Welcome to my message board.
New member registration has been disabled due to heavy spammer activity. If you'd like to join the board, please email me at MaxDevore at hotmail dot com.
New member registration has been disabled due to heavy spammer activity. If you'd like to join the board, please email me at MaxDevore at hotmail dot com.
UR, Exclusively on Amazon's Kindle
Since his first novel was published in 1974, Stephen King has stretched the boundaries of the storyteller as a writer who constantly redefines his readers' experience by working in various genres and formats.
Whether in an epic horror novel, like THE STAND, a serial-novel like THE GREEN MILE, or a novella like SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, King is able to deliver a reading experience like no one else can. As quickly as a spider spins its web, King reminds us why he's the master of the novella - a format which, up until now that is, one might have thought is fast disappearing.
In his new novella, UR, King is at his unsettling best as he examines the future of the written word - for better or worse. Following a nasty break-up, lovelorn college English instructor Wesley Smith can't seem to get his ex-girlfriend's parting shot out of his head: "Why can't you just read off the computer like the rest of us?" Egged on by her question and piqued by a student's suggestion, Wesley places an order for Amazon.com's Kindle eReader. The [pink?] device that arrives in a box stamped with the smile logo – via one-day delivery that he hadn't requested – unlocks a literary world that even the most avid of book lovers could never imagine. But once the door is open, there are those things that one hopes we'll never read or live through. Firm, gripping, and deftly written by a craftsman at the top of his game, this is King at his crisp, clear, page-turning best.
Excerpt from the forthcoming press release:
Check back soon for the complete press release...
Author Stephen King announced today that he is releasing a novella, “Ur,” which will only be available on Kindle. At the center of Ur is lovelorn college English instructor Wesley Smith, who can't seem to get his ex-girlfriend's parting shot out of his head: "Why can't you just read off the computer like the rest of us?" Egged on by her question and piqued by a student's suggestion, Wesley places an order for a Kindle. Smith’s Kindle arrives in a box stamped with the smile logo and unlocks a literary world that even the most avid of book lovers could never imagine. But once the door is open, there are those things that one hopes we'll never read or live through. Ur is available for pre-order beginning today and will be released later this month. For Kindle customers who pre-order, King’s new novella will download automatically when it becomes available.
Whether in an epic horror novel, like THE STAND, a serial-novel like THE GREEN MILE, or a novella like SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, King is able to deliver a reading experience like no one else can. As quickly as a spider spins its web, King reminds us why he's the master of the novella - a format which, up until now that is, one might have thought is fast disappearing.
In his new novella, UR, King is at his unsettling best as he examines the future of the written word - for better or worse. Following a nasty break-up, lovelorn college English instructor Wesley Smith can't seem to get his ex-girlfriend's parting shot out of his head: "Why can't you just read off the computer like the rest of us?" Egged on by her question and piqued by a student's suggestion, Wesley places an order for Amazon.com's Kindle eReader. The [pink?] device that arrives in a box stamped with the smile logo – via one-day delivery that he hadn't requested – unlocks a literary world that even the most avid of book lovers could never imagine. But once the door is open, there are those things that one hopes we'll never read or live through. Firm, gripping, and deftly written by a craftsman at the top of his game, this is King at his crisp, clear, page-turning best.
Excerpt from the forthcoming press release:
Check back soon for the complete press release...
Author Stephen King announced today that he is releasing a novella, “Ur,” which will only be available on Kindle. At the center of Ur is lovelorn college English instructor Wesley Smith, who can't seem to get his ex-girlfriend's parting shot out of his head: "Why can't you just read off the computer like the rest of us?" Egged on by her question and piqued by a student's suggestion, Wesley places an order for a Kindle. Smith’s Kindle arrives in a box stamped with the smile logo and unlocks a literary world that even the most avid of book lovers could never imagine. But once the door is open, there are those things that one hopes we'll never read or live through. Ur is available for pre-order beginning today and will be released later this month. For Kindle customers who pre-order, King’s new novella will download automatically when it becomes available.
Comments
10:40 a.m. | Stephen King Presents: Stephen King is onstage. Mr. King is a longtime Kindle user and will write a story exclusively for the device that focuses on the implications of people reading on their digital devices. He is quite pleased that he has gotten a free Kindle2 out of the deal.
10:41 a.m. | Synergy!: And now from the stage, Mr. King is reading a selection of his short story, which is about the Kindle, and for the Kindle, from his free Kindle.
John
John
Here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001RF3U9K/liljslibrthew-20
Thanks to Lilja's Libaray for the information!
John
King's agent, Ralph Vicinanza, said Tuesday that downloads of King's novella "UR," available only as an e-book and released to coincide with the launch of Amazon's upgraded Kindle reader, have reached "five figures" after barely three weeks on the market.
In 2000, in the early years of digital texts, King's novella "Riding the Bullet" was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, overwhelming Amazon.com and other online sites.
Amazon.com has declined to offer any specific numbers for sales of the Kindle or for individual books, although publishers have said that popular titles sell in the thousands or better.
Vicinanza said in a telephone interview that Amazon would not be providing specific numbers until 60 days after the Feb. 12 release, but added: "We've been told that they're in the five figures already.
"We're excited. They're happy, we're happy and from the initial information that we're getting it seems to be a success."
As of Tuesday afternoon, "UR" was No. 18 on Amazon's list of Kindle best-sellers.
Vicinanza had approached King with the idea of writing a story for release as an e-book as a way to "create some excitement" in electronic publishing at a time when the book industry is going through tough times.
The New York-based agent recommended the strategy even though the Kindle and competing devices account for no more than 1 percent of overall book sales. "UR" eventually will be made available in print, he said.
The Kindle 2, a slimmed-down model with upgraded components and storage capacity, went on sale Feb. 9 for $359. The gadget downloads books, newspaper stories and blog posts over a wireless network.
"UR," available as a download for $2.99, is about a college English instructor whose pink Kindle allows him to access new books by famous dead authors as well as newspapers that tell of a future event that he is compelled to try to forestall.
While some readers have likened the book to an infomercial for Amazon's pricey device, Vicinanza says any King fan recognizes how often cars and other products appear in his books.
"There isn't enough money out there for Stephen King to do product placement, for sure," he said.
King began writing the story Jan. 18, the agent had it edited and sent to Amazon on Feb. 4, and the edited proofs were in the hands of King and his agent — sent, in fact, to their Kindles — two days later.
King sees the Kindle as a delivery system that matters less than the story it delivers. In his blog on the Entertainment Weekly Web site http://www.ew.com. the author opined a year ago that Kindles will not replace books, which have a permanence that accentuates the importance of the ideas and stories they contain.
But they can, he wrote, enrich a reader's life.
"For a while I was very aware that I was looking at a screen and bopping a button instead of turning pages. Then the story simply swallowed me, as the good ones always do," King wrote. "It became about the message instead of the medium, and that's the way it's supposed to be."
Here's a preview of the audio version.
Tapping into our primal fears of modern technology, Stephen sets his sights on the latest high-tech gadget, in which a mysterious e-book reader opens a disturbing window into other worlds.
Narrator Holter Graham was handpicked for this role by Stephen King. Graham's acting career debut was in Stephen King's film Maximum Overdrive. Since then he has appeared in numerous films including Fly Away Home and Hairspray. His television credits include Army Wives, Damages and Rescue Me.
Also, Under the Dome is #4 on the same list.