Curiosities

The Pale King Is Shipping

By posted at 9:40 am on March 30, 2011 9

This may be a temporary thing, but David Foster Wallace’s posthumously published novel The Pale King appears to be shipping now from Amazon, more than two weeks ahead of the official tax day publication date. Update: From the official Pale King Facebook page: the book “doesn’t have a one day laydown: stores can sell it as soon as it’s in their shop.” So looks like the book is now available everywhere. Do you have your copy yet?

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9 Responses to “The Pale King Is Shipping”

  1. Jake Bouma
    at 11:56 am on March 30, 2011

    I have my copy, although it’s a review copy directly from the publisher. The ship date on my Amazon pre-order is supposedly today or tomorrow.

  2. Miette
    at 12:34 pm on March 30, 2011

    The ship date on mine is also today– for those in NYC and willing to resist the temptation of Amazon’s discounts, St. Mark’s Books was selling them last night…)

  3. Rachel
    at 1:19 pm on March 30, 2011

    Wow, Hachette, way to screw independent bookstores (many of which are planning big release day parties for The Pale King) out of sales by shipping to Amazon first.

  4. C. Max Magee
    at 1:21 pm on March 30, 2011

    Rachel, as you’ll see from the comment above yours, it appears that Hachette shipped to ALL bookstores ahead of the listed pub date, including indies like St. Mark’s Books in NYC.

  5. Dreezer
    at 1:25 pm on March 30, 2011

    But the bookshops that announced release day events are still screwed; they have the copies, but likely would have sold more if there had been a true release date. So: What Rachel Said.

  6. C. Max Magee
    at 1:29 pm on March 30, 2011

    Dreezer, that is true. Hadn’t thought about that.

  7. Rachel
    at 1:33 pm on March 30, 2011

    I work at an indie, and I understand our books shipped today and will be here next week. So yeah, we can sell before the 15th, but not as early as Amazon.

  8. Afternoon Bites: Unsound Festival, Kyle Beachy, Newfoundland, and more | Vol. 1 Brooklyn
    at 3:31 pm on March 30, 2011

    [...] moment of book-business surrealism for the day: The Millions points out that news of The Pale King‘s updated (?) release date comes via a res…. Which seems to be, well, a bit strange. Further debate occurs in the comments, including its [...]

  9. P.T. Smith
    at 10:14 pm on March 30, 2011

    But do you think there are really many people buying it this early from Amazon who hadn’t already pre-ordered it and wouldn’t be buying it in-store anyway?

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