Journal

Saturday, June 29, 2002
Neil: Big fan. Yay. Hey, I am also a big fan of Dawn French, and I want to make sure I get her reading of Coraline. Do you know when or where I might get this? I'm sure others would love to know as well... The only one I see on Amazon UK doesn't mention if it's Dawn French or not, and besides it's on a stinky old cassette and not CD. Bah.

Well, if it's the UK audio version, it's definitely Dawn French. I've not heard it yet (and I really want to). I don't know whether or not it'll be available on CD. I suspect it won't be. I learned the other day that the main reason why one of the largest chain bookstores in America (let's call them, oh, VeeandEmm. Farnes and Groble is just too transparent a pseudonym...) had no CDs of Coraline when people went looking for them was because their children's audio buyer was certain that people didn't want them, and only ordered the cassettes.

Now, the US Coraline CD's just gone back to press for a second printing. It's doing fine and better than fine. And I'm certain that a CD version of Dawn French reading it would do as well as the US version. But if audio CDs aren't thought of as a legitimate or popular audio medium for children's fiction, then Bloomsbury would find themselves fighting an uphill battle to get the shops to stock them.

I wrote the liner notes for TWO PLAYS FOR VOICES yesterday. Now I have to come up with a title for the new me-reading-short-stories-and-stuff CD, the first since WARNING: CONTAINS LANGUAGE, over seven years ago. It has on it

1. A Writer's Prayer
2. Harlequin Valentine
3. Boys & Girls Together
4. The Wedding Present
5. The End

And I have to come up with a title that fits, or that would work as the first one in a sequence, as I've recorded enough for several CDs.