Everyone has heard of his novels: Carrie, The Green Mile, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, and so on. Fifty-four of them have been turned into movies too, including the #1 ranked film on IMDb’s Top 250 list, The Shawshank Redemption. According to Forbes, Stephen King made $45M in 2008. This is why we thought it was a little odd when we heard that he was trying to *bank some extra buck with his newest novel, Under the Dome.
An article published by The Wall Street Journal reports that Stephen King and his publisher, Simon & Schuster’s Scribner, will sell 1,500 signed, special edition copies of his new novel at a whopping $200 each. If the rumors are true, this means that King will pocket about half of the profits.
On a side note: Check out the official plot synopsis for Under the Dome, taken from King’s website, below:
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when — or if — it will go away Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens —t own newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing — even murder — to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.
Is it just us, or does this sound a heck of a lot like The Simpsons Movie ? You can order that online for just $15.98, and we found a signed, first-edition copy of Song of Susannah-the Dark Tower VI for just $100. That leaves you $84.02 to go crazy with.
* Actually, the more we look around, the more we’re starting to think this could be a chance for you to make some money. Most of the the signed, first-edition, hardcover Stephen King books we found online retailed for around this amount, and we’re assuming these will do even better because of the relatively small quantity. Does anyone know how something like this would appreciate?