hmmm. is the cup half-full or spilled all over the table? salon jumps out of the gate with a positive take on stephen kings latest foray into online publishing:
Thousands download and pay for King novel
“Stephen King’s latest online publishing effort got off to a smooth start Monday as thousands of users downloaded the first installment of “The Plant,” a new serial novel.”
however, the new york times has a considerably less forgiving view of what occurred:
King E-Novel Short of Expected Demand
“In a closely watched test of the Internet’s potential to transform the book business, the horror writer Stephen King yesterday became the first major author to self-publish online. But demand for his new electronic book fell far short of his last, an event in March that seemed to foretell a revolution in
publishing when more than 400,000 fans jammed computer servers trying to download it in the first two days after it appeared.”
the cynical may think this differing perspective has it’s origins in the roots of the reporting publications – old media versus new. or maybe sometimes a difference in opinion is just a difference in opinion.