New Stephen King eBook Exclusive to be AvailableThrough netLibrary and peanutpress.com; netLibrary and peanutpress.comOffer Downloads to Multiple Platforms.
Business Editors/Entertainment Writers
BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- March 8, 2000
netLibrary, the world's premier provider of eBooks over the Internet, today announced that it is one of the companies selected to distribute Riding the Bullet, the new eBook-only story by best-selling author Stephen King.
The eBook will be released on Tuesday, March 14 (12:01 a.m. EST).
netLibrary (www.netLibrary.com) is the only eBook distributor allowing consumers to download Riding the Bullet in multiple formats. At netLibrary, readers have the option of downloading eBooks to their personal computers or to a variety of popular handheld computing devices through peanutpress.com, a division of netLibrary.
Riding the Bullet, described by King as "a ghost story in the grand manner," will be sold exclusively as an eBook -- no print versions will be sold. The 16,000-word story, priced at $2.50, is a co-publication between Scribner and Philtrum Press, King's own press, and electronically published through Simon & Schuster Online.
"We are thrilled that major best-selling authors such as Stephen King are leading the way by releasing their work in eBook form," said netLibrary President and CEO Timothy R. Schiewe.
"We are confident that once consumers begin downloading and reading their favorite authors' works in electronic format, they will find eBooks to be a flexible, portable addition to the hardbound and paperback books they normally buy."
The distribution of Riding the Bullet as an eBook bypasses the traditional yearlong publishing cycle. "What's exciting is that we are able to go from Stephen King's computer to the reader in a fraction of the print-book publishing arc," said Kate Tentler, vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Online.
"And, we can offer this wonderful story to readers in whichever electronic format they are comfortable with: on an eBook device, a handheld Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), or on a computer."
"I'm curious to see what sort of response there is and whether or not this is the future," said King, who wrote Riding the Bullet shortly after his near-fatal accident when he was hit by a car in June 1999. King has since written several works. Riding the Bullet is his first work to go directly to readers via eBook.
