THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604050673
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANN G. SJOERDSMA, BOOK EDITOR
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
Stephen King, foremost creator of the best-selling horror-novel doorstop, now in mid-life experimentation, is trying like the dickens to pull off a mainstream literary event that hasn't occurred since the reign of the inimitable ``Boz.''
The serialized novel. Chapbooks for the masses.
Pip, pip for the boy from Bangor, Maine.
But will readers soon be asking, ``Please, sir, I want some more?'' or wondering whether they are making a sacrifice ``far, far better'' than they have ever made before?
With a nod to the great Charles Dickens, King will present his new novel, The Green Mile, a Depression-era, death-row thriller, in six monthly paperback installments. Hardly a candidate for a 19th-century English poorhouse, King received a celebrity-caliber $6 million advance and will earn a cool $1 million for each installment.
Each serial will have a first printing of 2.6 million copies in a 4-by-7-inch paperback of about 90 pages; the final one is planned to run 140 pages. The first five installments will cost $2.99, the last $3.99, for a combined price of $18.94, substantially more than most original paperbacks, but about five dollars less than a new King hardcover.
Part one arrived in bookstores March 25. Scheduled publication dates for parts two through six are April 29, May 27, June 24, July 29 and Aug. 26.
A Green Mile web site has been established (http://www.greenmile.com), featuring a preview of the book, an interview with King and an e-mail function for readers to send their comments to King as the story unfolds.
Virginian-Pilot reviewer Gregory N. Krolczyk, a longtime King aficionado, will track the novel with monthly critiques and updates.
``I wants to make your flesh creep,'' penned Dickens in The Pickwick Papers. Does King? Read on . . . by CNB