not my tweet.

[matthew cissell]

Yes, Mr. Nelson has an admirable collection. It is of interest to note that
his AD proof is one of 200 and that the Jonathan Cape AD ARCs were were
limited to 77. That's a relatively low number of copies for reviewers.
Compare that to someone like Nicholas Sparks (the Anti-Pynchon) who offers "one
winner will be chosen at each stage to receive a hand-numbered Limited
Edition Advance Readers Copy (only 1,000 have been printed!)", that's 5
times as many!

I don't think Pynchon limits the number of ARC's due to it eating into his
sales. (Remember, that ARC doesn't matter much to the publisher but to the
writer that can end up being a missed sale if people buy the ARCs on Ebay
before the book's release date; and it does happen.) I believe it is an
attempt to maintain some control over the conversation that developes
around a newly released book. It's not a new tactic either. VL also had a
limited number of ARCs and there was apparently not much lead time for
reviewers, see Slaman Rushdie's complaint in his review of VL.

In the end it's not a bad way to keep the critical bite in check and leave
readers the opportunity to form their own opinions.

Ciao
mc

On Sat, May 14, 2016 at 11:00 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> Wow! Now online: Thomas Pynchon's previously unobtainable articles for
> Boeing's Bomarc missile newsletter (1960-62) https://
> staging.airflowsciences.com/rkn/Pynchon/None.bomarc/index.html …
> <https://t.co/CEJyhgALbB>
>
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