Stephen King's New Work Hits the Web

July 24, 2000 -- It sounds like a publisher’s nightmare, but the King of horror says they shouldn’t be concerned by his latest Internet milestone.

“I love my editors, and I like my publisher,” says Stephen King, who has just released the first chapter of a Web-only — and publisher-free — work. “I also like books. I’m a conservative on this particular subject and I love the smell of glue.”

King says on his Web site that he hopes his new cyberspace experiment, in which readers are asked to pay a dollar per chapter, will instead help other writers.

“[I]f I could break some trail for all the midlist writers, literary writers, and just plain marginalized writers who see a future outside the mainstream, that’s great,” he wrote. “My friends, we have a chance to become Big Publishing’s worst nightmare.”

Will It Work?

But some publishers doubt that King’s experiment, called The Plant, can help lesser-known scribes.

“This may work for Stephen King, but it won’t work for 99 percent of the people out there,” says Larry Kirshbaum, president of Time Warner Trade Publishing.

“You still need a lot of money and power to promote a book,” notes Jonathan Tasini, president of the National Writers’ Union. “The same people who already make a good living at the top of the bestseller list may have another way to sell, but I don’t believe there will be a dramatic change for other authors.”

One major publishing house saw the move as more of a challenge than a threat.

“It writes in the largest possible letters that publishers must prove their value in finding an author his or her audience and doing it better than the author can do it by his or herself,” says Simon & Schuster president Carolyn Reidy.

Simon & Schuster worked with King on his previous e-book, Riding the Bullet, which was released in March and has sold more than 500,000 copies, making it the most successful e-book ever. Reidy did not sound alarmed by King’s latest move.

“We see it in the vein of an experiment rather than a permanent move,” said Reidy. “We’re confident that publishers add enough value to the process that authors are still going to want to use them.”

Tale of the Vampire Vine

The Plant, which King began in 1982, is about a “vampire vine” that takes over the offices of a paperback publishing company and offers financial success in return for human sacrifice.

“The story is sort of funny and at the same time pretty gruesome (think Christine),” he says.

The first chapter was released through the author’s Web site early this morning. Readers who like it are expected to pony up a buck to Amazon.com, which is processing the payments. If King gets enough dollars, he’ll post the next chapter. If you want more, send another dollar. And so on.

“There’s only one catch: all this is on the honor system,” King says. “Remember: Pay and the story rolls. Steal and the story folds. No stealing from the blind newsboy!”

King is hoping that at least 75 percent of the people who download each chapter will send in the dollar. Each installment will be about 5,000-7,000 words, and King says he’s committed to publishing at least the first two.

Hitting the Web

The first chapter of The Plant downloaded quickly and easily during early attempts this morning.

Demand for Riding the Bullet was so great in its first days of release that many of the servers hosting the files were swamped, and some users had to wait hours or even days before they were able to get a copy. In its first 24 hours, more than 400,000 copies of the 66-page novella were downloaded.

Although it cost $2.95, several online booksellers were giving it away as a promotion.

But Bullet was protected by encryption technology that prevented people from mailing it, printing it out, or otherwise giving it away.

Some doubt that the honor system behind The Plant would work — even King says his own children think it won’t.

Business, or Just Fun?

“That’s a fellow sitting up in Maine having fun,” groused literary agent Mort Janklow. “But it’s not a way to run a business.”

Janklow, who represents hundreds of authors, sees a huge future in the electronic distribution of books — once good business models are in place.

“These are highways with no cars on them. I own all the cars,” Janklow says. “After they finish with all the distribution patterns they will need product.”

Paul Hilts, technical editor of Publishers Weekly, says King’s latest project doesn’t change the fundamental working of the publishing industry.

“The functions stay there. It just seems scary because it’s unknown. Stephen King trades in the unknown.”

King didn’t seem concerned by the controversy.

“All I know is I’ve got a hell of a good story to tell, and if you pay me I’ll tell it,” says King.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.