Editing Richard Bachman (section)

==Origin==
At the beginning of King's career, the general view among publishers was that an author was limited to one book per year, since publishing more would be unacceptable to the public. King therefore wanted to write under another name in order to increase his publication without [[market saturation|saturating the market]] for the King "brand". He convinced his publisher, [[Signet Books]], to print these novels under a [[pseudonym]].<ref name=kingbachman>{{cite web |url=http://www.stephenking.com/faq.html#1.6 |title=Stephen King FAQ: "Why did you write books as Richard Bachman?" |author=King, Stephen |access-date=December 13, 2006 |publisher=StephenKing.com}}</ref>

In his introduction to ''[[The Bachman Books]],'' King states that adopting the [[pen name]] Bachman was also an attempt to make sense of his career and try to answer the question of whether his success was due to talent or luck. He says he deliberately released the Bachman novels with as little marketing presence as possible and did his best to "load the dice against" Bachman. King concludes that he has yet to find an answer to the "talent versus luck" question, as he felt he was outed as Bachman too early to know. The Bachman book ''[[Thinner (novel)|Thinner]]'' (1984) sold 28,000 copies during its initial run—and then ten times as many when it was revealed that Bachman was, in fact, King.

The pseudonym King originally selected, Gus Pillsbury, is King's maternal grandfather's name, but at the last moment (due to the pseudonym being outed) King changed it to Richard Bachman. Richard is a tribute to crime author [[Donald E. Westlake]]'s long-running pseudonym [[Richard Stark]]. (The surname Stark ''was'' later used in King's novel ''[[The Dark Half]],'' in which an author's malevolent pseudonym, "George Stark", comes to life.) Bachman was inspired by [[Bachman–Turner Overdrive]], a rock and roll band which King was listening to at the time his publisher asked him to choose a pseudonym on the spot.<ref name=kingbachman/>