Amazon.com Chosen by Stephen King to Facilitate Payment for Exclusive Serialized Online Novel, The Plant

Business Wire, July 24, 2000

Business and Entertainment Writers

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 24, 2000

Amazon.com (www.amazon.com) has been chosen by Stephen King to provide payment services via Amazon.com Payments for his novel in progress, The Plant.

In an ambitious publishing experiment, monthly installments of The Plant will be available for download only on www.stephenking.com, with King asking his readers to pay $1 for each installment on the honor system. The first installment of The Plant was made available today, and the second installment will be posted on King's site on August 21.

Amazon.com was selected by King to provide a secure, easy-to-use online payment system for The Plant, a novel set in the early 1980s. Readers will be linked from www.stephenking.com to Amazon.com Payments to make their payments by credit card, cash, check or money order. Readers will then be returned to King's site to complete their downloads.

Readers have the option of either paying immediately prior to download or downloading the installment with the promise to pay later. King has said that he plans to continue the series after the first two installments if a sufficient number of readers who download them honor his request for payment. In King's own words, "If you pay, the story rolls. If you don't, the story folds." The third installment of The Plant would be posted in September.

"I am delighted that Amazon.com is providing a safe and easy way for readers to pay for The Plant," said King. "By doing so, Amazon.com has considerably upped our chances for success in this innovative publishing experiment."

"King's distribution of The Plant using an online honor system is a groundbreaking innovation, and Amazon.com is proud to support this experiment by making its convenient, trusted payment system available to Stephen King fans everywhere," said Alan Caplan, vice president and general manager of product development for Amazon.com. "By providing King's readers with Amazon.com's secure payment technology and outstanding customer service, we will help them pay King quickly and easily so that they can start enjoying the story."

As a service to Amazon.com customers who wish to learn more about downloading The Plant, a link will be available at www.amazon.com/stephenking.> Amazon.com Payments provides an integrated payment system that allows buyers and sellers to use their credit cards to pay each other online. The system allows sellers in Amazon.com Auctions, zShops and sothebys.amazon.com to accept secure credit card payments from Amazon.com's more than 20 million customers, while buyers enjoy the convenience of 1-Click shopping.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com (Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries) is the Internet's No. 1 music, No. 1 DVD and video, and No. 1 book retailer. Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN) opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection, along with online auctions and free electronic greeting cards. Amazon.com seeks to be the world's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Amazon.com lists more than 18 million unique items in categories including books, CDs, toys, electronics, videos, DVDs, tools and hardware, lawn and patio items, kitchen products, software, and video games. Through Amazon.com zShops, any business or individual can sell virtually anything to Amazon.com's more than 20 million customers, and with Amazon.com Payments, any seller can accept credit card transactions, avoiding the hassles of offline payments. The company also participates in sothebys.amazon.com, the leading auction site for guaranteed art, jewelry, and collectibles, at www.sothebys.amazon.com.

Amazon Anywhere is the leader in mobile e-commerce, providing access from anywhere in the world to Amazon.com on personal digital assistants (PDAs) and through handheld wireless Internet devices that use HDML or the Wireless Application Protocol.

Amazon.com operates two international Web sites: www.amazon.co.uk and www.amazon.de. It also operates the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web's comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 220,000 movies and entertainment programs and 800,000 cast and crew members dating from the birth of film in 1892 to 2003.

Amazon.com has invested in leading Internet retailers that are improving the lives of customers by making shopping easier and more convenient: Greenlight.com, the only company that offers car buyers the control of auto purchasing online with ongoing service and support from local dealerships, at www.greenlight.com; living.com, the leading online home products and services retailer, at www.living.com; drugstore.com, an online retail and information source for health, beauty, wellness, personal care and pharmacy, at www.drugstore.com; Pets.com, the online leader for pet products, expert information, and services, at www.pets.com; HomeGrocer.com, the first fully integrated Internet grocery-shopping and home-delivery service -- with operations in Seattle; Portland, Oregon; and Southern California -- at www.homegrocer.com; Gear.com, which offers brand-name sporting goods at prices from 20 to 90 percent off retail, at www.gear.com; Ashford.com, the leading Internet retailer of luxury and premium products and the Web's No. 1 retailer of watches and jewelry, at www.ashford.com; Audible, Inc., the leader in Internet-delivered spoken audio for PC-based listening or playback on AudibleReady portable digital audio devices, at www.audible.com; eZiba.com, a leading online retailer of handcrafted products from around the world, at www.eziba.com; and WineShopper.com, the San Francisco- and Napa-based Internet start-up that will ultimately offer consumers online access to the largest selection of wines available anywhere, at www.wineshopper.com.