[Summary]
In July 2000 began the electronic self-publishing of “The Plant”, an
epistolary novel by Stephen King, who was the first best-selling author
to launch such an experiment. The author began publishing “The Plant”
in episodes on his own website. The chapters were available at regular
intervals and could be downloaded in several formats (PDF, OeB, HTML,
TXT). After the publication of the sixth chapter in December 2000, the
author decided to stop the experiment, because more and more readers
were downloading the chapters without paying for them. Stephen King
went on with digital experiments though, but in partnership with his
publisher. Digital experiments were also made in Europe in November
2000, by Frederick Forsyth, the British master of thrillers, whose
latest short novels were published online by Online Originals, and by
Arturo Pérez-Reverte, a best-selling Spanish author, whose latest novel
was available online during one month before being available in print.
In Brazil, Paolo Coehlo began offering free PDF versions of his novels
in early 2003.
***
In 2000, Stephen King was the first best-selling author to launch
digital experiments, followed by Frederick Forsyth and Arturo Pérez-
Reverte in Europe and many other then, for example Paolo Coehlo in
Brazil.
# Stephen King
As a first step, Stephen King distributed in March 2000 his short story
“Riding the Bullet” as an electronic file, with 400,000 downloads
during the first 24 hours in the digital bookstores that were selling
it.
In the wake of the media attention that followed, Stephen King launched
its own website in July 2000 to self-publish his epistolary novel “The
Plant” in episodes. The chapters were available at regular intervals
and could be downloaded in several formats (PDF, OeB, HTML, TXT). After
the publication of the sixth chapter in December 2000, the author
decided to stop the experiment, because more and more readers were
downloading the chapters without paying for them.
Stephen King went on with digital experiments though, but in
partnership with his publisher. In March 2001, his novel “Dreamcatcher”
was the first to be launched both in print by Simon & Schuster and as
an ebook in Palm Digital Media, Palm’s digital bookstore. In March
2002, his collection of short stories “Everything’s Eventual” was
launched in print by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and as
an ebook in Palm Digital Media, with an excerpt that could be freely
downloaded.
# Frederick Forsyth
In November 2000, Frederick Forsyth, known as the British master of
thrillers, launched a digital experiment in partnership with Online
Originals, an electronic publisher from London. Online Originals
published “The Veteran” as the first part of “Quintet”, a collection of
five short stories announced in the following order: “The Veteran”,
“The Miracle”, “The Citizen”, “The Art of the Matter” and “Draco”.
Available in three formats to be read on Acrobat Reader, Microsoft
Reader and Glassbook Reader, the short story was sold for 3.99 pounds
(6.60 euros) on the publisher's website, as in several online
bookstores in the United Kingdom (Alphabetstreet, BOL.com, WHSmith) and
in the United States (Barnes & Noble, Contentville, Glassbook). This
experiment didn’t last very long, because sales were far below
expectations.
# Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Arturo Pérez-Reverte, a Spanish novelist, became famous with his series
of novels about the adventures of Capitan Alatriste in the 17th
century. The new title to be released in late 2000 was "El Oro del Rey"
(The King's Gold). In November 2000, the author partnered with his
publisher Alfaguara to publish the novel in digital form for one month,
as a PDF that could be downloaded from a webpage set up for the
occasion on the portal Inicia, before the release of the print version
in bookstores. The novel was available in PDF for 2.90 euros, a much
cheaper price than the 15.10 euros of the forthcoming print book. One
month later, there were 332,000 downloads, but only 12,000 readers who
paid for it. Most readers shared the password with their family and
friends, for them to download the book for free. If the digital
experiment was not good financially, it was very good as a novel
marketing campaign to launch the print book.
# Paulo Coelho
Online experiments were launched by a number of authors then, for
example Paulo Coelho, a best-selling Brazilian novelist who came to be
known worldwide as the author of “The Alchimist”. In early 2003, his
books were translated into 56 languages, with 53 million copies sold in
155 countries. In March 2003, Paulo Coelho decided to distribute PDF
versions of several novels for free in various languages, with the
consent of his publishers, after his readers wrote him they had a hard
time finding his books in some places and countries. He renewed the
same experiment with other titles in spring 2011.