Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Pynchon Finally Caves on E-Book Availability

June 12, 2012, 4:11 PM

After Long Resistance, Pynchon Allows Novels to Be Sold as E-Books

Thomas Pynchon was one of the last great holdouts: the rare writer who had refused to allow his work to be sold in e-book format.
Now he’s changed his mind.
Mr. Pynchon, the author of “The Crying of Lot 49,” “Gravity’s Rainbow” and “V.,” has struck a deal with the Penguin Press to publish his entire backlist in digital form.
The announcement is another step toward the ubiquity of the e-book, even for authors who stubbornly resisted.
A few years ago, e-book sales were tiny when compared with print sales, but in the last six months, it has not been uncommon for a new novel to sell more e-book copies than print ones. Authors whose work is not for sale in that format risk missing a large and growing segment of the reading population.
Older titles have been especially tantalizing for publishers, who have turned them into e-books and made easy sales.
Mr. Pynchon has avoided the press for most of his life and, characteristically, declined to speak about his decision...

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