Little shop of horrors
Stephen king’s story "the plant" only grows if you give it with dollars
Since march you can download stephen king’s first e-book for a fee. On monday starts on stephenking.Com his new project "the plant". King fabricates and has a dollar sent home after each new chapter.
"Friends, we will become the absolute nightmare of publishers ", the beloved horror writer rumbles to fans on his homepage. It’s the first time such a transaction has involved middle men – in king’s case, the publisher simon cobbler – simply turned off.
Stephen king’s project is a droll mixture of modern technology and an appeal to an outdated emotion, namely honor: if more than 75 percent of all people who download the first chapter on monday and the second (as of august 21) download king’s book, they will be able to read it.August) download the second chapter, king will voluntarily send a dollar, then king will also put the third chapter of his story on the net, then the fourth, until at some point it comes to the eerie-beautiful conclusion. If too few dollar bills flutter into his house, he will pull the plug after the first sequel – and then no one will know how "the plant" had gone on.
"You promise to pay a dollar for each download and not to sell copies to your friends. Promise it, because it would be unfair to do otherwise. My copyright is the only thing I have," writes king, and given the almost fanatical loyalty of his fans, it is certain that not only blackmail will land in his mailbox.
"Will the thing run? Guys, you know more about the net than I do. My financial advisor says it can work, I don’t know. I just know I have a damn good story to pay for, and if you’re paying, I am", tont the creepy bard.
For his fans, the stuff of "the plant" is already mystical output: in the early eighties, king began writing it and the first three chapters he sent individually to friends. There are only 250 copies of it, each of which is traded at the price of 8500 dollars. For king to put the first three chapters on the web is not a risk, more likely a preventive measure before someone else does it secretly. Actually, he can only win. If his math works out, though, he’ll have to sit down at his desk and bang out something pretty creepy.
"Riding the bullet" was shared by simon in march schuster and stephen king have been offered as an e-book. It’s a story with about 16.000 words, which is about a hitchhiker who gets a ride from a dead man. Of this, his first e-book, he sold ca. 500 000 pieces at a price of 2.50 dollars. The revenue was shared between king and the publisher. Just a few years ago, the only forum for a story like king’s would have been "riding the bullet" a newspaper like the new yorker, who paid him about $10,000 for it. By selling it as an e-book, king made 450 000 dollars. Publisher jack romanoes said at the time: "the author-publisher relationship is strengthened by the project, at a time when it is considered fashionable to proclaim its decline."
When he turned this week to "the plant" romanoe had nothing to say on the subject of consolidation. He did, however, wish king good luck in a sportsmanlike way, and he remarked with a slightly machiavellian undertone: "let’s hope we don’t end up with a nightmarish scenario where thousands of people send dollar bills and the post office is drowned in a flood of letters. And what do you do when people send checks or want an invoice??" . If only 20 percent of those who buy from "riding the bullet" over ten chapters "the plant" with dollars to feed and grow, the old master of horror is earning a million dollars, and has few expenses, except for those for a few temps who open all the envelopes.
Ironically "the plant" – as one can read in the stephen king encyclopedia – by an editor of an unsuccessful publishing house, to whom a manuscript entitled "true tales of demon infestations" is offered. Enclosed are photos that look like real people were sacrificed. The editor has the author arrested. After it turns out that the pictures were not real after all, the released man swears revenge….
