A poll for the Stephen King fans

[annathepiper]

Rumblings are going around the Net at the moment about how Stephen King's next novel is coming out soon, and how it's a 1,000+ page monster that'll cost $35. The main point of contention is that they're holding the electronic release for a whole month, out of concern that the ebook release might somehow impact the hardback release.

Me, I find this entirely weird and bizarre, because $35 seems like a ridiculous price to pay for a book by anybody. So since my curiosity demands it, for any of you Stephen King fans out there, I present the following poll! And if you're not actually a Stephen King fan, feel free to search-and-replace in a hypothetical release by the author of your choice.

ETA 11:11am: Two people have already pointed this out to me, so yes, folks, I know it's "I COULDN'T care less"; I realized this about two seconds after I posted the poll, and polls aren't editable, so I can't change it! Sorry!

[Poll #1474817]

Comments

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

Here's why I said ticky:

There is no way that I'd pay $35 for a book. Period. I didn't even pay that for Harry Potter 7. It's enough to make me not even want to buy any other editions, honestly. $8.99 for a paperback is too high for my blood, and that's current cost. I've switched to ebook on my Blackberry because of the insipid prices on physical covers, and most of them I can find in sponsor-supported format.

[annathepiper]

It's definitely too high a price for me to even consider for a book I'd just be reading for my own pleasure. If it's a super-fancy special edition with lovely illustrations in it, MAYBE I'd think about it. Or if it's a fund-raising effort for a good cause, again, MAYBE.

But only MAYBE. That's a LOT of money to put down on a book. For that kind of dough, it's got to be a work of ART.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Qualifier - paperback, because hardbacks take up *way* too much room on a bookshelf. The money is irrelevant, I don't have the storage space to buy hardbacks.

[angelina-zooma.livejournal.com]

This is what I would've said as well. I prefer the smaller books.

Honestly $35 doesn't really strike me as a high price for a book, but then again book prices in Canada are generally WAY higher than they are in the US.

[annathepiper]

It's about $10 more than I'm generally willing to put down for a book. I read like a crazy reading thing, but it'd take a seriously fancy, fancy book to make me pay $35 for it. tiggymalvern nails the issue for me though about storage space--and if nothing else, for that price, I can get four or five paperbacks and have that much more reading for the same amount of money!

[annathepiper]

Oh, very good point! I have a small number of authors I'm grudgingly willing to buy in hardback just because a) they're nifty and b) I want to read their books faster, but the storage space IS a problem!

[ysabel.livejournal.com]

Go Ticky Go!

[flashfire.livejournal.com]

I'll probably find it for a discount when it's new, but I haven't jumped into the e-book thing at all yet and that's one reason why.

[annathepiper]

See brigidsblest's remarks below. Amazon is apparently taking $9 pre-orders; this is one of the books involved in the Massive Price War. If you actually want it, now would probably be a good time to get in an order. :)

[flashfire.livejournal.com]

That works for me.

[firni.livejournal.com]

ACTually, I COULDN'T care less about Stephen King (anymore), but you get the point.

[annathepiper]

Yeah yeah yeah, I realized I had it wrong about two seconds after I posted the poll. Sorry. ;)

[firni.livejournal.com]

I just had a flashback of Laura yelling at people on RvL who did that, is all. ROFL

[annathepiper]

Hee. No worries!

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I would pay $35 for a book if it was by Someone of Significance, or *for* something of Significance... maybe it's by Angela Korra'ti or Seanan McGuire or edited by Phil Brucato... or maybe a Neil Gaiman book; he's a nice guy and will sign 'til his arm falls off, and also contributed to Ravens in the Library (which was only $25, FWIW).... or maybe at an Interfilk auction or something like that....

But a 1000-page monster? I gotta wonder. I think the dude needs a machete, or at least an editor. I know the quality of Rowling's work did NOT go up as the page count did. Certainly now that Weber has his page count DOWN a bit it's better writing... although he STILL blathers on about the politics for pages on end, it's not quite as bad as it used to be.

Tolkein had a thousand pages-ish worth of story. He broke it up into three books. Asimov had a LOT more than that to tell... ended up being, what, fifteen books by the time the Killer Bees got done writing the prequels? You've got a trilogy in the works. Seanan has two (different genres). I gotta think that over time, the shorter works are gonna sell better.

Don't get me wrong. When it comes to straight drama (as opposed to horror), I *like* Stephen King. Shawshank is one of my favorite movies - and print stories - of all time. But I think I'm gonna pass on this one for sheer size. I don't have that kind of time anymore. I chewed up a fair chunk just getting through Weber's latest... rather go back to reading something shorter like, say, Scalzi. :)

[annathepiper]

Dude, you're not going to get a $35 book by me, most likely. Thanks for the thought, but it probably ain't happening. ;)

And yeah, Ravens was only $25. Which is about the maximum amount I'm willing to put down for a book in general, but that's also a special case anyway since it was specifically for a good cause, as opposed to just a book I'd be reading for pleasure. If it's just a book I'm reading for my own pleasure, I'd just as soon take that $25 and go spend it on three cheaper books and get three times as much reading for the same price!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

You forgot "Nobody in their right mind would pay $35 when everyone knows it'll be discounted to half that in the chain bookstores and online"...

[annathepiper]

Yeah, this'll be because of the huge price war Amazon has going on with Walmart and Target and Sears about the prices for bestsellers.

[annathepiper]

Fair point, well argued, sir!

[annathepiper]

Yeah, see my comment above--this'll be because of the huge price war Amazon and others are having. So King fans WOULD be clever to order it now before this price vanishes, I suppose! Thanks for pointing that out.

However, my point still stands about a 1,000+ page monster being too damn heavy to carry around. ;)

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

I don't like Stephen King.

That said, if one was a fan of said author's work, I'm not so sure that $35 is really all that outrageous a price. A lot of books come out at around 500 pages and cost easily in the realm of $24 for a hardcover edition of that is purchased at full price (which is usually not the case - book ends up being at Costco and deep discount and on special sale at other big bookstores, yadda, yadda). If the book is 1,000+ pages, then it's the equivalent of two full length books (depending upon the author in question, of course) which would be $48 if you had to buy them separately.

Many people would pay $24 twice for two books by the same author, so I don't find it that hard to believe that someone would be willing to cough up $35 for one book that is the length of two.

I wouldn't, but I don't find it that much of a stretch for a hardcover and a hard core fan.

[gilroycullen.livejournal.com]

I don't care what author is writing, even me, I'm not paying $35 for any book. Its bad enough they charge $50+ for USED college books at times. No, that price smacks of greed and banking on a name. Only half of SK's recent books have been decent, with ones like Dreamcatcher being close to stinkers...

Shoot. It may end up on the remainer pile for $5 like White Knight by Jim Butcher.

[cafiorello.livejournal.com]

http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-King-Illustrated-Companion/dp/1435117662/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256429931&sr=8-3

Here is a Stephen King book that looks worth the high price--artwork, artifacts, etc. I may buy it for my Dad for the solstice or something....

A novel? $35 is too much.

Cathy