remainders

[pynchonoid]

Booksellers and book publishing professionals will
know better than I, but I've heard that books are
often remaindered not solely because of poor sales,
but also for other reasons - to make way on retail
shelves for a paperback or for some other new edition,
for example.

Publishers Weekly annually publishes figures for sales
of books published the previous year.

I have heard Pynchon described as a "perennial
backlist bestseller" because his books never go out of
print and they sell consistent numbers. 

I believe that I recall hearing that M&D sold between
100,000 and 200,000 copies, but that's been years ago
and I may not be remembering it precisely. I'm
expecting a first printing for Against the Day in the
200,000 copy range.

I don't believe Pynchon has ever been what anybody
would consider "poor" - speaking in the socioeconomic
sense of the word - and I'd be surprised if he hasn't
been able to support himself with his royalties and
advance payments for upcoming books since a point
rather early in his career. 



http://pynchonoid.org
"everything connects"

http://OnlineJournalist.org

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