Who has read it here and what do you think of this E-book...

I liked it but was a little pissed when he decided to go on hiatus from writting it. (But he did say it was so he could work on the Dark Tower - so I will accept that).

Can't wait for him to start again.

I was reading it and enjoyed it. I was mad when he stopped writing it too. Kind of a waste of time all around. Hopefully he'll pick it up again sometime and actually finish it.

I don't think it was a hiatus. Wasn't this the book that he gave the people who downloaded it the option of paying for and said he'd continue to write as long as people paid? And nobody paid him so he stopped. I guess it was a test of human nature... of course I think most of us could have told him what the outcome would be.

~Scheherazade

People were paying for it, he gave updates all the time. And, he did say it was a hiatus and that he would be back to finish it sometime.

He would be stupid not to, really. So far he made the price of a paperback from quite a few thousand people with the first 6 episodes. No printing or distribution costs and he's already paying the hosting/publishing fees with the cost of his website. I would bet he made quite a bit of money off of it, and if he finishes it he'll make more. Once he's finished it will likely be printed as well and the film rights will be optioned like any other of his books.

That is right...He made a killing considering there was no print version of the book and he fully intends to finish it then conventionally publish it

He has a chart on his website showing the profit for the book and its quite impressive. I don't think he really thought that many people would pay. Now that he knows he has to finish it he decided to put it on hold. Kind of pissed me off. Most people have already payed nearly the price of a full novel and they are stuck with half a book.

Yep, and not even half a book, more like 1/3. I think he really figured it would fail. Or else he really thought a captive audience would motivate him to finish it, and it didn't at all.

And to avoid pissing more people off I think they took down the parts that WERE released...But if people still want them just post and I will put them up on the net with a link (Just make sure you pay the $1 per part)

They get posted periodically to the usenet e-book groups too.

Well, the thing is even though he decided to put the "book" on hiatus, the figures for the number of people who were paying for the book were dropping. There is no disputing that. King said he would continue the story if 75 percent of readers voluntarily paid for it. But with the fourth installment less than half the readers were paying for the story. Some die-hard King fans aren't very honest it seems to me.

I was never really impressed by "The Plant" and since he is concentrating on a Dark Tower book as well as a sequel to "The Talisman" I am more than happy about his decision. "The Talisman" was always one my favorites of his and I love the Dark Tower books.

Isn't "The Talisman" the one on which he collaborated with Peter Straub (sp?)? I really love that book!! Are they collaborating again on the sequel?

I bought each installment of The Plant knowing fully that each one might be the last. King made that very clear upfront. I was disappointed for selfish reasons when he decided to stop.

Considering it is not a 'complete' work, I thought he ended the story at a decent point, and if he never were to complete it, I would regard it as a decent, stand-alone novella.

I don't really care how much he made, how much he might make, or how much he could make on various re-issues of The Plant. I want to be entertained. I don't care about his finances.

He deserves whatever he has, as far as I'm concerned. He consistently gives fans what they want, and he seems to keep getting better.

Rich

I just dug out my copy of THE PLANT and found that I only printed out volumes 1 through 3. (I paid through the end.) Does anybody know how I might get ahold of 4, 5, and 6 for printing? Anybody have it to share?

I was not surprised when he cancelled it. This was at the height of napster and file sharing being in the media, not surprised at all.

I thought he was surprised by how many people actually did pay for it, to the point where he was considering releasing any future installments of The Plant over the 'net the same way.

Also, I didn't think he cancelled The Plant. As far as I can remember it was always intended as a 6-part serial story that you pay for on the "honor system", and whether he finished all 6 parts was up to the consumers. In fact, the 6'th part was available free of charge to reward all those who had indeed paid.

There's a whole "Zenith Rising" PDF file floating around.

Do you know of a free outlet? Or shall I go the eBay route?

I didn't have a computer at the time this went on, and I wasn't going to use my work printer to do it, so I missed out. I really would like download and print this off. I would be glad to send Mr. King the money for it. He would probably be like WTF? I am still getting money for "The Plant"! Maybe I'll finish it.