Many writers in the horror genre may develop a small following as their books are published, but we all aspire to be the  next Stephen King. In literary circles, horror has always been treated as the red headed stepchild, but King brought the horror genre to a new level.

It wasn't easy, and King himself admits to struggles early on even after several of his books were turned into movies. When someone makes a low budget horror movie it's called a B-movie. When it's almost any other genre, they call it independent.

King's has an eclectic array of novels and stories that are a mix of in your face horror like “Silver Bullet” to the more cerebral like “The Stand.” Few people can appreciate the difficulty of crafting a novel like the “The Stand.”

Everything is interconnected and keeping the character and plot connection straight is a job in itself, but also writing compelling prose on top of that is nearly impossible. I think the key King's popularity is that he doesn't take himself too seriously. He interjects humor and just tells a tale without the pretentiousness that often comes with the writer's cap.

I know many published authors and they often have this air of superiority about them. King has never tried to be anything more than an everyman. Your average Joe with a penchant for putting pen to paper. A talent that has made him not only a prolific horror writer, but a well off one as well. It's definitely good to be the King.