New York Observer (6/2/97)

[davemarc]

"The Secret Selling of Thomas Pynchon" is the Kover story of the June 2,
1997 issue, Komplete with Kover Karicature of a Koffee-Kwaffing Pynchon. 
Midground is a cheerful-looking woman & child (who could they possibly
represent?), with a rather wry-looking Salinger behind 'em.   

It's a very good article that seems sorta accurate, with some interesting
details on the book's marketing, including its cover design.   Here's a
little bit that touches on Us.

***

While the author was tending to such needling matters [getting the "right"
ampersand for the cover], Henry Holt's publicity squad, led by a woman with
the very Pynchonesque name of Lottchen Shivers, was developing a strategy
to make Thomas Pynchon a household name.  Ms. Shivers said the company knew
that his devotees would buy the book, so it developed a marketing campaign
directed at "the people who'd heard of [Mr. Pynchon] before but were
intimidated."  The campaign would be somewhat expensive--it was budgeted at
$200,000--and the publicists would have to promote the book without Mr.
Pynchon, who reitereated his refusal to do interviews--not a single one, he
told Holt.  But Mr. Pynchon would be informed of the marketing strategies
via his editor, Mr. Roberts.

Early on, Holt decided to target the Internet--a natural, since there were
already Pynchon Web sitse--and a large network of Pynchon fans who
regularly e-mail each other about his books.  Holt hired an outside
consultant to design a *Mason & Dixon* Web site that would include facts
about the book and a comprehensive list of events surrounding its
publication, generating excitement among the faithful.

For 1990's *Vineland*, according to Ms. Shivers, Mr. Pynchon had declined
to provide advanced reading copies--the expensive early editions that
publishing houses send out to the media, as opposed to cheaply produced
galleys.  But for *Mason & Dixon*, she said, "Pynchon said this book will
be ready to put into reading copies.  He said, 'Let's go!'  That opened a
whole new world."

THE REVIEWERS FAWN
But as reviewers were being bombarded with reading copies, bookstores were
asked to convey a very different image:  that *Mason & Dixon* might be
extremely difficult to obtain.  Holt went in bookstores and set up
"reservation boards"--"displays with pads of paper on them that allow
readers to quote, reserve, a book," said Ms. Shivers.  In reality, 175,000
copies of the book were printed, so even in a heady buying frenzy, *Mason &
Dixon* would not likely sell out.  Still, as Ms. Shivers explained,
"'Reserve your copy now!' was the mentality."

The publication date was set for April 30.  In the days leading up to it,
boxes with the *Mason & Dixon* logo prominently printed on them started
arriving in bookstores, along with literature on how to position three
copies of the book so that the letters on the three covers combined to form
a *Mason & Dixon* billboard.

As the publication date approached, the publicists at Holt decided they
wanted to create a Pynchon-across America party, through a series of wacky
readings, puppet shows and costume parties.  Mr. Pynchon was asked to
sanction the evenings, which he did--with conditions.  "We came up with
some fun stuff that we could do with the Pynchonites, but he preferred that
the bookstores create the evenings themselves because it was more organic,"
said Ms. Shivers.  "I thought he had a point."

With backing from Holt, venues such as KGB, a literary bar in the East
Village, sponsored a Pynchon imitation contest, while the Shaman Drum
Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Mich., held a party and a raffle for a framed
first-edition cover.  The Booksmith on Haight Street in San Francisco threw
an open mike night, with Pynchon fans dressed like characters from his
novels....

***

davemarc