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Stephen King Succeeds and Fails
Stephen King Succeeds and Fails !!!
When best-selling writer and overall good-guy Stephen King sold 500,000
copies of his new novella, Riding the
Bullet, via the Internet, the news was reported in Istanbul, Delhi and
Katmandu. King makes no secret of his opinion
that publishers like to publish the same old stuff, giving readers nothing
new to think about and giving writers no way
to share new ideas. So, to him, the Internet is the obvious answer to this
dilemma - let readers, writers and
publishers find each other without the burdens of corporate mentality and
corporate finance.
The Internet may be the answer, but not yet. In the wake of Riding the
Bullet, e-book sales have crashed.
E-publishers reckon that the media blitz surrounding the best-selling
writer's wonderful idea has caused a general
fatigue in the marketplace. Where Stephen King intended to educate readers
to the availability of e-books, it seems
that readers have learned only that e-books are another way to find Stephen
King.
King has often written that readers and writers are falling into the trap
set by the movie and music empires that
now control most of publishing - we are all learning to be content with the
same ideas because we can't find anything
new or interesting. This is a result of focus groups, niche-marketing and
what King - in a New York Times Book Review
article - called "the son-of-lassie mentality" - imitating success
as a means to eliminating risk in the entertainment
business.
Obviously, something more is needed before readers rise up and shed the
shackles of corporate marketing
mentalities. Perhaps that something more is nothing more obvious than
readers learning that there is lots of good
stuff out there and they only have to look.
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