Un romanzo ambientato nell'era degli anni Ottanta, quando l'email lo possedevano solo in pochi e il fax era una tecnologia sconosciuta. Inizia in quest'ambientazione The Plant, l'innovativo romanzo di Stephen King. Interesserà a pochi la trama del romanzo, visto che tutta l'attenzione è concentrata sulle modalità di vendita. Comunque, ecco le prime righe del nuovo romanzo di "The Plant", opera che lo stesso autore ha definito "carina e terrificante". La formula scelta è già di per sè dedicata alle nuove tecnologie: il romanzo è scritto in forma di email, sfruttando l'impostazione grafica di font diversi. Tutto in puro stile web.
to: Roger f r o m: John r e: Submissions / January 11-15th, 1981
A new year, and the slush in the slush pile grows ever deeper. I don’t know how the rest of your toiling editorial minions are doing, but I contin-ue to roll the existential rock of America’s unpublished aspiring—at least my share of it. All of which is only to say that I read my share of crud this week (and no, I haven’t been smoking what W. C. Fields called "the illicit spon-duix,” either—I’m just having a prolix day). With your concurrence, I’m returning 15 book-length manuscripts which arrived unsolicited (see Returns, next page), 7 "outlines and sample chapters” and 4 unidentifiable blobs that look a bit like typescripts. One of them is a book of something called "gay event poetry” called Suck My Big Black Cock, and another, called L’il Lolita, is about a man in love with a first grader. I think. It’s written in pencil and it’s hard to tell for sure.
Also with your concurrence, I’m asking to see outline and sample chap-ters on 5 books, including the new bodice-ripper from that bad-tempered librarian in Minnesota (the authors never snoop in your files, do they, boss? Ordinarily it would be a flat submission, but the poor performance of His Flaming Kisses cannot be justified even by our horrible distribution set-up— any word on what’s happening with United News Dealers, by the way?). Synopsis for your files (below)... [CONTINUA]