STEPHEN KING's online book project was a roaring success - it made him a staggering $500,000 (œ346,000) profit for seven chapters. The MISERY author's novel THE PLANT was labelled a flop because he left it unfinished after seven chapters.

However the horror great has so far made almost half-a-million dollars profit from the project, though less than half of the 40,000 people who downloaded later instalments paid for them. King's website shows that the book made $721,000 (œ480,000) after he began issuing chapters in July last year (00). The expenses totalled $242,600 (œ161,733).

The chapters were available online for a dollar (œ0.66) each in an honour system where people were not obliged to pay - but with the proviso set by the writer that if the number of people paying fell below 75 per cent he would cease publication.

While 120,000 people downloaded the first chapter, only 70 per cent paid for the second chapter, and 46 per cent for chapter six. Chapter seven was free. King said he shelved the project purely because of other commitments. (MCM/WNBIN)

Source: WENN