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- Column - All About E-books - |
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 March 21 / 2000The Aftermath of Riding the Bullet By Ebook Editor Lisa Eagleson-Roever On March 14, 2000 at 12:01 AM, Riding the Bullet, Stephen King's 16,000-word short story/novella, was released to the public. On some sites it went for free for the first twenty-four hours, on others the cost was only $2.50. It's possible that it sold more copies in 24 hours than any other book released anywhere in history. According to Adam Rothberg, a Simon & Schuster spokesman, demand reached 400,000 orders during its first 24 hours for sale. Barnesandnoble.com alone collected requests for 200,000 free copies during that time, averaging 2.5 requests per second. SoftLock.com reported 15 times the volume it was expecting. Two days after its release, according to a Reuters report, half a million readers had been downloaded copies. The electronic publishing industry was overjoyed at the response, even while being overwhelmed by the numbers of readers seeking copies. Quotes from industry officials: "most successful release in history;" "Simon & Schuster and Stephen King have taken a bold step forward in the future of reading...;" and "We see a time in the not too distant future when virtually every book in print will be available in both physical and electronic formats." Not everybody was as happy. Servers began crashing as their capabilities hit their limits, some only minutes after midnight. At one point, Amazon.com put out a "closed sign" stating, "We'll be back soon!" It took the Associated Press 25 hours to get a copy, after numerous attempts to download it. E! Online reported that some readers spent 10 hours attempting to download the story and the software required to read it. And Macintosh users cannot get the e-book at all unless they download the version for a separate reader device, as none of the e-book distributors can support that operating system yet. Fad or new era? Paul Duguid, a University of California at Berkeley cultural studies researcher and author of The Social Life of Information, was quoted by Reuters as saying, "It's really hard to discover what part of it is fad and what part of it is real. If it wasn't being given away free, or for $2.50, and if it wasn't Stephen King, and it wasn't one of the first times you could do this, it might not have been so popular. Let's see what happens when it's $35." I have to agree. It's new, it's free, and where it's not free it's cheap. And it's Stephen King. I don't know any horror fans who wouldn't want a free Stephen King story. But will fans flock like gulls to e-publishing sites from now on? I think much of the answer will depend on the print industry's response, as they are still the dominant side of the publishing industry, and also on "name" authors' willingness to dabble in the purely electronic side of publishing. The idea to go electronic was Ralph Vicinanza's, according to a March 14, 2000, special edition of PW Daily. He's the literary agent who arranged for the electronic publication of Riding the Bullet. In an interview with PW Daily, Mr. Vicinanza was asked why King didn't go to a bona fide e-publisher since the ghost story was intended to be released only in an electronic version. (Simon & Schuster is the primary publisher.) His response: "...If Stephen King chose one over the other, that would give an imprimatur that may not be deserved. We don't know how this technology is going to pan out." In other words, he didn't feel the electronic side of the industry was mature enough, which is an argument many authors make as to why they won't sign with a purely electronic publisher. Whether they deserve it or not, electronic books have a reputation for being substandard in quality, and new companies are always suspect for their ability to survive economic downturns. Name authors can be justifiably reluctant to sign over publishing rights to a company that may not exist in five years, or may not be able to give the title the market exposure needed to make the type of profitable sales they seek. Whether King's release of Riding the Bullet sparks the beginning of a new era can only be seen with time. We'll be watching with interest. --- Sources of information for this article: Company Press Release, Adobe Systems Incorporated, Tuesday, March 14, 3:50 PM Eastern Time. "Demand for King Online Overwhelming," Associated Press, New York, Wednesday, March 15, 7:33 PM Eastern Time. "Amazon.com Offline for an Hour," Associated Press (Seattle), Thursday, March 16 7:24 PM Eastern Time. "Company Press Release, Barnes & Noble.com To Offer New Stephen King Short Story Free for Digital Download," Business Wire, Monday, March 13, 7:47 AM Eastern Time. "Consumers snap up Stephen King e-book," Evan Hansen, CNET News.com, Thursday, March 16 12:00 AM Eastern Standard Time. "King E-Book Causes Dot-Cram," E! Online, Wednesday, March 15 08:48 PM Eastern Standard Time. "Stephen King's Latest Tale Hits Web," Kathi Black, Industry Standard, Tuesday, March 14 11:21 PM Eastern Standard Time. PWDaily, Special issue for Tuesday, March 14, 2000. "Horror Meister King's Cyber-Book Creates E-Horrors," Tony Munroe, Reuters (Boston), Thursday, March 16, 5:22 PM Eastern Time. "Horrormeister Stephen King Tests the Cyberwaters," Patrick Rizzo, Reuters (New York), Tuesday, March 14, 12:21 AM Eastern Time. "King book shows evolution of e-book market," Dick Satran, Reuters (San Francisco), Thursday, March 16, 9:13 pm Eastern Time. |
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