Stephen King's New Work Only on Internet

P O R T L A N D, Maine, July 20, 2000 -- Stephen King plans to begin an experimentin direct publishing Monday by posting the first installment of anew novel online and asking readers to pay through the honorsystem.

Installment one of The Plant will be posted on King’s Web site on July 24 and installment two on Aug. 21. Part three willappear in September if “pay-through” equals or exceeds 75percent, according to a message on his Web site dated July 11.

Readers will be asked to send King a check or money order for $1per installment in a direct transaction that King describes as away to thumb your nose at the publishing industry.

‘No More Tiresome Encryption!’

“My friends, we have a chance to become Big Publishing’s worst nightmare,” the Web site reads. “Not only are we going glueless, look Ma, no e-Book! No tiresome encryption!”

The novel, to be posted in parts ranging from 5,000 to 7,000words, is described as “sort of funny and at the same time prettygruesome.” It describes a “vampire vine” that takes over the offices of a paperback publishing company and offers financialsuccess for human sacrifice.

King, 52, said he’s counting on two things: honest readers, anda story that will be good enough to keep them reading.

“Remember: Pay and the story rolls. Steal and the storyfolds,” he wrote on the site. “No stealing from the blindnewsboy!”

The multimillionaire horror author got the idea after a readermailed him $2.50 out of guilt at having read his e-book, Ridingthe Bullet, for free from an unauthorized Web site.

That work was only available online through several book-relatedWeb sites. It went on sale in March. King wrote the book whilerecuperating from being struck by a van last summer.