'Plant' rooted in support

Stephen King proposes new installments of Internet book

(CNN) -- "The Plant" may be about to grow.

Though he won't release new numbers until Monday, author Stephen King says on his Web site (www.stephenking.com) that he's been heartened by the success of his Internet-only book, and proposes writing lengthier installments in the future.

"Publicly, I have always expressed a great deal of confidence in human nature, but in private I have wondered if anybody would ever pay for anything on the Net," King writes. "It now looks as though people will, and I am faced with the real possibility of finishing 'The Plant.'"

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Installment No. 1 was released on Monday. As of Monday afternoon -- the latest date figures were available -- 41,000 had downloaded it, and 78 percent had paid for the privilege. King had stated that unless at least 75 percent paid for "The Plant," the book would end with the second installment, due Aug. 21.

"Pay and the story rolls," King wrote on his Web site last week. "Steal and the story folds. No stealing from the blind newsboy."

Given the response, he now doubts the story will end early. "When the dust settles," King writes, "Marsha [a King staffer] and I are hoping for ... a pay-through rate of 85-90 percent."

Amazon.com is providing the online payment system for "The Plant," but a spokesperson said Thursday that King and his staff are tallying the official numbers for downloads.

If King continues "The Plant," the price may go up, though with more "Plant" for your buck. Current installments run about 7,000 words and cost $1 each; future installments, says King, "would be much longer -- perhaps as long as 25,000 words -- and the download price would go up to $2.50."

King says his experience with "The Green Mile," a novel published in several installments in the mid-1990s, prompts him to think interest in "The Plant" may wane over the course of the almost two years he was planning to devote to the project, hence the new timetable.

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