Since the beginning of December, 2000, I have come across a number of articles attacking the E-Book King -- Steven King, that is. Aside from the scathing editorial, in the New York Times, who had praised him just a year ago, when he was giving his work away, on-line, as an E-Book, one blazing headline across the front page of a tabloid caught my eye but not my money.

"King Abandons Loyal Readers"
Noted writer dumps fans after pilfering $500,000 from them.

In actuallity, Mr. King has been quite open, on his website, with his intentions of his experimentation with his E-Book, "The Plant". One could never misconstrue that he would abandon ship, so to speak. He had never promised to finish his story, his whole point, as I saw it was to create exactly what he did, an experiment, a toe dipping to test the E-Book waters.

And why not? His first attempt, "Riding the Bullet", was enourmously successful, so successful that he decided to ride the bullet one more time with "The Plant". His first offering was free to anyone who had the time to download it. I was one of the first downloaders who had to wait on a virtual line, for over ten hours, from early evening, throughout the night, into early morning, to get my book. I hung in there. I was bound and determined that I was not going to miss my chance at being part of the historic E-Book Revolution. Over half a million people felt as I did and hung on line waiting their turn to download as many novelettes within a twenty-four hour period. It was an amazing feat that the literary industry should not take lightly.

All in all, as with his books, Mr. King has proven that his experiment is a success. Perhaps a premature one, but nonetheless, an astounding success. He has proven that E-Books, as interesting read-fare, which are properly marketed and fairly priced can succeed. And I agree with the esteemed writer that the detrement to the continued success of E-Books are people's expectations that literary endeavors should be free. E-Books are books and, like everything else creative, they are a commodity that should be paid for. Creative writing is fun and readers read creative literature for entertainment.

I am sure that we will see Mr. King on-line again.