Thomas Pynchon don’t need no ad agency

How do you market a book written by a publicity-shy author? Time magazine wonders in a story about Thomas Pynchon’s new tome, Against the Day. Well, I guess one thing you do is tell Time that Mr. Pynchon won’t submit to an interview, and then they’ll write about it. Time uses Pynchon’s legendary reclusiveness to launch into a tale about how hard it is to market works of fiction these days. It may be hard, but that doesn’t apply to Pynchon. The man’s reputation precedes him. Announce he’s got a new book, and it will fly off the shelves. Of course, the viral-savvy minds at Amazon.com couldn’t resist having a little fun last summer when they put up a notice about the upcoming book, with a description that was allegedly written by the author. Sure it was. Which is why it was removed after the blogs started buzzing. Nice touch, but really necessary? Who hasn’t heard of V or The Crying of Lot 49? Probably far fewer souls than have read the books cover to cover. I tried reading V once, but the clever wordplay left me cold after the first sentence, which I think was longer than the first chapter. Clearly, the man didn’t learn his craft in J-school. Which is to his credit. At least, that’s what I hear from the J-school grads I know.

—Posted by Steve McClellan

October 27, 2006 | Permalink