Rolling Stone interview

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Rrty

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2007
1,394
4,588
This interview has got to be one of the best in a long time. Such great revelations in it (at least they were to me). I'll briefly touch on some.

"The Tommyknockers" -- he's disappointed with it and believes that it should be perhaps shorter. When I first read this, when I was much younger (and my age probably influenced my opinion, since younger sometimes equals more forgiving when it comes to entertainment content), I fell in love with it. I do still love it, but as time goes on, I do see flaws within the text (the actual voice in it, though, remains incredible and dazzling to me; I love its compelling nature, its self-confidence, its I-know-you'll-find-this-interesting tone). He should write a short sequel to it, just a little short story.

What exactly does he mean when he says the "Dark Tower" books were essentially first drafts, that they were never edited? Ms. Mod, please explain.

Hemingway sucks? See -- we can all have strong opinions. It's okay to criticize the classics.

King writes slower these days, and probably not as much. Here's a suggestion: please write shorter books so you can get to more ideas. (In fact, this gives me an idea -- I don't know if this has been done before, but there should be a novel about a writer who is old and dying but needs to finish a book because it is the key to positively affecting the future.)

King is worth hundreds of millions of dollars? You know, if you search for his net worth, some claim he's worth $400 million. That is entirely possible. To be honest, though, I think the number is somewhere between $150 million and $200 million. How close am I, Ms. Mod? And I'm sure a lot of his worth is tied up in, and due to, investments.

King doesn't like "Dreamcatcher." I sort of didn't, either.

I'm not sure how to interpret his comment about having a discussion with himself before beginning "Mr. Mercedes," but I sort of take it that he might have been worried that people thought he was trying to compose (and perhaps contrive) a bestselling novel to really compete with all the new self-publishing Amazon stars. Which I think is the absolute truth. And I think there is nothing wrong with that.

His former publisher thought King was second in priority to Clancy? Well, in a sense, can't blame them. From an economic potential, I think Clancy was showing more promise. Obviously, that did not stop our hero from doing what he loves and getting increasingly rich off of it. What a great life.

And what a great interview.
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
Dude, what is the fascination with Mr. King's money? I've noticed that you ask about his net worth or details of his book/movie deals quite often. I can't believe you expect answers to such personal questions. Yeah, we all know he's successful. And, no, I don't think he 'sold out' or contrived with Mr. Mercedes. I think what he was struggling with is whether he wanted to release a lighter weight book when his later books have been trending 'thinky' (at least that's my take on what he said). A sort of, "Can I release something just FUN, without losing the credibility for which I've fought so long?"

The interview was interesting, and honest.
 

Mr Nobody

Well-Known Member
Jul 9, 2008
3,306
9,050
Walsall, England
I have to admit I'm surprised by his feelings re: The Tommyknockers (though isn't that the one/one of the ones he doesn't remember writing, or just barely remembers? That'd go some way to explaining it). I quite like it - and I swear I'd kill for that typewriter set-up. :D
As for Dreamcatcher...I can think of one or two very good reasons why he wouldn't like that one, and tbh it probably wouldn't matter which book it was; given when it was written, the mere mention of it would bring back bad memories (not that they'd be too far under the surface in any case).
Mr Mercedes...I don't think any of the top authors consider that they have to compete with Amazon self-pubbers (though it'll definitely be the case the other way around). What they do is a fantastic achievement for what it is, but compared to the Kings and Rowlings of this world, it's Little League. (For SK, with what, 50 books to his name? Most of them still in print and selling? I don't think he needs to worry about some poppet writing erotica or another sparkly-vampire-type series.)
As for his worth...that's never going to get an answer, and it's none of our beeswax, frankly. But, if you want to get in the ballpark, look up how many sales each title has generated worldwide (print, ebook, audio), then work on a figure of around, say, 80 cents per copy sold (a lot there depends on the deal; could be 8-10% of the cover price, could be 10-15% of profit). Add whatever you like for movie rights (they won't be as high as you might think, especially for the older and lesser-known/less popular titles). That should give you a range, but bear in mind that the Kings have given a lot away and/or have sunk sums back into the community/ies, as well as generating a fair bit of tourist income and creating jobs for people (like Ms Mod).
Not sure about the claims re: Clancy. SK is (probably) the bestselling author on the planet. Clancy was/is a big name, but his books didn't quite have the broad appeal of SK (among others), and that was largely due to the type of story he told (to many, especially those who had never read him, he was too pro-American and/or conservative or 'hawk'-like, and therefore avoided). I could understand a US publisher prioritizing Clancy over King for popularity of genre as well as the obvious economic reasons, but only a US publisher.
 

Rrty

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2007
1,394
4,588
King actually has been forthcoming at times about money. There's the famous tale about "Carrie" paperback rights (or whatever rights they were). He mentioned once that, in a good year, he might gross $40 million (that was said a long time ago; I presume a good year might be different these days). He spoke about receiving a dollar as an advance on several occasions. And I believe he may have confirmed his deal on "Bag of Bones" many years ago, and his new model for publishing compensation (in fact, I think he also has confirmed, obliquely perhaps, that he did in fact ask for over $15 million for his books and that this led to his departure from his former publisher).

Quite frankly, King scholars have covered this stuff. I just did a search and came up with an excerpt at the Google books engine talking about money and King. The title of the work is "Stephen King from A to Z: An Encyclopedia of His Life and Work" by G. Beahm. Here's a stat from the book: it has been reported that King's first five Doubleday works generated total advances of about $77,000. Feel free to look this up to read more as I don't want to quote too much from the work. The point is, there's been a lot of discussion about King's financial empire, and as time goes on, he probably is okay with confirming things here and there in terms of old contracts. I bet if a reporter asked him to confirm the $77,000, he wouldn't mind.

Finding out figures like this is not only interesting, it can be informative -- if not now, then later on. The more information we have on the flow of money, the better educated we become. Especially in terms of investing. I do some freelance writing now and then on the financial markets, and I can tell you I have argued for more disclosure for contracts of above-the-line talent when that talent is connected to public companies. As an example, we should know what Johnny Depp gets -- upfront, backend, gross participation, through all windows, all of it -- for every "Pirates" picture. We know what the CEO makes -- let's know it all so we can make wise investment decisions by generating proper valuations. (It won't stop people from working with Disney or any major studio; if the price of making $50 million is the disclosure of such fact, then that won't cause any inhibitions on the part of talent, believe me.) We know what public employees make. We have financial disclosure in politics. I'm not saying King has to tell us what he's worth -- that's okay, I just find those stats fascinating. But guess what? CBS owns Simon & Schuster. CBS is a public stock. Yes, CBS should disclose what his contract deal is so I, as an investor, know what I am getting into and can argue if he is overpaid or not (I have owned CBS at times in my portfolio; you probably have as well, at least through mutual funds; you certainly have owned Disney).

Besides that point, there is a whole industry based on disclosure of salaries and net worth. Forbes has its Forbes 400 and Celebrity 100. I want to say that Forbes claims King made $17 million between June 2013 and June 2014. We know what B. Gates' Microsoft holdings are worth, we know the worth of the Waltons. We know box office reports, book sales reports, Billboard sales charts, etc. We are based on money. It's actually a fun science to study. In fact, there should be a feature someday interviewing the money managers of famous authors so we find out their thoughts on the markets. (Someday, some of these younger authors on Amazon, having grown up in an era of $7 stock trades and increasing ubiquity of financial information, will post their portfolios on line.) I believe Gates' money manager at his Cascade Investments, has recently been interviewed. People love this stuff.

Mr. Nobody, when you mention the typewriter, you mean the one Bobbi used to write via telepathy? I think the book's name was "The Buffalo Soldiers"?

As for Clancy, I don't know how many books he sold, but he did generate that big videogame franchise, as well as all those book series he didn't write. And I have to say, it may be Little League, but what is happening at Amazon's self-publishing platform is actually very interesting.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
...I thought the interview was quite good, despite some dumb-azz questions from the interviewer...Unca Steve is quite blunt and honest, wouldn't have expected less-though I will say, his casual cursing kind of surprised me...I know he writes it, but somehow didn't think he had such a "potty mouth"....sure didn't upset me, I curse like a ball squeezed monkey-just found it illuminating I guess...
 

DiO'Bolic

Not completely obtuse
Nov 14, 2013
22,864
129,998
Poconos, PA
Just got RS and read the interview. Very entertaining and informative. Wish I would have read it before trying to con Ms Mod out of a signed glossy. Should have used Tom Clancy instead of Dean Koontz in the con. Live and learn I guess.

Is it a big gun-and-ammo store near the office or one of those little mom and pop kind? The mom and pop ones are great to just visit for the characters there and stories they tell.
 

Moderator

Ms. Mod
Administrator
Jul 10, 2006
52,243
157,324
Maine
Just got RS and read the interview. Very entertaining and informative. Wish I would have read it before trying to con Ms Mod out of a signed glossy. Should have used Tom Clancy instead of Dean Koontz in the con. Live and learn I guess.

Is it a big gun-and-ammo store near the office or one of those little mom and pop kind? The mom and pop ones are great to just visit for the characters there and stories they tell.
I have no idea what he's talking about as I've never noticed it on my way to/from work. It's unlikely I'll ever step inside even if I do figure out where it is as I have ZERO interest in their business, characters or stories or contributing to the success of their business.
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
Just got RS and read the interview. Very entertaining and informative. Wish I would have read it before trying to con Ms Mod out of a signed glossy. Should have used Tom Clancy instead of Dean Koontz in the con. Live and learn I guess.

Is it a big gun-and-ammo store near the office or one of those little mom and pop kind? The mom and pop ones are great to just visit for the characters there and stories they tell.

That descriptive caught my attention. With all the detail they gave about the area, they might as well have just posted a big sign (or the address): "Here is where Stephen King and staff work!" Seemed a bit negligent to me.
 

Moderator

Ms. Mod
Administrator
Jul 10, 2006
52,243
157,324
Maine
That descriptive caught my attention. With all the detail they gave about the area, they might as well have just posted a big sign (or the address): "Here is where Stephen King and staff work!" Seemed a bit negligent to me.
It didn't make me very happy either and had I seen the article beforehand would have asked if the reporter could have left some of that out but so far so good with having any unexpected visitors show up. Maybe those who might do that aren't the same market demographic as Rolling Stone readers. Or maybe the reporter figured with the gun store nearby, we'd all be packing. :glare:
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
It didn't make me very happy either and had I seen the article beforehand would have asked if the reporter could have left some of that out but so far so good with having any unexpected visitors show up. Maybe those who might do that aren't the same market demographic as Rolling Stone readers. Or maybe the reporter figured with the gun store nearby, we'd all be packing. :glare:
LOLOL! I've noticed similar stuff in other articles. Reminds me of a humblebrag: "See? I told you I really knew____" without actually saying it. My daughters even commented on how easy it would be to drop on in (not that we would EVER do anything like that--GADS, how awful!). Hopefully the nutters aren't reading.
 

Rrty

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2007
1,394
4,588
I'll agree with you on that, Skimom, that info was odd. Another thing I found odd was it seems King doesn't live at his Bangor home any longer. That is such a beautiful house and area. I can understand Florida for the winter, but after that passes, I think I would be back in Bangor. There's a channel on cable -- I want to say one of those history-type channels -- that has a show that films flyovers of different geographical regions. There was one that featured Maine, and it showed King's Bangor home. From up above, it looks even more impressive.

Carrie's brother: yeah, "Dreamcatcher" just didn't seem to go anywhere. It wasn't profound. It was a simple topic. The plot didn't inspire. And as someone else pointed out, the whole alien-cum-bathroom stuff didn't impress. The writing was good, as always, but -- and I may not be remembering this correctly -- if Derry is going to be used as a setting (at least in part), have it be about something else (and we all know what I'm talking about).

You know, though, this leads to another thought. In my opinion, King knew that was bad after he wrote it. At some point, he passed the point of no return, and that point is this: after so many words, why not finish it because those words, bad as they might be, are worth a lot of money? I always thought that about the "Insomnia" manuscript. In one interview, he sort of admitted -- my interpretation -- that it wasn't a great novel (the interview in question I believe was in a writing magazine, and he mentioned that the initial draft was not worthy of publication because he hadn't found the equivalent of the "Dark Half" sparrows yet, which I always took to mean he decided to publish it once he added the "Dark Tower" connection). I thought to myself, yeah, "Insomnia" wasn't so great, why publish it? And then I had the answer: being a human being like the rest of us, how can you look at that pile of papers, know it's worth $10 million, and not try to publish it? Sorry to get on money again, but I say that honestly, that's my opinion. And I also say there's nothing wrong with that, it is completely understandable, and I would do the same thing (so would you).
 

Lily Sawyer

B-ReadAndWed
Jun 27, 2009
6,625
15,016
South Carolina
It didn't make me very happy either and had I seen the article beforehand would have asked if the reporter could have left some of that out but so far so good with having any unexpected visitors show up. Maybe those who might do that aren't the same market demographic as Rolling Stone readers. Or maybe the reporter figured with the gun store nearby, we'd all be packing. :glare:

So does this mean when I show up unannounced with flowers you won't come have lunch with me?? ;)
 

Moderator

Ms. Mod
Administrator
Jul 10, 2006
52,243
157,324
Maine
I'll agree with you on that, Skimom, that info was odd. Another thing I found odd was it seems King doesn't live at his Bangor home any longer. That is such a beautiful house and area. I can understand Florida for the winter, but after that passes, I think I would be back in Bangor. There's a channel on cable -- I want to say one of those history-type channels -- that has a show that films flyovers of different geographical regions. There was one that featured Maine, and it showed King's Bangor home. From up above, it looks even more impressive.

Carrie's brother: yeah, "Dreamcatcher" just didn't seem to go anywhere. It wasn't profound. It was a simple topic. The plot didn't inspire. And as someone else pointed out, the whole alien-cum-bathroom stuff didn't impress. The writing was good, as always, but -- and I may not be remembering this correctly -- if Derry is going to be used as a setting (at least in part), have it be about something else (and we all know what I'm talking about).

You know, though, this leads to another thought. In my opinion, King knew that was bad after he wrote it. At some point, he passed the point of no return, and that point is this: after so many words, why not finish it because those words, bad as they might be, are worth a lot of money? I always thought that about the "Insomnia" manuscript. In one interview, he sort of admitted -- my interpretation -- that it wasn't a great novel (the interview in question I believe was in a writing magazine, and he mentioned that the initial draft was not worthy of publication because he hadn't found the equivalent of the "Dark Half" sparrows yet, which I always took to mean he decided to publish it once he added the "Dark Tower" connection). I thought to myself, yeah, "Insomnia" wasn't so great, why publish it? And then I had the answer: being a human being like the rest of us, how can you look at that pile of papers, know it's worth $10 million, and not try to publish it? Sorry to get on money again, but I say that honestly, that's my opinion. And I also say there's nothing wrong with that, it is completely understandable, and I would do the same thing (so would you).
Because of the neighborhood where it is located (not a gated community) and the fact that there have been so many pictures posted of it, they have very little privacy at their Bangor home. On the other hand, their house in southern Maine does not carry that baggage with it so they can live their lives without having to deal with the "business" end of it.