The Plant - Stephen King

Stephen King is arguably the world’s most successful author, with 36 novels under his belt, many of which have been made into movies, and an annual income of $40m. It is no wonder then that an author this successful has decided to try cutting out the middleman, and self-publish a novel on the internet through his own publishing house, based in Bangor, Maine: the Philtrum Press. If this experiment works, it could revolutionise the way books are sold in the future. Already we can buy hard copy books through web sites like www.amazon.co.uk and .com, and www.ottakars.co.uk, and even ebooks, for reading on a computer in PDF format or HTML, or for reading on ...  Read the complete review

Stephen King is publishing this novel over the net through his site. There will be one part every month for as long as at least 75% of the people who have downloaded the parts will pay a a buck a piece. Well what can I say I have read the first part which encompasses about 20 pages written in the stlye of letters and memos between a publishing house and a man who wishes to publish a book on the occult and rituals and spells which he claims are based upon his own expierences. This book does not grab you from the start.Ok so it's the first part but "IT" had me hooked and wanting more from the first few pages. This book is rather boring so ...  Read the complete review

The Plant is a multi/mini series released through Stephen King’s web presence www.stephenking.com. The Plant has now reached a point where, Mr. King has decided that he has more pressing work to complete and although a loose date has been set for him to start work on it again I sincerely doubt he will ever finish this story, at least not publicly anyway. There are six chapters available at present. I think in hindsight if I had known then that he would only publish the first six chapters that I would not have bothered to buy/download it. Don’t misunderstand me the story is classic King, witty, fast paced and chocked full of story, but I think ...  Read the complete review

Soon all books may be written and distributed this way. As more and more people get connected to the Internet, a whole host of information (and non-information) is reachable in a way that it never was before; to a whole cross -section of society. Stephen King has pushed the distribution of his books that one step further by releasing copies of his latest novel ONLY over the net, and keeping fans on the edge of their seats, by issuing one chapter at a time. At only $1 per chapter it doesn't break the bank, and as Stephen King stories go, this one seems to be up there with the best. (You could even get it for free, if you wanted, as ...  Read the complete review

The scariest thing about this project is that the marvellous, witty little story is the danger that one might never read the end. I have only read the first two parts (the third is sat on my machine waiting), and I am very much hoping that enough people shell out to ensure that King finishes the thing off. It's an insidiously simple job to log into Amazon.com to download each part - as I have shopped with them before, I just said clicked a few times and bingo, the price of a couple of Mars bars is added to my account, and the remarkably attractive and easy to read PDF document was delivered in a matter of seconds. As a book, I like 'The ...  Read the complete review