Background Information
In January 2008, Time magazine quoted King as saying he would "be killing a lot of trees" with his next novel. The first draft was completed in late August 2008, with the manuscript weighing 19 lbs (8.6kg). King has stated the novel is twice as long as his most recent, Duma Key, at "over 1,500 pages in manuscript", and "deals with some of the same issues that The Stand does, but in a more allegorical way". King also described the novel as "very, very long", saying "I tried this once before when I was a lot younger and the project was just too big for me". King read from the first draft at "The Three Kings" reading event that was held on April 4, 2008 at the Library of Congress, which was broadcast by C-SPAN as part of their Book TV series on May 4, 2008.
The paperback edition of Just After Sunset, released on September 29, 2009, included an excerpt from the novel. An excerpt was published in the November 6, 2009 issue of Entertainment Weekly.
The preliminary dust jacket cover art was released to online retailers like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble with the words "cover to be unveiled". In late August 2009, it was revealed that the real cover would be unveiled on October 5, 2009, with parts of it being shown on September 21, 25, and 28. The cover art design for Under the Dome is said to be a departure from King's previous illustrated covers, using a combination of illustration, photographs, and 3D renderings. The final jacket design was released in two states: with white lettering, and with the less common dark gray lettering.
On the day of the release, Stephen King was in New York City at The TimesCenter to promote the book.
In mid-October, Under the Dome became one of the highly-discounted book preorders on Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target, sparking a "price war" between the retailers. The price for Under the Dome and several other high-profile hardcover books to be released in November 2009, typically around $25, was set at just $9 (an unprecedented discount of nearly 75% off on a new hardcover). Later, Wal-Mart lowered the price to $8.98 and included free shipping. Target's price was set at $8.99.
Read more about this topic: Under The Dome
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