ARC Prices

[pynchonoid]

--- The Great Quail <quail at libyrinth.com> wrote:

> Doug writes,
> 
> > Also,
> > personalizing those ARC's is a great touch,
> 
> With respect, as I've said before, I think the
> Pynchon-L has a hothouse
> environment where we tend to overanalyze things and
> inflate the importance
> of trivialities.


Not sure what Pynchon-l has to do with personalizing
the ARCs and the excitement that has generated among
some reviewers, it seems the reviewers who have
received the book and have mentioned  it online so far
are pretty enthusiastic.  That blog entry that was
linked here, from one reviewer, he talked about how he
would treasure the book because it has his name in it.
 Again, I don't think the publisher omitted to
consider this factor, although it also seems to be a
measure to keep the books out of collector hands for
the moment.

The rest of what I've said is based on what's happened
out there on the Internet, not just here on Pynchon-l,
in response to actions by the publisher.  That
reviewer just mentioned, for example, has nothing to
do with the p-list as far as I know.

Again, the folks who are complaining about a lack of
marketing seem to be ignoring the significant buzz
that is happening out there in response to the
publisher's marketing program so far.  

It's sometimes called viral marketing and is, in fact,
the opposite of the behind-the-scenes control Big Bird
jokes about - instead, the company, in this case
Pynchon's publisher, releases a bit of info here, a
bit there, strategically, in places where it will draw
comment and be amplified and republished, eventually
working up from the grassroots to higher echelon
publications and other media outlets, in combination
with more traditional placements of paid advertising,
in-store promotions, etc. It is rather new, having
been developed only in the past decade or so, so it's
understandable that people might not know much about
it. The Jackson Pychon article is just the beginning
of what we'll see as momentum builds and more
journalists jump on the bandwagon.



> 
> I suspect that the reason the galleys were
> personalized is to prevent them
> from leaving the hands of the reviewers. 

>One of
> those things shows up on
> eBay, guess who can't be trusted? After all, the
> kinds of nuts that frequent
> a list like this would happily pay a lot of money
> for a galley, no? (I
> include myself as a nut.)
> 
> I agree with those who contend that there is a
> puzzling *lack* of buzz
> coming out of Penguin. I know that Doug likes to
> think of them as some
> Sphinx like entity pulling the strings on a subtle
> marketing campaign, but I
> really do not think this is the case.
> 
> However, I do agree with Doug that an interview
> would not shock me at this
> point. 
> 
> --Q 
> 

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