Best-selling author Stephen King has written a personal essay called “Guns,” and has published it exclusively as a Kindle Single in Amazon’s Kindle Store. Amazon made the announcement this morning.

King said of the essay, “I think the issue of an America awash in guns is one every citizen has to think about. If this helps provoke constructive debate, I’ve done my job. Once I finished writing ‘Guns’ I wanted it published quickly, and Kindle Singles provided an excellent fit.”

“It’s exciting to offer a way for a brilliant writer like King to publish quickly, and to reach a large audience of loyal readers and new customers,” said David Blum, editor of Kindle Singles. “King finished this essay last Friday morning, and by that night we had accepted it and scheduled for publication today.”

The essay begins:

Here’s how it shakes out.
First there’s a shooting. Few of the trigger-pullers are middle-aged, and practically none are old. Some are young men; many are just boys. The Jonesboro, Arkansas, school shooters were 13 and 11.

There is a longer preview available if you want to sample it. The essay can be found here for $.99 (along with the preview).

While King is known best for his often epic fiction, he is certainly no stranger to non-fiction, and this is simply his latest slice of it. In addition to his works like Danse Macabre and On Writing, he has contributed numerous articles to Entertainment Weekly, to name a few.