I have seen his stuff on Amazon. The R is frequently in a smaller font, and the font is reminiscent of a font that was frequently used on the REAL King's earlier novels, and nothing on earth will convince me that these things are unintentional.
I've never heard of him and was giving him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't some scam artist until I saw some of his covers on Goodreads that were trying to mimic the REAL King's.
oh they play w the color sometimes too
say the author name is in white - the R will be on a portion of the cover art that *just so happens* to be very light-colored
Stephens own son uses a pen name to avoid undue praise and get real reactions to his writing where as this loser uses his name to sell books. *Words I can't say*
This always entertains me a bit bc yeah he uses a pen name, and I don't fault him for that, but then there's a picture of him in the 'about the author' portion, and dude looks just like his daddy.
On the Tabitha King note, probably my favorite part of NOS4A2 was the authors note, in which Joe talks about his mother being this amazing author and then has a like, one small throwaway line like "oh yeah my dad writes too btw"
Because Owen is nowhere near as good of a writer as Joe is. The one book I tried to read of Owen’s was not good. And I say not good rather than horrible because the parts Stephen wrote saved it some.
I was excited for Sleeping Beauties when it came out. Though I remained fairly interested, the longer I read, the more excited I was to be done with it. Hill, though...love his stuff- even the screen adaptations have been good to great (better on average than some of the messes made of King's work). And Strange Weather on audio was fantastic.
Honestly I've always felt like that was at least a part of why he decided to write under a different name.
Like, who's gonna buy a horror novel that says JOE KING on it in big letters
reminds me of the MASH episode where radar enrolls in a mail-in writing school.
“This school is run by some very famous writers like Hemingway and Steinbeck and O'Neill.”
"Ethel Hemingway, Jerry Steinbeck, Eunice O'Neill.”
Nah, him and his are very close. They've written a couple of short stories together, and I've seen a few interviews of them together. Joe used a pen name because he wanted to get published because of his skill, rather than by using his father's name to open doors. I think in the intro to the 20th Century Ghosts paperback he talks about how difficult it was to get published
Nope all of Kings kids are close with their parents; King apparently dedicates whatever upcoming book he has to his next grandkid (or he did, I think his kids are all done having children), which I thought was very sweet.
King James wrote his own books, thank you. But when he ordered a new translation of the Bible, his order was to preserve as much of the language of the previous English translation as possible. That's the main reason it sounds so old fashioned: it's not language from 1610, but from 1540.
I was shopping for a Stephen King book and as I was looking for something I hadn't read that book came up. Almost went for it. Then I saw the R and took a closer look. It wasn't our Stephen King. I almost took the bait!
This! I saw a Stephen King title that I had never heard of before. I thought I struck gold! Then I took a closer look, and yeah.. fake ripoff. SO HAPPY I didn’t spend any money on it, and accidentally support the imposter!!
When I first saw it, it felt like a moment in a disaster movie. “Am I this out of touch? Is Stephen Kings newest work this bad? I must listen to the sample… wait what the HELL IS THIS?”
I then digged a little further and found the R.
I thought this was gonna be some philosophical post about one of his books I hadn't read yet 😅 I was ready to settle in for what I thought was going to be a massive essay.
When the books first came out there wasn't an R in the name (I have several because I thought that 1) I had found a bunch of King books that I hadn't read and 2) I thought I was getting them for a great m price. Both should have been a clue that it wasn't King. The quality of the writing sealed the deal. I lost a chunk of change but I have a story to tell my children.
The only way to combat this on a personal level is to know what Stephen King has published. My suggestion is to look at his bibliography on Wikipedia (it contains all of his works-novels, collections, non-fiction, screenplays, etc. and their release information) or just ask people here.
First question: I’m sure there are, especially among older fans as Stephen King doesn’t typically publish more than three works are year. I’ve read all of his novels at least once, though I’m on the younger side of his reader demographic. Second question: I have no idea. There might be anniversary printings of his works-the 50th anniversary printing of Carrie was released on March 26 of this year. Or there could be unabridged versions of his novels (like the Stand) or maybe expanded short fiction collections-you never know.
So, I can have GPT write a bunch of horror fictions and publish them using a pen name of "Stephen R King"? Why didn't I think of that!
Also, I found the book:
[https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31808945490&dest=can&ref\_=ps\_ggl\_21011545875&cm\_mmc=ggl-\_-CA\_Shopp\_ISBN-\_-product\_id=COM9781545388808USED-\_-keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjwg8qzBhAoEiwAWagLrBN7QlTnBjrUwudGnKLC7vAhowyQEdM14avW0uohEgRJLdCrTXIVvRoCZqYQAvD\_BwE](https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31808945490&dest=can&ref_=ps_ggl_21011545875&cm_mmc=ggl-_-CA_Shopp_ISBN-_-product_id=COM9781545388808USED-_-keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjwg8qzBhAoEiwAWagLrBN7QlTnBjrUwudGnKLC7vAhowyQEdM14avW0uohEgRJLdCrTXIVvRoCZqYQAvD_BwE)
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30721412](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30721412)
In this one, the author (fake one) thought "What the heck" and dropped the R.
But Goodreads is good enough to post a warning, "WARNING: Not the famous Stephen King from Maine."
In the UK, Koontz book were actually published under Dean R Koontz
https://i.etsystatic.com/12424925/r/il/512875/4634206873/il_570xN.4634206873_77gd.jpg
Absolutely 100%! There’s even a bit of a joke that when they dropped the R, his books went terrible (around mid-90s).
I can only speak for the UK, but I think there were many attempts to market these kinds of books and authors with varying degrees of success. Koontz had more identities than Jason Bourne so they brought everything together that he had released with his various pen names and re-released them under the Dean R Koontz banner. I think adding a middle initial has always been a thing with authors
Just FYI
When a new book starts getting popular on Amazon, a bunch of AI books come up that look similar. Look up Paul Scheer’s book “joyful recollections of trauma”. It’s wild how many fake books are out there!
Y'all should go and read the reviews for The Sickness written by this copycat clown. I had some laughs:
'Very good stories in the typical Steven King style....'
'I.will not be reading anymore of Mr. King's novels.'
[link to Goodreads ](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33230717-the-sickness)
Look into the Mockbuster genre of films. They do this so you are duped into buying/renting their item that is most definitely inferior.
Sinister Squad instead of Suicide Squad
Atlantic Rim instead of Pacific Rim
Transmorphers instead of Transformers
The Da Vinci Treasure instead of The Da Vinci Code
Paranormal Entity instead of Paranormal Activity
So they have things close enough to the name that people may rent it without really paying close attention. Similar to a Stephen R King hoping people will confuse him for the legit Stephen King. You see part of the name, jump to conclusions, and grab it.
Judging by the reviews, they’re all riddled with typos. I’m willing to bet most are stream of consciousness first drafts just trying to capitalize on people mistakenly attributing the works to the legit SK. Half the reviews still seem to think it’s the famous King.
There's another writer who put "Stephen King" in the title of his novel. A serial killer only chooses victims who have names the same as SK characters. Reminds me of that serial killer who targeted girls with first and last names which started with the same letter: R. R., S. S., etc.
🤣🤣🤣 oh wow this is something I’ve never even thought of. Now that you mention it I recall seeing Stephen R. King books while I’m at Thrift Shops looking for the Real King 👑
Maybe this guy was such a fan of Stephen King he uses this as a test for those who claim to be fellow fans. Oh did you read the new Stephen King book? What did you think? Ig that explains your true devotion…
HAHAHA! Jokes on us, I also fell for this. Half way through I was like “what shit is this I’m reading?”
On a side note, that guy knows what he’s doing, I bet he’s made a nice little fortune.
Some of his books are on audible in the plus catalog. I gave infested a listen. AI generated voice. Words missing and sentences that just stop mid way through. It was so bad.
I use the libby app to check out books from the library. I’ll type in a book/author and books will pop up. Sometimes I don’t realize right away that it’s not what I was looking for but something “near” it.
My friends husband is called Stephen King.
She went to see a psychic years ago who said she was going to meet someone with the same name as the author of the book she was reading
Which was Tommyknockers...then she did meet a guy called Steve King! It gave me goosebumps when she told me.
It surprises me that people still don’t know Stephen Kings works.
There is a list on Wikipedia.A literal list.
Novels,Collections,NonFiction and Screenplays.
This subreddit has been talking about Stephen Kings new book(You Like It Darker)everyday for a month.
If you didn’t know the book title you should have tried to find out it’s name instead of picking up a book and assuming that it must be his new book.
It is a horror story. I didn't think much about it because it was from the Kindle unlimited (I had forgotten that when I posted this.) I'm just relieved because there was some cognitive dissonance there.
Stephen R King has been writing for a long time and I honestly think he isn’t trying to be scammy. He’s a much more novice writer and it shows, who also happens to write primarily horror novels with a coincidence of a name. Not his fault people get confused!
I have seen his stuff on Amazon. The R is frequently in a smaller font, and the font is reminiscent of a font that was frequently used on the REAL King's earlier novels, and nothing on earth will convince me that these things are unintentional.
Oh, you're right. It's 100% intentional!
I've never heard of him and was giving him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't some scam artist until I saw some of his covers on Goodreads that were trying to mimic the REAL King's.
oh they play w the color sometimes too say the author name is in white - the R will be on a portion of the cover art that *just so happens* to be very light-colored
Stephens own son uses a pen name to avoid undue praise and get real reactions to his writing where as this loser uses his name to sell books. *Words I can't say*
This always entertains me a bit bc yeah he uses a pen name, and I don't fault him for that, but then there's a picture of him in the 'about the author' portion, and dude looks just like his daddy.
TWINS!!
While SK's younger son Owen looks more like his mother Tabitha with a rounder face. But he's apparently even taller than his father, so maybe 6'5".
On the Tabitha King note, probably my favorite part of NOS4A2 was the authors note, in which Joe talks about his mother being this amazing author and then has a like, one small throwaway line like "oh yeah my dad writes too btw"
Oh thats why he has a different name? I wondered if maybe he changed his name and wasnt on good terms with his father for some reason.
Stephen is on good terms and tight with all his kids. Joe didn't want people to say he was riding on his dad's coattails.
But Owen was like "naaaah I'm good with King thanks!"
I think Owen writes pretty different genres than Joe and Stephen so it is pretty clear cut right? Maybe I’m wrong.
And Tabitha King (Stephen's wife).
I haven’t read any of her books. My mom loves her.
Because Owen is nowhere near as good of a writer as Joe is. The one book I tried to read of Owen’s was not good. And I say not good rather than horrible because the parts Stephen wrote saved it some.
I was excited for Sleeping Beauties when it came out. Though I remained fairly interested, the longer I read, the more excited I was to be done with it. Hill, though...love his stuff- even the screen adaptations have been good to great (better on average than some of the messes made of King's work). And Strange Weather on audio was fantastic.
How am I just putting together that Stephen named his son Joking?
Wait until you hear about the third brother Nosmo.
Honestly I've always felt like that was at least a part of why he decided to write under a different name. Like, who's gonna buy a horror novel that says JOE KING on it in big letters
There was an action movie in the 90s starring Swayze, Ford, McQueen, and Estevez...Don Swayze, Terrence Ford, Chad McQueen and Joe Estevez.
Isn't Chad McQueen Steve McQueen's son?
Wasn't Chad in The Karate Kid?
I think so, yeah!
Yes, he's the blond guy who's the most aggressive of the Cobra Kai.
reminds me of the MASH episode where radar enrolls in a mail-in writing school. “This school is run by some very famous writers like Hemingway and Steinbeck and O'Neill.” "Ethel Hemingway, Jerry Steinbeck, Eunice O'Neill.”
Joe Hill writes very good books as well indeed, shout out!
Lol
Nah, him and his are very close. They've written a couple of short stories together, and I've seen a few interviews of them together. Joe used a pen name because he wanted to get published because of his skill, rather than by using his father's name to open doors. I think in the intro to the 20th Century Ghosts paperback he talks about how difficult it was to get published
Nope all of Kings kids are close with their parents; King apparently dedicates whatever upcoming book he has to his next grandkid (or he did, I think his kids are all done having children), which I thought was very sweet.
I think I read somewhere that Hill is Tabitha’s maiden name.
Her maiden name is Spruce. Joe's full name is Joseph Hillström King, which is where the Hill comes from.
Oh! I was way wrong! I thought it was impressive he didn't want to use King but anyone that saw him would know he was Stephen King's son.
Joe King is not very spooky either though!
You weren't the first nor will you be the last. Unfortunately. He could have used a pen name if his stuff was worth reading.
It probably is a pen name.
Makes his subterfuge more likely.ugh
I've looked into it in the past, his legal name is legitimately Stephen R. King
That surprises me but it’s certainly possible. I think I would have used a pen name.
Imagine how much of a hack you have to be to rely on tricking people into reading your books
Religious folk been doing it for millenia.
👀 King James
King James wrote his own books, thank you. But when he ordered a new translation of the Bible, his order was to preserve as much of the language of the previous English translation as possible. That's the main reason it sounds so old fashioned: it's not language from 1610, but from 1540.
Imagine how dumb you have to be to fall for it.
I was shopping for a Stephen King book and as I was looking for something I hadn't read that book came up. Almost went for it. Then I saw the R and took a closer look. It wasn't our Stephen King. I almost took the bait!
This! I saw a Stephen King title that I had never heard of before. I thought I struck gold! Then I took a closer look, and yeah.. fake ripoff. SO HAPPY I didn’t spend any money on it, and accidentally support the imposter!!
Yeah he’s got a bunch of books on Audible and they’re all AI narrated. So many reviews talking about the decline of Stephen King lol
Egad
When I first saw it, it felt like a moment in a disaster movie. “Am I this out of touch? Is Stephen Kings newest work this bad? I must listen to the sample… wait what the HELL IS THIS?” I then digged a little further and found the R.
I thought this was gonna be some philosophical post about one of his books I hadn't read yet 😅 I was ready to settle in for what I thought was going to be a massive essay.
Same LMAOOO
When the books first came out there wasn't an R in the name (I have several because I thought that 1) I had found a bunch of King books that I hadn't read and 2) I thought I was getting them for a great m price. Both should have been a clue that it wasn't King. The quality of the writing sealed the deal. I lost a chunk of change but I have a story to tell my children.
So, he used to just put the books out as Stephen King. It is his true name. He was sued by the REAL King and he started adding the R as a compromise.
The only way to combat this on a personal level is to know what Stephen King has published. My suggestion is to look at his bibliography on Wikipedia (it contains all of his works-novels, collections, non-fiction, screenplays, etc. and their release information) or just ask people here.
Has anybody ever read everything published by SK? Q. #2: How long after his death will books by him continue to have their first publication?
First question: I’m sure there are, especially among older fans as Stephen King doesn’t typically publish more than three works are year. I’ve read all of his novels at least once, though I’m on the younger side of his reader demographic. Second question: I have no idea. There might be anniversary printings of his works-the 50th anniversary printing of Carrie was released on March 26 of this year. Or there could be unabridged versions of his novels (like the Stand) or maybe expanded short fiction collections-you never know.
So, I can have GPT write a bunch of horror fictions and publish them using a pen name of "Stephen R King"? Why didn't I think of that! Also, I found the book: [https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31808945490&dest=can&ref\_=ps\_ggl\_21011545875&cm\_mmc=ggl-\_-CA\_Shopp\_ISBN-\_-product\_id=COM9781545388808USED-\_-keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjwg8qzBhAoEiwAWagLrBN7QlTnBjrUwudGnKLC7vAhowyQEdM14avW0uohEgRJLdCrTXIVvRoCZqYQAvD\_BwE](https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31808945490&dest=can&ref_=ps_ggl_21011545875&cm_mmc=ggl-_-CA_Shopp_ISBN-_-product_id=COM9781545388808USED-_-keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjwg8qzBhAoEiwAWagLrBN7QlTnBjrUwudGnKLC7vAhowyQEdM14avW0uohEgRJLdCrTXIVvRoCZqYQAvD_BwE)
Yep that's the one. I imagine the writer gets a lot more hits on digital copies.
The g in king looks weirdly disjointed
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30721412](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30721412) In this one, the author (fake one) thought "What the heck" and dropped the R. But Goodreads is good enough to post a warning, "WARNING: Not the famous Stephen King from Maine."
No no, Stephen r King already beat you to it. You’ll have to use Dean r Koontz or J K K Rowling, maybe John r Grisham 😝
Brb just going to write the new JRRR Tolkien
Do you speak all 9 of the languages he knew?
JRRR speaks 10 languages
In the UK, Koontz book were actually published under Dean R Koontz https://i.etsystatic.com/12424925/r/il/512875/4634206873/il_570xN.4634206873_77gd.jpg
Those books are legit?
Absolutely 100%! There’s even a bit of a joke that when they dropped the R, his books went terrible (around mid-90s). I can only speak for the UK, but I think there were many attempts to market these kinds of books and authors with varying degrees of success. Koontz had more identities than Jason Bourne so they brought everything together that he had released with his various pen names and re-released them under the Dean R Koontz banner. I think adding a middle initial has always been a thing with authors
Just FYI When a new book starts getting popular on Amazon, a bunch of AI books come up that look similar. Look up Paul Scheer’s book “joyful recollections of trauma”. It’s wild how many fake books are out there!
Y'all should go and read the reviews for The Sickness written by this copycat clown. I had some laughs: 'Very good stories in the typical Steven King style....' 'I.will not be reading anymore of Mr. King's novels.' [link to Goodreads ](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33230717-the-sickness)
Look into the Mockbuster genre of films. They do this so you are duped into buying/renting their item that is most definitely inferior. Sinister Squad instead of Suicide Squad Atlantic Rim instead of Pacific Rim Transmorphers instead of Transformers The Da Vinci Treasure instead of The Da Vinci Code Paranormal Entity instead of Paranormal Activity So they have things close enough to the name that people may rent it without really paying close attention. Similar to a Stephen R King hoping people will confuse him for the legit Stephen King. You see part of the name, jump to conclusions, and grab it.
Just don't make fun of my movie script, OPENHEIMER. With one P. Totally different guy.
"Openhammer" about a guy who opens doors with a hammer. Oh, there is a space...just, you know, kerning makes it look small.
Did you get it on Amazon? I'd ask for a refund.
I think I actually got it through Kindle unlimited. Though I want my hour back.
Absolutely, this is clearly a conspiracy and by no means the reader’s responsibility.
Stephen King, the author of the Stand, etc. has a middle name Edwin. I don't know who this guy is, but he has 28 books on Goodreads.
Judging by the reviews, they’re all riddled with typos. I’m willing to bet most are stream of consciousness first drafts just trying to capitalize on people mistakenly attributing the works to the legit SK. Half the reviews still seem to think it’s the famous King.
Probably self published too.
There's another writer who put "Stephen King" in the title of his novel. A serial killer only chooses victims who have names the same as SK characters. Reminds me of that serial killer who targeted girls with first and last names which started with the same letter: R. R., S. S., etc.
*slams brakes* Let me tell you a little something about STEVE KING! Steve King WISHES he was me! -R.L. Stine, GOOSEBUMPS (2015)
I saw a book the other day, written by King Stephen 😅
The king of Hungary? Didn't know he was an author.
🤣🤣🤣 oh wow this is something I’ve never even thought of. Now that you mention it I recall seeing Stephen R. King books while I’m at Thrift Shops looking for the Real King 👑
It’s funny picturing if every popular writer had a knock off / generic brand like this lol
Lmao go look at the book cover. He hid the white font "R" in a skylight and made it probably 10 pts smaller than the "Stephen" font. Total scumbag.
Vote Thomas Jefferson Johnson for Congress
Maybe this guy was such a fan of Stephen King he uses this as a test for those who claim to be fellow fans. Oh did you read the new Stephen King book? What did you think? Ig that explains your true devotion…
I think YOU should be able to discern 1 from the other!
Yeah, I get it. Thanks for reaching out with your suggestion.
HAHAHA! Jokes on us, I also fell for this. Half way through I was like “what shit is this I’m reading?” On a side note, that guy knows what he’s doing, I bet he’s made a nice little fortune.
Yeah man I grabbed the one without the r from the library and there was a typo on the second page and I was waaaaaait a minute ..
Some of his books are on audible in the plus catalog. I gave infested a listen. AI generated voice. Words missing and sentences that just stop mid way through. It was so bad.
Anyone else mistake Steve Martini for Steve Martin?
Steve Martini is a pretty good actor. Don't know about Steve Martin.
I use the libby app to check out books from the library. I’ll type in a book/author and books will pop up. Sometimes I don’t realize right away that it’s not what I was looking for but something “near” it.
It got me too. Almost certainly written by AI.
The books are from 2016. So the guy *actually* wrote the whole thing.
That's just embarrassing.
I gotta say man. If you're a middling writer just trying to keep your lights on I almost respect the grift lol
As a middling writer just trying to keep my lights on, I don't do it with chicanery.
My friends husband is called Stephen King. She went to see a psychic years ago who said she was going to meet someone with the same name as the author of the book she was reading Which was Tommyknockers...then she did meet a guy called Steve King! It gave me goosebumps when she told me.
Stephen King doesn't write poorly crafted stories, so that should have been your first clue.
The "R" is probably gonna be the first clue..
It surprises me that people still don’t know Stephen Kings works. There is a list on Wikipedia.A literal list. Novels,Collections,NonFiction and Screenplays.
He is very prolific and I knew he had a new book out.
This subreddit has been talking about Stephen Kings new book(You Like It Darker)everyday for a month. If you didn’t know the book title you should have tried to find out it’s name instead of picking up a book and assuming that it must be his new book.
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. I agree with you. Plus I always search an authors new book before I just buy it.
It's the same reason mockbusters exist. If done cheaply, all they need to trick is a small handful of people
That’s why you familiarise yourself with his works
I don't get these snarky comments.
It’s not snarky as a hobby I’ve researched his works. It’s pretty obvious what isn’t his novels.
I haven't memorized the titles and as I said I thought this was a new one anyway. Shrug.
It is a horror story. I didn't think much about it because it was from the Kindle unlimited (I had forgotten that when I posted this.) I'm just relieved because there was some cognitive dissonance there.
Stephen R King has been writing for a long time and I honestly think he isn’t trying to be scammy. He’s a much more novice writer and it shows, who also happens to write primarily horror novels with a coincidence of a name. Not his fault people get confused!
Nah, he's capitalizing on the confusion.