Best-selling author
Stephen King kept returning to the darkest corners of the soul in his
writings. But when it came to the new world of electronic publishing, he
pioneered virgin territory. In March 2002, the master of the macabre sold
more than half a million copies of his 66-page electronic book, Riding
the Bullet, through the Internet for just $2.50 a pop. After that,
King did something more radical. Later that same month,
he
sidestepped publisher Simon
& Schuster Inc. altogether by releasing installments of his new novel,
The Plant, direct to readers from his own Web site at $1 per episode.
''It's the ultimate experiment,'' said King's agent, Ralph M. Vicinanza.
The experiment worked and could help establish a new era for authors of
all stripes: from unknowns
scribbling in their
garrets to the rich and
famous. Electronic books have been talked about for decades, but suddenly
they seem to be coming out of the woodwork, not to mention the crypt. A
recent joint study by Andersen Consulting and the Association of American
Publishers projects that the e-publishing market for consumer books could
reach $15.5 billion by 2010. Many feel the market for professional and
education books is even
riper, because people use
them for quick reference. ''The e-book will be the paperback of the 21st
century,'' predicts Jack Romanos, president of Simon & Schuster. He shrugs
off King's self-publishing move, saying, ''we
chalk it up
to
an experiment and not a threat at the moment.''
Already, a handful of industries are
revamping in anticipation of
the
switchover. Publishers have
digitized thousands of titles and are working to establish standards
before the end of the year that ease distribution while preventing the
threat of piracy. (Thieves stole copies of King's Riding the Bullet
and posted them on Web sites
for others
to
filch.) And tech companies are working to make
e-books more
palatable to readers,
whether on computers or special e-reader devices.
If this new medium
takes off, the biggest
winners could be the authors. While the publishing industry is quick
to coddle and promote stars,
it often has little time for those who don't
rack up big sales. Indeed,
the Net exposes the
flaws of traditional
publishing. Of course, the promise of e-publishing isn't quite
fulfilled yet. While it may
offer wonderful opportunities for readers to see work that traditional
houses would never touch, it also threatens
to
overwhelm
them with unreadable junk and provides little help in
separating the gold from
the dross.
E-publishing also means speed to market. Instead of waiting months for
publication, King got Riding the Bullet out mere weeks
after
penning
the last page. Because of the low cost of electronic distribution, the Net
allows authors
to cater
to smaller markets than is generally possible in
print.
While e-books open the floodgates for new authors, some established
writers are concerned about a decline in quality. Mystery writer Mosley
shares the enthusiasm for e-books and is publishing some short stories on
the Net, but he worries that adding sound and images to text could change
reading from an active intellectual exercise to something more passive,
like TV. ''Reading forces you to imagine, think, create, and question,''
says Mosley, adding that too many
bells and whistles
''will degrade the amount of thinking on the part of the reader.''
As technology improves and a new generation of readers gets comfortable
with e-books, more writers will surely follow King and Clark. Important
work will get published online. And someday, traditional book publishers
may go the way of the medieval illuminators. Now, that's a macabre thought
worthy of Stephen King. |