Demand outstrips capacity as new Stephen King story is published online

NEW YORK (AP) -- Getting a copy of Stephen King's new ghost story proved to be a task not for the faint of heart. "Riding the Bullet" is available only on the Internet and was made available at 12:01

Wednesday, March 15th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) -- Getting a copy of Stephen King's new ghost story proved to be a task not for the faint of heart. "Riding the Bullet" is available only on the Internet and was made available at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

Web sites including Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com were swamped by high demand for the horror master's 66-page work, and downloading it was downright impossible.

An Associated Press reporter began trying to download "Riding the Bullet" via Barnes & Noble and Amazon at 10 a.m. Tuesday and had not succeeded by 5 p.m. An attempt around 3 a.m. today also fell short, as well as a try on Amazon around 9:15 a.m. The story finally was downloaded from Amazon at 11:05 a.m. today.

"All the servers have reached 100 per cent capacity and gone over several times today," Pat Eisemann, a spokeswoman for Scribner, the co-publisher with King's Philtrum Press, said earlier. "Everybody is pretty much crashing and you can't get through."

The story went online at several book-related Web sites at a cost of $2.50, although Barnes & Noble made it available for free on Tuesday and Amazon has no plans to charge for the download a tall, according to company spokeswoman Kristin Schaefer.

King wrote the story while recuperating from serious injuries he sustained when he was hit by a van last June. While many books are available on the Internet, few prominent writers have chosen to publish online only.

"Stephen King's decision to publish his new short story in electronic format is a concrete declaration that the e-book format has arrived," said Steve Riggio, vice chairman of Barnes & Noble.com. "We see a time in the not too distant future when virtually every book in print will be available in both physical and electronic formats."

King was more cautious. "While I think that the Internet and various computer applications for stories have great promise, I don't think anything will replace the printed word and the bound book," he said in a statement.

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