Steve Almond’s self-publishing adventure
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Steve Almond can write memoir (‘Candyfreak’) and he can write short stories (‘My Life in Heavy Metal’). He can teach, he can essay, he can read with a performer’s flair. But until December, he’d never thought he’d publish a book all by himself.
In our Off the Shelf column, Almond writes about his experience bringing a tiny run of ‘This Won’t Take But a Minute, Honey’ to life: Read one way, it’s a collection of short-short stories. Flip it over and it’s a collection of short-short essays about writing.
I stood mesmerized before the Harvard Bookstore’s Espresso Book Machine, watching the pages of my book being scanned with a red laser, sprayed with ink and cut. It only took minutes for the inaugural copy of ‘This Won’t Take but a Minute, Honey’ to slide down a small chute. Not only was my copy warm, the cover was still sticky. I nearly wept. For my debut reading at the Harvard Bookstore, I convinced Brian to design two new covers and offered readers their choice. The books were printed while I read. I sold 84 copies that night, about 75 more than I tend to sell at a reading.... I also love the idea that books will be evolving, rather than static, entities. This is why I add new material to every edition of ‘This Won’t Take but a Minute, Honey.’
The book is available, for now, from the Harvard Book Store. His next book -- ‘Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life’ -- will be published by Random House in April.
-- Carolyn Kellogg
Images courtesy Steve Almond
