Popular Hairstyles

Here’s a nice NPR piece about Joe Meno’s Hairstyles of the Damned, which they say has sold 20,000 copies, with virtually no major reviews or marketing.

Meno’s first novel, How the Hula Girl Sings, was published by St. Martin’s Press. Hairstyles of the Damned started off at a significantly less well known publisher with only 4,000 copies to start. Meno has some choice words for “conservative” publishers such as Judith Regan, warning against the reluctance to publish riskier material. Hairstyles, despite its small initial printing, still gained a following among readers who know something about feeling like an outcast and finding solace in punk music.