Stephen King book that was pulled from shelves and never printed again could be worth a small fortune if you have it

Book lovers owning rare copies of a novel written by legendary author Stephen King could be sitting on a small fortune without even knowing so.

King, aged 77, is known as the 'King of Horror' in the world of fiction due to his dedication to producing new and original tales across the genre.

Many of his novels have been turned in to legendary pieces of film, starting off with his debut novel Carrie.

And who can forget The Shining, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and It. All of them incredible books in their own right as well as huge films that have stood the test of time and in the case of It, be remade in to a modern classic with Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

Well, if you own copies of those books, they're worth a few quid at most. With millions of copies produced, they are incredibly common due to just how popular King's work has become.

But some lucky fans of King's work could be sitting on a small fortune if they have a copy of one particular piece of work gathering dust on their bookshelf.

And that's because the book itself is no longer sold with it highly unlikely to ever be printed again. That means that the copies out there are a rare, limited thing, with them only likely to grow in value as time passes.

King pulled the book from production (Leigh Vogel/WireImage)

Written really early on in his - only the fourth novel of a staggering 65 he has scribed - the book in question is Rage, released back in 1977.

The first book that he published under his pseudonym 'Richard Bachman', a hidden identity he kept secret until 1985.

Since the late 1990s, copies of Rage have ceased to be produced following a horrific school shooting in Kentucky, USA.

Taking place in 1997, the Heath High School shooting in West Paducah saw Michael Carneal, aged 14, open fire on his fellow students who were in a student prayer group.

Three girls died and six more children were injured.

Copies have sold for up to $4,000 (Leigh Vogel/WireImage)

The reason the book was pulled from production was due to its main character, high school senior Charlie Decker, taking a gun to school and fatally shooting one of his teachers.

"Now out of print, and a good thing," King wrote of Rage.

"The Carneal incident was enough for me. I asked my publisher to take the damned thing out of print. They concurred."

After making the decision, King was praised for doing the responsible thing and stopping production of the book.

You won't find any new editions of the 1977 novel (Wikimedia Commons)

Copies of the book still remain out there, with them selling for a significant amount online. We're talking as much as $4,000 (£3,200), with edition and condition factored in to how much a copy is going to fetch.

King produced four novels under his Bachman pseudonym, with the so called The Backman Books collection also out of print due to issues with Rage.

Copies of Rage from the collection sell for less due to more of them being printed, so it is worth checking when yours might have been published if you indeed have one at home.