Peter Sinclair: Horrors, the e-book has no ending

Maybe Stephen King's The Plant was never meant to be written.

History's greatest shudder-meister wrote the opening line nearly 20 years ago, but put the book aside in favour of other projects. This year he gave it a bit of a water and it sprouted anew - on the web.

Encouraged by the success of his first online publication in March - a 66-page e-novella, Riding the Bullet, which scored more than 500,000 sales in two days - King decided to go the whole hog and finish The Plant solely on the internet in 5000-word instalments. His business model was one which has had a decidedly chequered history: the honesty system.

It was a test of his own best-selling powers on the one hand and of human nature on the other.

The idea, in his own words: "Instalments one, two and three are going to be available for $1. Further instalments up to eight will be available for $2 each. In other words, your complete financial liability for the first eight instalments of this story will be $13, or about the cost of a trade paperback or a hardcover novel offered at 40 per cent discount in a chain bookstore. Any parts beyond eight - which would be the balance of the story - would be posted free."

Alas. Already on record as saying, "I think ... technology is turning the whole idea of copyright into a risky proposition," King has just proved it.

After a promising start, in which more than 75 per cent of downloaders paid, the latter-day Charles Dickens' faith in human nature was cruelly betrayed when, by Part IV, only 46 per cent were willing to cough up.

So once again The Plant has been uprooted; and if there's a moral, it is that probity doesn't pay. As so often in life, the innocent are lumped in with the guilty and King's more scrupulous readers are now furious they've paid $US7 ($16) for a book without an ending.

Other e-authors are concerned at how his gesture will affect self-publishing on the net as a whole. How will readers react in future?

Perhaps self-admitted "techno-peasant" Frederick Forsyth will have better luck. The first in a series of short stories by the British blockbuster writer (Day of the Jackal) has been published exclusively on the web: The Veteran - a tale of violent crime in London - is Part I in a collection entitled Quintet.

A new story will be published every three weeks until the series of five is complete early next year. Adobe's PDF and Glassbook formats will be supported.

But the British author is more cynical, or more realistic, than his American counterpart. He's having no truck with the leave-your-money-in-the-jar system. Readers will be asked to pay just under £2 (about $6.60) for each story - and Online Originals will mind the stall to make sure they do.

Those of us who love both reading and the internet will keep our fingers crossed for him and other net authors.

For, from a wider perspective, as cyberspace becomes an integral part of our children's and grandchildren's lives, it will also be where most of tomorrow's readers are going to be found.

And there can be no great writers if there are no great readers.

BOOKMARKS


MOST LITERATE: Bloomsbury Magazine

Britain's most enterprising publishing house, founded by dynamic London-based Kiwi Liz Calder, arrives online with a handsome literary e-zine. Join the Great Thompson Hunt for the Godfather of Gonzo (includes a private letter to Tom Wolfe), plus a literary on-this-day column and a great Harry Potter page with live video and other trimmings.

Advisory: budding authors can enter the "New Voices" contest.

GOING, GOING : Trade Me!

The popularity of this local auction site (it now claims 30,000 registered users) may be enhanced by a new "Shop by Request" feature designed as a win-win service for users, retailers and Trade Me itself. If users can't find what they want at auction, the theory goes, they can formulate a request for a product to retailers and then receive "recommendations" in their in-boxes.

Advisory: I can't help feeling there's a mousetrap lurking here somewhere.

* petersinclair@email.com

Links


Riding the Bullet

The Plant

Frederick Forsyth

Glassbook

Online Originals

Bloomsbury

Trade Me