Following Stephen King, another Horror writer is skipping print and going Kindle only. At least as a short-story primer for a novel. In a nice bit of promotion, author Tom Upton is releasing a four-story Kindle download for under a buck, as a teaser for his upcoming horror novel. Here’s a bit on the deal, from PRlog.com:

Tom Upton, author of Just Plain Weird and Morning Doves, said there are no plans to release a hardcopy issue of “Four by Horror“. “‘Four by Horror’ is really just a sampler,” Upton explained. “I think it’s only fair to offer readers a low cost example of what I’m doing in the horror genre. As a reader, I’ve always hated paying a lot of money for a book only to discover that I didn’t particularly like the book for one reason or another.”

The idea is getting quick traction across the internet. The Kindle-only release is in advance of Upton’s new horror novel, Scarecrows, to be out in spring ’09. According to PRlog, Four by Horror reached Amazon Kindle 17th in Short Stories sales, and 82nd in Horror.