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There are two Stephen Kings.
Wait … no, I’m not talking about “early” Stephen King, who wrote horror, and “presentday” Stephen King, who spends his days ranting and raging on Twitter about Republicans.
I’m actually taking about two completely different Stephen Kings. There’s the Stephen (Edwin) King that we’re all aware of — writer of such horror classics as “The Stand” and “It” and “Misery.” Then there’s the Stephen R. King, the not-so-great writer of such infamous horror titles as “Infested” and “The Sickness” and “Unearthly.”
Truth be told, the whole Stephen R. King saga has captivated me for quite some time now. Let me explain.
Way back in 2014, as the Amazon Kindle was proving popular with readers worldwide, the “King of Horror” pretty much had the entirety of his vast, fictional library for sale as e-books. Not surprisingly, people began gleefully purchasing “Tommyknockers” and “Bag of Bones,” along with other titles like “Blood Rituals” and “Grave Decisions.”
When these Stephen King enthusiasts opened up their e-version of “Cujo,” they were delighted. When they opened up their e-version of “Grave Decisions,” however, they about puked onto their Kindles.
Yep — Stephen King fans had been duped.
It seems newish Stephen King fans, or those who simply weren’t paying attention, were purchasing any book with the Stephen King name stamped across its cover, not realizing the man from Maine had never penned and published books titled “Grave Decisions,” “Blood Rituals,” or “Descendants.” Rather, these latter titles had been written by a completely different person using the “Stephen King” name.
See, this unknown author had cleverly taken advantage of a loophole with the Amazon search engine that allowed the horribly-written “Crossroads” and “Grave Decisions” to percolate amidst Stephen King’s bestselling library, like “’Salem’s Lot” and “The Shining.” When a reader, new to Stephen King’s world, began downloading titles, they were unknowingly purchasing imposter King books, such as “Beast Control” and “Redstone.”
Not surprisingly, reviews of these horrible King titles came flooding in. They were negative and very, very angry. A few thought Stephen King’s writing ability had really taken a dive since they had last read him. Most others, however, smelled something rotten in Castle Rock.
“I downloaded ‘Infested’ to my kindle … I admit I was not really paying attention when I bought it,” wrote one reviewer, “and I quickly realized this was a faux Stephen King. Imma be more careful in the future.”
Each of these imposter titles quickly earned one-star or half-star ratings. Despite those ratings — and the nasty, angry reviews — careless Stephen King fans continued to purchase the imposter books to their Kindles without hesitation, like insects bumbling into sticky spider webs. and all the while, fake Stephen King’s bank account continued to swell … and swell … and swell.
For three years, the fake King titles seamlessly intermingled with real King titles on Amazon. Finally, in 2017, the corporate giant stirred and lurched into motion like some massive sloth. They contacted this fake Stephen King author and asked him to stop using the Stephen King name; they encouraged him to use a pen name instead.
The fake Stephen King refused. Why? Because the author told them that he wasn’t using a fake name. His actual name, stamped clearly on his birth certificate, was Stephen King. Turns out, he wasn’t breaking any laws by publishing his stories under his God-given name.
A compromise was eventually reached. The man’s middle initial — “R” — would be added to the covers of all his available books. This way, readers could at least have a better idea of which books were written by Stephen King (“Pet Semetary”) and which stories were spun by Stephen R. King (“Awaken”).
The compromise worked — kinda sorta. Despite the name tweak, there are still far-too-numerous Stephen King fans out there who still dumbly purchase Stephen R. King books — and then complain about it.
Said one reviewer: “Basically I was just relieved to discover that this poorly written piece of crap was NOT the work of THE Stephen King.”
Today, we at least know the gender of Stephen R. King — he is a man, at least according to the picture and short bio appearing on the writer’s Amazon page.
“Stephen R. King,” the bio reads, “grew up in the Midwest. He enjoys writing short stories in many different genres such as thriller, sci-fi, action-adventure, horror, supernatural, fantasy and more. If you enjoy a good late-night read, or want to spend some time away in another realm or universe, feel free to relax and go on many different journeys with multiple short stories to choose from.”
Strangely (or maybe not strange at all), this “faux” Stephen King published “Unearthly” in 2018 and “The Darkness” in 2019 — and then nothing else after that. With the proverbial cat out of the bag, maybe the steady cash flow Stephen R. King had been enjoying for so long had suddenly dried up? Regardless, the man hasn’t published a single novel, story collection or short story on Amazon since 2019. It’s like he’s disappeared.
Maybe Randall Flagg finally caught up to him?
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from Kindle Publishing – My Blog https://www.techyrack.com/syndication/2022/08/12/kevin-mcclintock-exploring-the-strange-saga-surrounding-stephen-r-king-joplin-globe/
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