Dear All,
Found this in the Times. Thought it might =
amuse/interest/annoy
(delete as applicable) somebody.
Stephen King reinvents the
Net book agreement
FROM JAMES BONE IN NEW YORK
Links=20
STEPHEN KING is shaking the publishing world to its
boots by releasing his next horror story exclusively over
the Internet.=20
King, who recently revived serialisation by publishing The
Green Mile in instalments and issued his short story
collection Blood and Smoke only as an audio book, is
innovating once again by publishing Riding the Bullet
online.=20
The 65-page story about a hitch-hiker who gets into the
wrong car on his way to visit his ailing mother will be
available to computer users for $2.50 per download from
midnight on Monday, and will also be formatted for
handheld devices such as the Palm Pilot and e-books.=20
King is releasing the title as part of a co-publishing
agreement with Simon & Schuster, which is reported to
be worth about $30 million ( =A319 million) for three books.
The author, publisher and e-retailers will share the profits,
as with traditional books.=20
"I'm curious to see what sort of response there is and
whether this is the future," said King, who wrote Riding
the Bullet after a near-fatal accident last June when he
was knocked down on a Maine country road.=20
Although Arthur C. Clarke published a speech through the
online publisher Fatbrain.com, the e-publishing business
has never before won an exclusive from such a
heavyweight as King, whose 36 novels have sold more
than 100 million copies in 33 languages.=20
"We think that there is definitely a large part of publishing
that is going to be electronic in the future," Adam
Rothberg, of Simon & Schuster, said. "Nobody knows
what form it's going to take. More and more people are
going to accept reading electronically. It's just a question
of when." The publishing house says it is in discussions
with other authors about publishing them online.=20
King has already made Hearts in Atlantis, A Bag of
Bones and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon available
online, after they were published in paper-and-ink. But the
economics of e-publishing also make it possible to print
works such as Riding the Bullet that might never make it
into book form. "It would not be possible to do this is the
paper-and-ink format. Sixty-five pages does not make a
paper book," Mr Rothberg said.=20
The big question is whether traditional publishers are just
middle men between the author and the audience who
might one day disappear if brand-name writers take their
works directly to their fans. Microsoft estimates that by
2020, nine of every ten books sold will be electronic.=20
Mr Rothberg acknowledged that "the word dustjacket
may become a thing of the past", but he insisted that
traditional publishers would always be needed to edit,
format, design and market texts in all forms. "Right now,
Stephen King wants to be a writer not a publisher," he
added - with relief.
Found this in the Times. Thought it might =
amuse/interest/annoy
(delete as applicable) somebody.
Stephen King reinvents the
Net book agreement
FROM JAMES BONE IN NEW YORK
Links=20
STEPHEN KING is shaking the publishing world to its
boots by releasing his next horror story exclusively over
the Internet.=20
King, who recently revived serialisation by publishing The
Green Mile in instalments and issued his short story
collection Blood and Smoke only as an audio book, is
innovating once again by publishing Riding the Bullet
online.=20
The 65-page story about a hitch-hiker who gets into the
wrong car on his way to visit his ailing mother will be
available to computer users for $2.50 per download from
midnight on Monday, and will also be formatted for
handheld devices such as the Palm Pilot and e-books.=20
King is releasing the title as part of a co-publishing
agreement with Simon & Schuster, which is reported to
be worth about $30 million ( =A319 million) for three books.
The author, publisher and e-retailers will share the profits,
as with traditional books.=20
"I'm curious to see what sort of response there is and
whether this is the future," said King, who wrote Riding
the Bullet after a near-fatal accident last June when he
was knocked down on a Maine country road.=20
Although Arthur C. Clarke published a speech through the
online publisher Fatbrain.com, the e-publishing business
has never before won an exclusive from such a
heavyweight as King, whose 36 novels have sold more
than 100 million copies in 33 languages.=20
"We think that there is definitely a large part of publishing
that is going to be electronic in the future," Adam
Rothberg, of Simon & Schuster, said. "Nobody knows
what form it's going to take. More and more people are
going to accept reading electronically. It's just a question
of when." The publishing house says it is in discussions
with other authors about publishing them online.=20
King has already made Hearts in Atlantis, A Bag of
Bones and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon available
online, after they were published in paper-and-ink. But the
economics of e-publishing also make it possible to print
works such as Riding the Bullet that might never make it
into book form. "It would not be possible to do this is the
paper-and-ink format. Sixty-five pages does not make a
paper book," Mr Rothberg said.=20
The big question is whether traditional publishers are just
middle men between the author and the audience who
might one day disappear if brand-name writers take their
works directly to their fans. Microsoft estimates that by
2020, nine of every ten books sold will be electronic.=20
Mr Rothberg acknowledged that "the word dustjacket
may become a thing of the past", but he insisted that
traditional publishers would always be needed to edit,
format, design and market texts in all forms. "Right now,
Stephen King wants to be a writer not a publisher," he
added - with relief.