Comments on LBernier at tribune.com

[Jules Siegel]

At 04:11 PM 04/29/97 -0800, millison at online-journalist.com (Doug Millison)
wrote:

>Self-publishing has a long history.

I know that, but this isn't self-publishing. Dale is publishing Lineland.
I'm not.

>Many authors, under contract to commercial publishers, write, design,
produce and deliver their books ready for printing, especially in the
non-fiction, how-to domain -- I'm working on such a project right no).

I am glad to receive this information. Any titles that come to mind? If
there's a dispute between you and the publisher, who makes the final decision?

>And, there have been many books that basically grab, condense, edit,
re-write material from the Internet, or integrate it with original writing.

Again, any specific titles will be helpful, although this isn't what I've
done. I created most of the material spontaneously during a month-long
interaction with pynchon-l.

>What's really amusing is his claim to have invented a new art form, and his
proposal that what he's doing might be the next evolutionary step beyond
what Thomas Pynchon is doing.

Glad to provide a laugh, Doug. I wonder if many of these how-to books and
shovelware collections you mention do that. Lineland does repeatedly. Also
touches the hearts of some, acoording to a few advance readers.

That's mainly why Dale decided to publish it. He was dubious of Pynchon
readers as a market from the beginning, although I feel many will buy the
book. He decided to publish the book after looking through the Pynchon-L
Archive and finding himself fascinated by my exchanges with pynchon-l. He
had no idea who Pynchon was until this.

We all know that Thomas Pynchon is a very special taste. I think it speaks
for itself that someone who has never read his work and doesn't consider
himself part of that market was moved enough to publish Lineland.


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