As a professional book editor, I heartily encourage everyone to read the Stephen King story and not pay.
(Just kidding, Steve-o! See, it was a reference to that line in REPO MAN! “Let’s do some crimes…let’s go get sushi and not pay!” Honest!)
Personally, I hope he gets paid. Stephen King is one of the very few extremely popular people in the entertainment industry who is embracing digital media rather than running scared and hiding from it.
Yes, I prefer an actual book, but the advent of handheld pc’s has gone a long way toward overcoming the convenience and portability obstacles for me.
But I genuinely hope this venture is successful for him.
Tip o’ the hat to Mr. King for jumping into new technology with both feet.
My $1 check is already in the mail!! 
I’m not going to go for it because I learned my lesson with the Green Mile about buying a novel in installments. It is very painful to have somebody else set the pace that I read a story. I can read more than 20 pages a month, and hate having long gaps in the middle of the story because I forget who is doing what and what is happening.
I’ll wait until the whole story is in circulation and get it then. Maybe.
Man, I’ve been away from the SK website for too long. Wasn’t it just recently that he said the “Riding the Bullet” experiment was OK, but he wasn’t that thrilled with t he idea og online publishing & that he wouldn’t do it again?
Who is this creature, and what has he done with Steve?
I read.
I liked. Since I can retain the story for more than a few days, I’ll wait for the next installment also. I know it’s a pain in th butt, I can read 20 pages in minutes also, but I like being able to download a new book at work when I have a bit of extra time. Go Steve-O!
Just to clear up any confusion, this book is not an e-book. The e-books can’t be printed (to my knowledge), and so you have to read it on a screen using something like GlassBook reader. This is just in PDF format so you can print it. I’m still unsure as to whether I’ll buy it or not. Oh…and after the 3rd one is put on the web, the first installment is taken down, so don’t expect to buy it after the whole thing’s out.
Jman
After this month’s installment (#5), there will be no more installments for a while, so that King can work on other projects. Only 47% of people paid the increased fee of $2 for the 4th installment. Apparently he still plans to finish it, but it may be a year or two. This is the reason I never downloaded any of it. I was afraid it would be left hanging if enough people didn’t pony up the cash. See these articles:
Stephen King will permanently disfigure his hand trying to endorse the hundreds of thousands of one dollar checks he gets sent from these story installments. Then there won’t be any more books from him!
Ah, Seinfeld come to life.
Four words: Secretary With Rubber Stamp. 
How many people do you really think pay for stuff they download from Napster?
Volunteer Capitalism is a broken concept.