Stephen King made a bold move when he released an electronic book last year. Sales were so good, they brought servers to their knees. This year, King decided to release a serialized novel in PDF, HTML, and straight text format, putting the honor system in place. If you downloaded the first part, you had to either pay a dollar on your credit card or promise to mail a check for a dollar. If, after the first two parts, King had a good enough response (75% payment), then he would continue and post the third and fourth parts. Actually, he hadn’t even written the third and fourth parts yet — he decided to hold off on doing so until he saw how the experiment worked.
According to his website, downloads of part 2 are down a bit from part 1. But, he’s gotten 75% payment thusfar, so will continue as planned. Through part 3, downloads will cost a dollar. Parts 4 through 8 will cost $2 each (for a total of $13). Anything above 8 parts, he will offer for free.
As before, Stephen King’s taken a bold step. He can certainly afford to, as he is one of our generation’s most successful writers. And I’m glad to see him taking this step. I’m supporting the effort because it directly supports the author better than buying a paperback would, plus he should be commended for giving an idea like this a shot. -ram
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