Scribner snaps up most of Stephen King’s body (of work)

Scribner has scooped up the rights to most of Stephen King's works, in every format you can imagine, the publisher announced Monday.

The deal includes many of King's horror classics, including "Christine," "IT," "The Dead Zone," "Cujo," "Misery," "The Tommyknockers," "Firestarter" and "Dolores Claiborne," and the first four books of his still-unfilmed "Dark Tower" series.

The press release, which announced the acquisition of most of Stephen King's "body of work," prompted a Halloween-ready joke from Washington Post book editor Ron Charles.

Scribner has been King's publishing home since 1998, and he's happy with them, as he makes clear in the news release. "It’s a no-brainer, really," King said. "Good publishing and good relationships equals happy writers and long shelf life. I know from experience that this group of people — at Scribner, at Pocket, at Simon & Schuster Audio, and throughout the company — values the work I do, and wants to find as many readers as possible for the books I write, both now and in the future. Trusting them with this large body of work is my pleasure. We are excellent allies and good friends."

When King published his first book in 1974, he was an unproven, struggling writer who found a home with Doubleday, a major publisher of genre fiction. That first book was "Carrie," followed by "Salem's Lot" and "The Shining," books (not included in this deal) that established King as a major novelist who could top bestseller lists again and again.

He was so prolific that he invented a pseudonym, Richard Bachman, in order to put out books as quickly as he was writing them. Several Bachman titles are included in the deal, which will include e-books, audiobooks and paperbacks.

The complete list of Stephen King titles acquired by Scribner is below.

"Christine," "Cujo," "Cycle of the Werewolf," "The Dark Half," "The Dead Zone," "Desperation," "Different Seasons," "Dolores Claiborne," "The Eyes of the Dragon," "Firestarter," "Four Past Midnight," "Gerald’s Game," "IT," "Misery," "Needful Things," "Rose Madder," "Skeleton Crew," "The Tommyknockers." Writing as Richard Bachman: "The Long Walk," "Roadwork," "The Running Man," "Thinner" and "The Regulators." The Dark Tower Series: "The Gunslinger," "The Drawing of the Three," "The Wastelands" and "Wizard and Glass."

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