No: the problem isn’t ebooks. They’re just the malevolent familiars of two dark and ancient gods: the internet, and big business. People have been buying more and more of their reading material from Amazon and other online retailers, and less and less from small shops; before that, they were buying from Waterstones or W H Smith or some other high-street chain.

So, if Mr King really wants to fight back against the evil, to pour a metaphorical bucket of pig’s blood over the head of the telekinetic prom queen – sorry, I’m running out of King references here – he’s not going far enough. If he wants people to “stir their sticks” and get down the bookshop, he should ban his latest from being sold online at all.

In fact, he should insist that it’s only sold at independent booksellers: preferably dusty ones that smell of leather, run by kindly old men, with wooden shelves and ancient first editions and a bell that rings when you open the door.

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