Fw: More on the blurb brouhaha

[Tim Strzechowski]

Does anyone else here find it weird that such a "conspiracy" would rest 
solely on the Hope that the appearance of the blurb for *one day* -- only to 
disappear the next -- would generate enough interest, not to mention notice, 
to warrant its being deemed a "marketing strategy"?



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 3:45 PM
Subject: Re: More on the blurb brouhaha


> [...] but I'd still contend that they got the most mileage they could out 
> of that by exploiting the "mystery" of it. Serendipitous or planned, the 
> "now you see it, now you don't" thing was what got the buzz happening, and 
> it was what fleshed out the articles and got the bloggers going. Someone 
> at Penguin had to have sent the blurb to Amazon in the first place, then 
> someone at Penguin told them to take it down, then someone at Penguin told 
> them to put it back up again, and then someone at Penguin sent them the 
> title. Step by step. They didn't have to fork out a cent for advertising. 
> And, it's not as though they're ever going to admit they planned it, eh 
> ; )
>
> December 5 release date gets your book delivered right in time for 
> Christmas.
>

[...]

>
> It isn't that the new book's being marketed to those of us who would have 
> bought the book anyway (we were extras in the little scam, part of the 
> "the internerd's crazy Pynchon cult" as one blogger put it), it's being 
> marketed to new customers -- Simpsons viewers, film buffs etc. And "the 
> new Pynchon" is being "branded" in a very particular way, through those 
> Simpsons appearances and the blurb, and the Orwell intro too to a lesser 
> degree. But with the Simpsons spots and the blurb he comes across as 
> someone who can make fun of himself and the reputation he has earnt in the 
> media through not giving interviews or having photos done or doing book 
> tours. And people look at the info about the author or do a bit of 
> googling and think to themselves, hey, that might be a book I'd like to 
> get.
>

Interesting.  I'd never thought of that ....