Steve Almond, author of Candyfreak and My Life in Heavy Metal, among others, has taken publishing matters into his own hands. Though Almond is still a hot commodity (his Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life will be availble April 13, 2010), he found that one of his book ideas was not generating much interest with publishers. His idea was a book that could be flipped over and read in two directions. One side would offer short stories, and the other side would contain essays about writing. The title? This Won’t Take But a Minute, Honey.

Unable to secure a large publisher, Almond decided to self-publish the book on demand using the Espresso Book Machine. His first reading was at Harvard Bookstore, which has an Espresso Book Machine that pumped out copies of the book as Almond read.

Almond isn’t ready to overthrow the corporate publishing model, but he does delight in the innovations that make such self-publishing possible. This Won’t Take But a Minute, Honey is available only at Almond’s readings. Read more about Almond’s experience here (it’s entertaining!).

On November 17 Harlequin Enterprises, the biggest name in romance publishing, announced that it was launching a new imprint, Harlequin Horizons, in partnership with Author Solutions Inc., a self-publishing company. Under the new imprint, unknown romance writers will be able to publish their novels for a fee of $599. The books will be distributed electronically through Author Solutions, and authors will receive royalties equivalent to 50 percent of net proceeds on each copy sold.

For Harlequin the venture represents a point of entry into the burgeoning self-publishing market, as well as an avenue (potentially) for discovering new talent to publish under their traditional imprint. As reported by the New York Times, Brent Lewis, vice president of Digital and Internet at Harlequin, gave assurances that the new initiative would not in any way diminish the integrity of the Harlequin brand.

Still many were outraged, denouncing Harlequin Horizons as little more than a vanity press and a cynical money-making scheme that exploits the dreams of aspiring writers. Prominent author guilds, including Romance Writers of America (RWA), Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA), and Mystery Writers of America (MWA), threatened to disassociate themselves from Harlequin. (Read their statements at Making Light.)

The heat was intense, apparently, as Harlequin moved immediately to rebrand the imprint. It’s now called DellArte Press, and any association with Harlequin has been painstakingly scrubbed from its website.

But as Ron Hogan, who has been following the unfolding story at Galley Cat, points out, the name change has done little to placate Harlequin’s critics; at the same time, it has effectively reduced DellArte to “just another rookie self-publishing imprint,” with none of the allure of being associated with the prominent Harlequin brand. It will be interesting to see how the enterprise fares after such an inauspicious beginning.