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hate_mail t1_j8w61ac wrote

I thought I read somewhere that he wanted to prove he was a good writer, and would be able to sell books based purely on his storytelling ability, not just because of his name. I could be completely wrong though

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Mr_Mons_of_Nibiru t1_j8wfa34 wrote

And ironically, a major newspaper wrote in review of these books, "This is how Stephen King would write if Stephen King knew how to write."

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KoeiNL t1_j8yrvav wrote

For real? That's fantastic and immediately shows how biased reviews can be.

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IHaveANotSoHotTake t1_j8z1fxc wrote

> For real?

No. I can only trace this quote back to this article written by the guy who discovered that King was Bachman. The original quote itself isn't from a major newspaper review. It's a quote from King himself, quoting what he claims he'd heard a reader for the Literary Guild, a sort of mailed book-of-the-month club, had said.

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GustavVA t1_j8xk5zy wrote

On Writing, is good. Stephen King knows he’ll never be a great writer. He works his ass off getting to good and as far as story structure he is. Readability? Everyone reads him. He makes a compelling case.

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KoeiNL t1_j8ys74u wrote

It really doesn't matter that your prose isn't the best of the best if your stories are great. A lot better than the reverse, that's for sure.

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psykotedy t1_j8w729b wrote

I’m with you. As I recall, that’s what Stephen King himself wrote in the foreword of The Bachman Books compilation I had as a teenager. Or it was something akin to that, anyway.

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crazydave333 t1_j90kgku wrote

If OP wants the explanation of why Stephen King wrote as Richard Bachman, it's easiest to just read the intro to that collection.

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hatersaurusrex t1_j8zassh wrote

You're not wrong - he did say that somewhere, either in his memoir or in the foreword to The Bachman Books. I distinctly remember him saying his agent told him 'Steve, you could publish your grocery list and it would sell a million copies' and King wanted to prove him wrong.

All the copies of the books got remaindered and sent back, so his agent was right in the end. He formed a band at some point with some other authors called 'The Rock Bottom Remainders' and I think maybe the bit about the Bachman bet was in that.

I don't remember where I read it, but I definitely did.

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GhostMug t1_j8ztrno wrote

This is actually kind of interesting because you don't get to the point where your grocery list would sell a million copies without being a good writer who people love. So the fact that he was at that level and still wanted to "prove" he was a good writer just goes to show how even the greats aren't immune to imposter syndrome.

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FoodBabyBaby t1_j94r2pc wrote

The band was great. I was a huge Stephen King fan in elementary school and got to go see his band and watch him sing ‘Stand by Me’ with the likes of Amy Tan, Dave Barry, Ann Rice & some others I can’t remember/didn’t know.

Saw him perform a few times over the years with different writers. He was decent and very nice.

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mmmmpisghetti t1_j903htl wrote

JK Rowling did this as well, only in that case it was dogshit.

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SenlinDescends t1_j9am8jj wrote

Actually the Strike novels were great until she used them as a platform for her bigotry :/

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BurnieTheBrony t1_j90gemv wrote

Yeah, that's my understanding as well.

Then I read The Long Walk. It's an immediately engaging, yet horrifying, story of a kid from Maine going through something awful but with a shitty ending.

I was like, god damn you published the most Stephen King story ever as "Not Stephen King"

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