You've read Joyland, right? You know, the 2006 Emily Schultz novel. -- OH, wrong Joyland, right? Turns out, a lot of people are accidentally buying the Schultz novel instead of King's book.
Schultz writes at her website:
I'm Emily Schultz. My first novel came out eight years ago. It was called Joyland. Last year Stephen King released a print-only novel with the same title. That was cool, until a few King readers bought the e-book version of my novel by mistake and started leaving negative and confused Amazon reviews. I asked Amazon to change their search results to keep people from buying the wrong book but never heard back.
Apparently there were a lot of confused readers as this week I got a—for me—big royalty check for those mistaken books. I'm not so upset anymore. Sure, it's more a pleasant surprise than a fortune, and I'm stuck with those reviews, but I thought a blog detailing how we're spending the Stephen King money would be a nice way to end this funny and strange story.
So what do you do when Stephen King's money starts to roll in? Well, obviously, if you're a writer, you write about it!
Schultz has started a delightful blog titled, "Spending The Stephen King Money" With each purchase she records, she also asks the question, "Would Stephen King like it?" This includes:
- furniture from Ikea, a haircut for Brian,
- the deductible for bumper repair,
- books,
- Dinner for two at a place called "Junoon" . . . and more.
She notes that she bought a new Apple computer, and asks if Stephen King would approve. "WOULD STEPHEN KING ENJOY IT: According to his book On Writing, King writes 10 pages a day. I think he knows the importance of a good machine."
I think this is brilliant and quite a bit of fun. Naturally, we wonder, what does Stephen King think of this, though. After all, it is his book that's losing the sales, right? King told Entertainment Weekly that he is “I’m delighted for her." And, what's more, "I’m going to order her book.” So there's a real sale! And, from none other than Stephen King. Schultz said in turn that she would be buying King's book. Of course, she'll be buying King's book with King's money. A nice way to go!
I know people are stupid, but how could a person be stupid enough to do all of the following: (A) know there is a Stephen King novel called "Joyland"; (B) purchase a novel called "Joyland"; (C) fail to notice that they were purchasing a novel written not by Stephen King but by Emily Schultz; and (D) fail to realize that they could simply return it and get the correct novel.
ReplyDeleteAre there actually people who are THAT incompetent at living in the world? Evidently, the answer is "yes," and it's enough of a yes that Schultz is seeing a significant financial gain from it.
Wow.