Update On Stephen King’s Web Experiment

Sunday evening, December 10, 60 Minutes aired the segment “Dot-com Millionaires?” detailing the rapid disappearance of many “dot-coms” across the Web. The lingering question left hanging in the air was “will Amazon suffer the same fate?” Frankly, absent examples of successful sites like eBay.com, Zone.com, CNN.com, Google.com, and others resulted in a somewhat stilted view of the current World Wide Web landscape. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that a great deal of Internet roadkill litters cyberspace with failed, highly financed ventures. In fact, Internet pioneer Stephen King failed to improve matters.

In early August, Stephen King’s experiment of publishing a serialized novel, The Plant, commenced. Payment for monthly chapters was handled on the honor system (do not steal from the blind paperboy). King promised to continue writing the segments on the condition 80 percent of those downloading the words paid. Initially, the potential outlay to the reader for the cost of the cyber-novel appeared to be more than $20 (later chapters would be more expensive). In late August, King announced the total cost of The Plant would not exceed $13.

As previously reported (and occasionally updated on The Bee’s Web site), I religiously downloaded each monthly segment. Having subscribed to The Plant e-mail list, I received early reminders when a new segment became available. I had created a special Stephen King folder on my hard drive where I carefully stored each new segment. With excitement rivaling the anticipation of an unexpected package, I printed (and quickly read) each installment.

While The Plant’s plot started slowly, King’s character development and attention to minute detail made for a most enjoyable monthly ritual. I never would have read the story had it not been available in this serialized format. The first few chapters cost $1 (paid via credit card through an Amazon.com account). When hit with the price increase to $2, I did not flinch. The chapters were longer and the plot’s pace quickened.

Bad News

In late November after installment #5, King announced Chapter 6 would be the last one published for a year (possibly longer). As a small compensation for the disruption (and disappointment), this last segment would be a free download.

Reaction from many in the media was swift and biting. WiredNews, The Washington Post, and other widely read media sources reported outrage by readers along with a few details of the experiment. Apparently only 46 percent of Web site downloaders paid for segment 4 (according to Marsha DeFillipo, Stephen King’s assistant, widely quoted on the Internet). Pundits were quick to characterize the on-hold status of The Plant as another Internet failure and a devastating blow to authors who attempt cyber-publication as an inexpensive mechanism to reach a mass audience.

Many forget that the Internet remains a “work in progress.” Many see it as an extension of television, where advertising pays for content. Only very high volume Web sites generate sustainable revenue from advertising. As a result, many more high maintenance sites will fail. While disappointed along with my fellow Plant readers (after all, I have invested $7 and must wait a year or more to learn how the story ends), the experiment was not a failure. I frankly enjoyed the process as well as the story. I am, however, in the minority as other readers voted with their visits and credit cards. The concept of “because it is on the Internet, it should be free” is deeply ingrained in the psyche of many Web surfers. Steve Ulfelder, who also recently wrote recently about The Plant, concurs. Nevertheless, progress often arrives with small steps. As time passes, users will pay for more and more content from the Internet. PayPal and other forms of electronic cyber-payments will ease the way. Like many pioneers, Stephen King was ahead of his time. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of his partially completed (so far) cyber-novel is the sharp criticism from the media. Part 6 of The Plant will be available on King’s Web site next week. I can hardly wait.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.stephenking.com/

(This is the 236th of a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the Internet. Next, “Save the CueCat” is the subject on tap. Stay Tuned. Until next week, happy travels through cyberspace. Previous issues of Internet Info for Real People can be found: http://www.thebee.com. Please e-mail comments and suggestions: rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com.)