Well, Stephen King and his publishers pulled one over on me....

[hansel4150]

About a week ago, the news of Blockade Billy was announced. Reading Cemetary Dance's press release, they said only 10k books would be published, with not much chance of more being made or sold in stores. Thinking I had no time to waste, I quickly ordered a copy, paying $33 dollars (a ridiculous price for a book, but hey, I love King) for the measley 144 page novella. And today, lo and behold, Scribner announces the book will be out for about $20 less (I'll be it wont be $15 in Wal-Mart, more like $7 or $8 if the last price wars were any indication) than the Cemetary Dance edition. And if that wasnt enough, it will also contain SK's new short story, morality which the Cemetary Dance edition doesnt contain. All the Cemetary Dance edition contains is a baseball card with a random dude's face on it and a short paragraph, kinda lame if you ask me, but I suppose a decent collectibe, although printing 10,000 or more copies of something isn't that rare. I give Sk and his publishers credit for pulling a fast one on me. Almost reminds me of Sawyer's scam in Lost.

P.S. Sorry for the unnecessary Lost reference and the rant

[Moderator]

Have you bothered to read any of the news updates or the thread that was started for this to educate yourself the whys of there being a Scribner edition at all and the difference between them? Do you really think that Steve is sitting around thinking, oh, yeah, how can I screw even more of my fans and fatten up my bank account? It hasn't been about the money for him for a very long time.

[demorgan]

You can always cancel your order with Cemetary Dance. Ive heard of a number of people doing tht. Its your money, make sure that you get exactly what you want.

[Sundrop]

Sounds like someone has a bad case of sour grapes to me.......

I happily ordered my copy of Blockade Billy and the price didn't bother me at all..... I also did not feel "gouged" when the Scribner version was announced, because I got what I wanted....
but then again, I've never considered any work by Stephen King to be measley, no matter how many pages it has or didn't have....guess I'm just a true fan that way

Btw-- $25 for the book plus $7 for shipping comes to $32....not sure what you paid the extra dollar for

[Wayne C. Rogers]

Nobody's hand was twisted to buy Blockade Billy. Mine certainly wasn't and neither was yours. We made a choice to buy a book, and SK had nothing to do with it. SK offered the novella to Cemetery Dance in order to help them with their sales. He has done that with a lot of small, independent publishers over the last thirty years. Because Cemetery knew the demand would be high, SK agreed to a 10,000 first printing of the book. The demand for the novella by his fans and collectors turned out to be far greater than anyone could have imagined, so SK agreed to let Cemetery do a second printing for 10,000 copies. That was it. Done. End of story. But wait, another fifty thousand people were then complaining about not being able to get a copy of the book, so SK agrees to let Scribner Publishing Company do a copy of it, too. To make their edition a little different from the Cemetery Dance Edition, SK agreed to let them add an additional short story to the book. That's the story behind all of this. There was no conspiracy on Steve's part to make more money off of this little book. What's he makes off the novella will more than likely go to Uncle Sam in taxes. SK doesn't have to write. He could have retired two decades ago and been set for life, but he loves the writing process. It's what keeps him going, and he also likes it when most of his fans are able to get a copy of his new books, if they want to buy them. Listen, if you're that upset about this, contact Cemetery Dance and ask for a refund. They can sell your copy without any problem. Get the refund and then purchase the Scribner's edition in May. It's just that simple. I, however, am keeping my copy. I may even buy the slipcase for it to have something nice to put the book in.

[tuttle300]

I agree with Ms Mod
The man has plenty of cash and fortunately for all of us fans, he just loves to write and write and write. If it were me I'd be on a world tour for the past couple of years seeing some sights.

But.....There is one admirable thing about the man that few regular fans are aware of (aside from the fact that the short story Morality (that was featured in Esquire magazine last year) which is an excellant phsycholigical study of human behavior) that will be released WITH the cheaper version of Blockade Billy......... is that THANKS to King, he likes supporting smaller publications and smaller publishers. He has been known (or at least, allows his agent to submit to) smaler insignificant publications that are no doubt struggling to stay afloat these days and he (being the super writer NAME that he is...accepts way below the fee that he is entitled to every single time he submits to a smaller publisher) knows that the magazine will be helped along by his name alone !

YES, I do agree with Hansel (to a point) that collectibles can be a pain. (For another example-- another short story he did with his son, Joe Hill, is called Throttle which is about a few motorcyclists and their encounter with a truck driver-- its also about dads and daughters and is another terrific little story) but that was part of another collection anthology that I wasnt about to (over)pay for. Not on my budget. BUT... I was fortunate enough to find out that my local library had the story on an audiobook so i got it and "heard"/read it that way and was glad I did)

There are times when it can be a hassle to hunt down certain King stories (like with Morality-- my local grocery store ordered just ONE copy of Esquire and I went in there on the night they put the magazines up and was lucky to grab that copy (or else I'd have had to go store jumping to find a copy) but since most of them are worth reading 'at the time of publication' I find it easier to do that than wait until 2012 or 2013 for the next short story collection

My point is, that the average fan who will pick up Blockade Billy for the cheaper price will be treated to the additional short, Morality.
Cemetary Dance did NOT have to publish anything beyond the first run and King did not have to grant permission for additional copies (thus, the term, COLLECTABLE)We should thank Cemetary Dance and King for the extra copies

Personally...the sad part is this.... while many of his Constant Readers who can afford it will buy the collectible Blockade Billy, I figure at least 30 percent of the sales will be collectors who will post it to eBay and double the price. (probably without even reading the story)
They are out for a buck and will get it- knowing full well there are King fans out there willing to PAY double for the edition.

From what I had read in interviews this is not King's intent. He writes to be read.But then, thats the nature of (a part of) the business these days. I'm just glad I'll be able to read BB and enjoy it despite my budget crunch. THANKS Steve!

[PatInTheHat]

Thinking

Yyyep yep yep, that one'll get ya pert near every time.

[ArielRacing]

Actually you have plenty of options, like cancelling the order and getting it from Wallmarts. Also don't forget that the books released by CD have an incredible quality (it has always been their highest point).

Personally I love limited editions, so I got my order on CD and I'll probably try to get one of the Scribner's edition as well.

[Bryan James]

Nobody's hand was twisted...

DearMr.WayneC.Rogers,Iamsurethatweallwouldappreciateyourinsi ghtfulcommentsevenmoreiftheywereformattedalittlebitmorereade r-friendly.

See what I'm saying?

~BJS

[wally wonder]

first they blamed the bankers...and i didn't say anything cause i'm not a banker....then they blamed the insurance agencies...and i didn't say anything cause i'm not an insurance agent...so is it any wonder that book publishers take a little heat, as well?...and no, i don't think sk colaborated w/publishers, although he does what he does to get his stories out....

...i bought the one with the card in it...i guess they ship this week or next?...and yeah, i'd like to read morality, will eventually, i hope....

...but hansel is right in a sense, the word was out that this was selling quick and wasn't like to be available at amazon, wherever...perhaps there was talk about what kind, what size of company is this cemetary dance and was there any discussion that this is likely to become available through others....or should we have just assumed that?....a stephen king story no less and what...there's only going to be "x" amount of copies...? i don't know, as i haven't read all the posts about the story and the what ifs and what nexts...

...but i don't see why hansel's dollar isn't any less important than the next person's dollar and i believe hansel can be afforded some 'sour grapes' as one put it, it's hansel's dollar and i'm sure hansel came by it honestly and like everyone else i know, they'd like to see their dollar go just as far as humanly possible....there's nothing wrong with that.

...the posts about canceling the order sounds like sound advice...maybe that's something that can be done--they haven't shipped yet and a canceled order doesn't sound like it would go to the storage room out back.