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Audio magic: Helen Nicoll

03.08.07 Joel Rickett

Like so much of the history of Harry Potter, Stephen Fry’s mould-breaking audiobook versions came about through a mix of publishing nous, belief and serendipity. At the centre of it all is Helen Nicoll, founder of audiobooks specialist Cover to Cover and, with Jan Pienkowski, author of the legendary Meg & Mog storybooks.

At the London Book Fair in 1998, J K Rowling’s agent Christopher Little happened across Cover to Cover’s small stand. Intrigued by its list of children’s modern classics, he fell into conversation with Nicoll, who showed more than a passing interest in Jo Rowling’s tale of wizardry.

Little sent her a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone—a rare first edition that was promptly torn apart so it could be easily read in the recording studio. Nicoll warmed to the world of Hogwarts, but warned that the book’s 223 pages would run over six cassettes and have to be priced at £20. “It was a risk because we didn’t have any children’s books for that much,” she says. “It was very clear this was not going to be for the mass market.” But the agent, following Rowling’s instructions that the adaptation must be unabridged, gave the green light.

Nicoll thought Stephen Fry would be perfect for the reading—“it’s anarchic but intelligent writing, and he’s both”—and Rowling was keen. But the actor was recovering from a breakdown, and the approach was rebuffed by his agent. Rowling persuaded Nicoll to try again, so she asked a friend of a friend to plead with him to take her call. He agreed, and the rest is audio publishing history. The 1999 six-tape set sold 50,000 copies in the first six months, and Fry’s delivery shaped the public perception of Harry Potter. Nicoll is convinced the film producers have made casting decisions based on some of the 170 different voices Fry has now used.

Of course, the logistics surrounding the recording have become complex—for Deathly Hallows, pages were taken from a vault and then put through a shredder at the end of the day. But it was still produced by the same four people in the same Soho studio, with Nicoll keeping Fry in energy food and cold remedies. They were all in tears when they reached the final chapters, she says. “It was the end of an era.”

Much like Emma Matthewson and also the film producer David Heyman, Nicoll has stayed with Harry until the very end. When BBC Worldwide acquired Cover to Cover in 2000, she excluded J K Rowling’s series from the deal, retaining rights herself—“I could already see Harry was special.” The BBC didn’t initially realise what it had missed, and then agreed a licensing partnership with her to sell and distribute the tapes and CDs. In 2005 Bloomsbury took over as the most “natural home” for all Rowling’s work, and is gradually absorbing the backlist as rights revert.

The English-language Harry Potter audiobooks have sold around 1.4 million copies in the UK and Commonwealth, a spectacular figure in the spoken-word market. The 20-CD, 24-hour Deathly Hallows had an initial run of 100,000. But Nicoll emphasises that even at a cover price of £75, margins on CDs are still “poor”.

She’s also sceptical about whether the success of Fry’s readings have lifted audiobooks beyond their niche audiences. “It has lifted the profile of audio enormously, but I don’t know how far it has translated into sales of other product.” Of course, Nicoll has done well personally, although she’s modest about the financial returns. “All I’ll say is that Harry has given me a pension, which as a self-employed person I didn’t have.”

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