Stephen King Kills The Plant

Popular writer Stephen King has announced the end of The Plant. The story will not continue past Part 6. It is unclear when it will return though he indicated it definitely will. "Don’t despair," said King ironically, via his Web site. "The last time The Plant furled its leaves, the story remained dormant for nineteen years. If it could survive that, I’m sure it can survive a year or two while I work on other projects."

Part 5 has just been released. Part 6 will be free. Planet eBook orginally pondered The Plant's future after the payments started to decrease after Part 1.

In hindsite, if King was to be a man of his word, it seemed inevitable that The Plant would not make it to its end, as the amount of paying readers always hovered around the cut off of 75%. Perhaps King, in hindsite, will wonder whether being a man of his word has satisfied his fans, after leaving them dangling midstream.

The ebook release was an interesting experiment for a number of reasons, including online serialization, public awareness of ebooks, distribution without any rights management, multiple format distribution, and ebook pricing.

What did we learn?

  • Perhaps 'honesty' and 'free' do not go hand in hand. When a reader is told that they do not have to pay for something, they are less likely.
  • Stephen King meant what he said - less than 75% of readers must pay or he stops. He admitted he was very surprised that he had got above the 75% once.
  • Making readers pay for multiple formats/copies just so they could read it on their PC, handheld or second computer was not welcomed by many Stephen King fans.
  • Readers may think twice now with serialized content -- if there's no guarantee that it will reach an end, the participtation may decrease.
  • The pricing was arguably too high. King expected the reader to pay $13 to own one digital copy of the book -- a price comparable to a traditional book.

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