Neil Gaiman talks about his ever-growing fan base, which has expanded beyond goth girls and the “tall intense young man” to include kids and, apparently, their moms:
Phantastik-Couch: What about your German fans? Anything special about them?
Neil Gaiman: The flipside of this is that the readers don’t really change from country to country. You can go to England, America or Germany, take photographs of the readers in line for the signing and you say, ok, which is which? They are the same readers, the same people, very often they even look the same. Not too many beardy ones, but there are certainly types. Like the cute curvy girl, the tall intense young man. These days in America I’m getting more and more middle aged ladies.
Phantastik-Couch: Where do they come from?
Neil Gaiman: It’s because Stardust spreads among the Romance readers like a dirty little secret, and then they go on and read the other books. Which is very strange for me. But readers are readers, wherever you go. And sometimes the makeup of the readers is going to change, in Singapore o the Philipines women outnumber men, whereas in Germany it’s 50/50. Also, now I’m a childrens author now with Coraline.
