Step 1 : Introduction to the question "What was Stephen King's first professional short story sale?"
...Stephen Edwin King is the undisputed king of the horror genre. He was born in 1947 in Portland, Maine. A 1970 graduate of the University of Maine at Orono, King holds a B.A. in English and worked as a high school English teacher for a while. Writing was his first passion. He made his first professional sale in 1967 when he sold his short story, "The Glass Floor." His first novel, "Carrie," sold to Doubleday & Co. in the spring of 1973. It hit the bookstores in the spring of 1974. Source: StephenKing.com