Dean Koontz on e-books and writing

As a senior in college, Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition, and has been writing ever since. Seven of his novels have been number one on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list, and eleven have risen to number one in paperback. His latest work, "The Book of Counted Sorrows," will be released as an e-book only.

CNN: Greetings and welcome, Dean Koontz, to CNN.com. We're very pleased to have you with us today.

DEAN KOONTZ: Good morning and I hope I'll be coherent.

CNN: "The Book of Counted Sorrows" has been a long time in coming. Can you tell us a bit of the history behind it?

KOONTZ: Years ago when I was looking for a bit of verse to use as an epigraph at the front of a novel, I couldn't find anything suitable. So I wrote my own verse, and attributed it to this non-existent volume "The Book of Counted Sorrows." After about five years of doing this over many books, I was surprised to see that reader mail asking about "Sorrows" had grown to over 3,000 letters a year. Significant numbers of readers made it clear that if I didn't publish this in some form eventually, my life wasn't worth dirt.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Mr. Koontz -- why did you decide to do an e-book? Will it be doled out in installments or will it be available in its entirety?

KOONTZ: The book includes all the existing verses that have appeared in my books over the years plus several new poems. In addition, there is a 22,000- word introduction providing the strange history of the tome. All of this is available as one download. Personally, I don't believe in serializing. I chose the e-book format for the launch of this because it is such an unusual project and seemed to fit best, at least initially, in this format. Besides, the people at Barnes and Noble kidnapped my pet bunny, and threatened it with mayhem if I didn't do this book with them.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Doesn't making a book available only on-line limit the readers as not everyone has a computer?

KOONTZ: No question about that. In time, though I don't know when, this will most likely appear in printed form. But because of its unusual nature, especially because the introduction is largely comic, this seemed from everyone's point of view the best way to begin.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: How will readers be able to pay for this e-book and will people be able to print it?

KOONTZ: I think Barnes and Noble will explain that through their Web site and in all their stores. If they don't explain it, then I want my bunny back right away!

CNN: What advantages do you see e-books having over standard books? Disadvantages?

KOONTZ: The advantage, I think, is that the format allows you to do things that publishers don't see working in traditional book form. Furthermore, I believe the real future of e-books will be in volumes that offer bells and whistles, such as music, audio, accompaniment of various kinds, and even animation and film clips. In short, I think the real future of the e-book is not as just another way to receive the same product, but as an entirely different form of literature.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: But with all bells and whistles in place, will books look like plays for radio on CD or on Internet demand? Not really a book?

KOONTZ: I think they will look like books but heavily augmented with options for enhanced material, sort of the way CDs now offer all kind of material associated with the film that is the centerpiece.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Oh, good morning Mr. Koontz! I am so excited to speak to you! Right now I am re-reading "False Memory," and liking it as much as I did the first time I read it. Where in the world do you come up with these characters and their situations?

KOONTZ: Any time I'm looking for a good psychopath, I first check out the current crop of congressmen, and see what they are up to. If none of them seem quite psychotic enough, then I just make the character up from the weird stuff inside my own head.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Is it just a coincidence that this e-book comes after Stephen King, another author known primarily as a horror/thriller writer, was the first?

KOONTZ: This came about because without some pressure from someone to gather together all this material, I might not have done it. My agent provided the first pressure because publishers in so many other languages had been asking him if I was going to do this title. Soon after my agent started thumping on me, Barnes and Noble came to him, and that is how it happened. Otherwise, I had had no thought of doing anything especially with e-books.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Do you have times when you have a complete block and nothing materializes? How do you deal with that situation?

KOONTZ: Yes I have those times every day. ...when I'm sleeping. Otherwise, the ideas generally come far too fast. Indeed, I have a drawer full of notions for novels that I will never live long enough to complete, even though it is my committed intention to live 186 years.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Stephen King used his childhood as "fodder" for his books. Do you do the same, embellishing on childhood terrors?

KOONTZ: Read the biography by Katherine Ransland, in which she discusses my violent, alcoholic father. After all these years of talking about it, I find the subject boring these days.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Do you have or make time to read, and what do you read?

KOONTZ: A great deal of my time is spent reading research material for what I write. But I do read a lot of fiction as well. I have so many favorite authors that even the Internet isn't large enough to list all their names. My favorite writer of all times is John D. MacDonald with a close second position held by Dickens, James M. Kain, Jim Harrison, and Anne Tyler.

CNN: Any final thoughts to share with us today, Dean Koontz?

KOONTZ: If some of you try "The Book of Counted Sorrows," I hope you have as much fun with it as I had in the writing. But be warned, as it is explicitly stated in the introduction to the book, those people who insist upon reading every poem in this volume die violently, mysteriously, and usually find their heads exploding.

CNN: Thank you for joining us today, Dean Koontz!

KOONTZ: I hope it went well for you!

Dean Koontz joined the CNN.com chat room via telephone from Newport Beach, CA. CNN provided a typist. The above is an edited transcript of the interview on Monday, September 10, 2001.