The story, told in epistolary format consisting entirely of letters, memos and correspondence, is about an editor in a paperback publishing house who gets a manuscript from what appears to be a crackpot.

Philtrum Press produced just three installments before the story was shelved, and the original editions have been hotly sought-after collector's items.

[citation needed] In 2000, King published the novella Riding the Bullet over the Internet, making it the world's first mass market eBook.

He viewed the release as an experiment in alternate forms of distribution, writing on his website at the time, "My friends, we have the chance to become Big Publishing's worst nightmare.

All told, after six installments, King revealed that he had made nearly half a million dollars from the release of The Plant, in what has been called his eBook experiment.