Four Covers for Under the Dome’s UK Paperback Release

Steve Barton |

Mar 24, 2010

Proving yet again that lately all the coolest things are coming out of the UK, British publishing house Hodder & Stoughton has announced that its July 8th paperback release of Stephen King’s Under the Dome is being designed to generate the type of excitement usually expected from a major television or film launch.

Per Lilja’s Library Hodder has unveiled a radical new package featuring four different covers, each reflecting in a filmic way characters from Under the Dome. The marketing campaign supporting publication will seek to bring to life the individuals featured on these covers. Media used will include national outdoor posters, online advertising, and a dedicated website with stories and recordings from characters in the book. The plan is very much to reach a bigger audience than for any previous King paperback whilst involving the reader in a very personal and intimate way.

Synopsis:
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when–or if–it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq War vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens–town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing–even murder–to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.