After years of resisting, author Thomas Pynchon has allowed his books to be released as eBooks. According to The New York Times, Penguin Press will publish Pynchon’s entire backlist digitally.
Ann Godoff, the president and editor-in-chief of Penguin Press told The NY Times: “It wasn’t exactly the elephant in the drawing room, but we just felt that the moment was right. There has been a great desire to have all of Tom’s books in digital format now, for many years. He didn’t want to not be part of that.”
Melville House’s blog pointed out that Pynchon joined the ranks of Ray Bradbury and J.K. Rowling–authors who delayed, but ultimately gave in to eBooks. Teleread noted that most of Pynchon’s paperbacks are cheaper than the eBook editions. For example, on Amazon the paper back edition of Maxon & Dixon is $11.44 versus the Kindle eBook which is $12.99. (Via Melville House).