it appears that stephen king’s online book has been a little too successful for softlock – the company that’s actually doing the selling [note – the softlock server was down when i posted this]:
“SOFTLOCK EXPLAINED that due to extreme demand, customers would have to return later to access the story. “It’s ten times what we expected,” said Ruth Feiner of the Maynard, Mass.-based firm, though she would not be more specific.
At Amazon.com early on Tuesday, where the $2.50 charge most outlets asked for the book was waived, readers were accessing the 66-page novella, “one and a half times per second,” claimed spokeswoman Kristin Schaefer.”
call me ‘old school’. but i think ebooks have a way to go before i kick back and read the next great american novel with one. despite the buzz, i this has more to do with stephen king and the fact that it’s a short story than it does with ebooks as a disruptive technology that’s going to sweep the nation. some perspective can be found on a previous post to conflux.