Stephen King Online

By Stephen M. Silverman

09/18/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

There's no stopping Stephen King. His latest frightfest, "Riding the Bullet," was published at midnight today -- only don't go looking for it at your local bookstore. The 16,000-word ghost story is only available online, so that customers can read the book electronically. For $2.50 at specific sites, King fans may download what the author calls "a ghost story in the grand manner." It is his first published work since he was struck by a car and seriously injured last summer near his home in Maine. This morning on "Today," a rep from King's publisher, Simon & Schuster, said that although she did not have a specific figure, the number of downloads of the e-book was "tremendous." She also said that the story is specially encrypted to prevent users from printing it out, or from downloading it into a friend's Palm Pilot without paying the $2.50.