Colin Blackstock
There is always a twist in a Stephen King story, and his latest work is no different. Having just tipped his hat to publishing’s past with a serialised novel, The Green Mile, the master of horror embraces the future by offering his latest story exclusively over the Internet.
King describes his latest story, Riding the Bullet, as “a ghost story in the grand manner” and says he is keen to see what sort of response a book published in this manner will get.
The 66-page tale was available from Tuesday and buyers can download it for $2,50 to read on a computer, personal organiser or electronic book. In fact, Barnes & Noble was offering the download free for the day, leading to such demand that the website was flashing up a message saying the giant bookseller was having difficulties meeting demand and that those who requested the book be e-mailed to them should expect some delay before receiving it. The demand was prompted in part by its being mentioned by hip electronic news site Wired News (www.wired.com/news).
The publishers Simon and Schuster Online made it available through websites of e- book manufacturers and online booksellers, and their own website was also overloaded by demand.
In another twist, reminiscent of his own stories, King completed Riding the Bullet while recuperating from a near fatal accident in which he was hit by a van last June on a country road near his home in Lovell, Maine.
After the accident he said he found it extremely difficult to begin writing again, but Riding the Bullet was part of his recovery. He is now eagerly awaiting the reaction to this latest story.
“I’m curious to see what sort of response there is and whether this is the future,” King said.
Other – mostly science fiction – writers have experimented with similar distribution of their work, but King is the first of the world’s top writers to test the online waters.
“This is really the first effective market test,” said Keith Loris, president of SoftLock.com, which provided some of the technology. “Up to now, this has been technology in search of a market.”
One of the implications of the developing technology is that it may see writers publishing shorter works that ordinarily would not find their way on to paper. The days of serialisation, the form in which all Charles Dickens novels were originally published, may return via the Internet.
King recently signed a three-book deal rumoured to be worth about R300-million in what is said to be the most valuable literary contract in history. The sum shatters previous records and turns the author of more than 30 bestsellers, including Carrie, The Shining and Misery, into the colossus of commercial fiction.
Industry figures see King’s new venture as being a potentially crucial boost to the fledgling electronic book industry. The obstacles to its success lie in the lack of development of a user-friendly reading device that captures the intuitive nature of a conventional book, and in consumer resistance to the idea of giving up books on card and paper.
You can currently buy an “eBook”, a portable, compact device that can store several weeks’ worth of reading material at one time -enough surely for any beach or long-haul diversion.
Barnesandnoble.com is selling NuvoMedia’s Rocket eBook, which weighs 620g and is about the size of a paperback. Along with it you can buy electronic editions of books or periodicals (encrypted in the Rocket Edition format). Memoirs of a Geisha, in e-book form, could be yours for only $11,20.And Barnes-andnoble.com has recently announced plans for an e-bookstore that will sell thousands of texts using Microsoft Reader software.