said to Idle Tom the Publisher. "Have you seen what it’s doing to the sales? It’s a blood-bath!"

 

"Yeah, all right, can you change the record? Look, I’ve got the sticker made up, red on yellow. Nice big round one -"

 

"I thought it was going to be rectangular, seven inches by five?"

 

"But that would take up the whole cover!"

 

"Exactly - anyway. What’s happened with my second book, Project X? Don’t tell me - you’re going to read it this weekend."

 

"No -" said the Idle One. "I read it."

 

"You read it! Well thanks very much for telling me! What did you think then? Is it a go? Are you going to stump up any money?"

 

"I quite liked it," he said. "It was all right."

 

"All right? Is that all you can say? "It was all right"?"

 

"Well I quite liked it."

 

"Yes, I’ve got that now. So - tell me. Is there going to be any money to finish the thing?"

 

"Umm. I’ll have to think about that."

 

"Don’t tell me - you’re going to think about it over the weekend -"

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Well-Tempered Clavier. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.