Don't expect to see an e-book edition any time soon of
Stephen King's new novel, "Joyland," which will be published next
month. Digital books pioneer Stephen King is holding onto the
e-book rights to his upcoming novel “Joyland” in hopes of driving people to
bookstores. Jeffrey Trachtenberg reports on Lunch Break. Mr. King, an e-book pioneer, held on to the novel's digital
rights in hopes of spurring his fans to buy the print edition in bookstores. He
said it is unclear when he will make the coming-of-age tale available
digitally. "Joyland" by Stephen King "I have no plans for a digital version," Mr. King
said. "Maybe at some point, but in the meantime, let people stir their
sticks and go to an actual bookstore rather than a digital one." Mr. King's decision to support traditional book retailing comes
at a time when many bookstores are struggling to compete with online retailers
that sharply discount physical books and services that sell low-cost e-books. Mr. King's latest move to make "Joyland" only
available as a physical book is essentially the reverse of what he did in 2000,
when he became one of the country's first writers to make a new work available
exclusively in a digital format. Then, CBS Corp.'s CBS -0.89% Simon &
Schuster publishing arm issued Mr. King's 16,000-word ghost story "Riding
the Bullet" as an e-book priced at $2.50. Mr. King's effort was treated as a potential turning point
for a small but growing digital-publishing industry. Digital books generated $3
billion in publisher revenue in 2012, up 44% over the prior year, according to
a recent study by BookStats, which tracks data from nearly 1,500 publishers.
