Dear Mr. Ray, It is always fun having these discussions. Here, purely for added dimension, is a fairly useful URL: http://www.investmentsdirect.com/stories/stephenking.html It appears that King is using your tipjar approach, with a modification.
Here is what Stephen King has to say: "How many have paid? 116,200, or 76.38 per cent. 93,200 have paid up front with credit cards, using Amazon.com's service. 23,000 have promised to pay later, and these payments are showing up already (one guy sent me a silver dollar). The pay-through rate has been higher than I dared hope." -http://www.stephenking.com This isn't the end of it. If all goes as planned, 7-11 downloads may be needed before the book is complete meaning it could cost users over $10. And, Stephen is thinking of raising the price on some, longer chapters. And, Stephen may get a double wammy, because some fans may preview the book, and then purchase the book when it comes out. This information suggests that Scott Adams isn't selling as many books as Stephen King for various reasons. Among them may be that Adams doesn't write books that are as popular as King's (one might check Amazon.com for info on that score) or that the tipjar model works really well for King, and whatever model Adams is pursuing isn't working as well. I should also note, for completeness, that downloads of _The Plant_ from King's web site are no longer available. I've subscribed to his mailing list to see why that might be the case, and will happily report more info on this channel when I have it. Based on this information, if King issued 7 chapters, and only the 116,200 mentioned actually paid for all 7 chapters, his online book made somewhat more than $800,000. One may presume he gets all these funds, rather than the 20% royalty he (and other very top performing authors) might get from Simon & Schuster. More as I find it. Regards, Jim http://www.GoldBarter.com/ --> A free market is your best friend. Win free now! (and save!) --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Did you know that e-metal is a wonderful holiday gift? Avoid the hassle this year!
