ATD: "integrated communications strategy"

[pynchonoid]

That's what the publisher seems to be executing,
targeting affinity groups online to generate buzz,
leaking to bloggers and other online journalists (like
Slate) whose articles are then noted by top tier
publications. As I noted more than a week ago here
(while jbor was still swearing Pynchon couldn't be
involved, it was a hoax, and so forth), observing the
organized nature of the leaks to online journos, etc.
But that's water under the bridge. (Anybody interested
in seeing how this works, in detail, could read the
book I co-wrote, Firebrands:  Building Brand Loyalty
in the Internet Age, published quite a few years ago
now and still available, I think, in English and some
other languages.)

Quail probably knows more about publishing than I do,
but I suspect that Pynchon may be a special enough
case that he's either closely involved in the
marketing, or has approved a specific plan in advance.
 Either that, or you have to assume he's completely
hands-off, letting the young screenagers at Penguin
market Against the Day in cyberspace.  Either way,
it's sure to be based on a plan that includes
marketing, advertising, promotional, events, and other
activities related to creating a market for the book
in advance of its publication, these things don't
happen by accident, they are budgeted.  Of course
accidents can happen, but I'll be surprised to learn
the posting and taking down from Amazon of the Book
Description was not part of the plan. Another
possibility is that the online marketing team for the
book was responsive enough to jump on what may have
been a mistake (premature posting of the Book
Description), feed the fire of speculation, thus
gaining more exposure for the re-posting.  

If the book gets more readers, that's great, in my
opinion, the more the merrier, some of them are bound
to go on and read more of Pynchon's work, and I think
that's just great, too.




http://pynchonoid.org
"everything connects"

http://OnlineJournalist.org

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