Meg Reid 🦦
@megireid.bsky.social
Executive Director / Hub City Writers Project
Publisher / @hubcitypress.bsky.social
Canadian in the South 🍁
Happy to be on your podcast, etc!
www.megireid.com
Publisher / @hubcitypress.bsky.social
Canadian in the South 🍁
Happy to be on your podcast, etc!
www.megireid.com
Pinned
Meg Reid 🦦
@megireid.bsky.social
· Nov 12
Hey new folks! I'm a publisher / writer / designer who runs a publisher grounded in place and community (@hubcitypress.bsky.social) and advocates for small, local, diverse, and authentic in direct response to the consolidation and corporatization of nearly everything in the book industry.
meanwhile, threads is still an incredibly stupid place
November 25, 2025 at 2:39 AM
meanwhile, threads is still an incredibly stupid place
we're not talking enough about how awful that American Canto cover is
November 24, 2025 at 9:39 PM
we're not talking enough about how awful that American Canto cover is
bots talking to bots talking to bots talking to
I wrote about the fake account blowup on X this weekend. A genuine post-truth nightmare and proof that these companies have polluted their platforms so thoroughly and traded reality for profit that they've undermined the very idea of what the internet is supposed to be.
That MAGA Account Might Be a Troll From Pakistan
How X blew up its own platform with a new location feature
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
bots talking to bots talking to bots talking to
Reposted by Meg Reid 🦦
EDITOR'S NOTE: "Encouraging young journalists isn’t just about their careers. It is an investment in this world’s ability to understand one another," Torsheta Jackson writes.
Editor’s Note | Teach Young Journalists to Ask Great Questions
Torsheta Jackson reflects on returning to USM to speak to students and the messages she hopes listeners took away from her speech.
buff.ly
November 24, 2025 at 6:02 PM
EDITOR'S NOTE: "Encouraging young journalists isn’t just about their careers. It is an investment in this world’s ability to understand one another," Torsheta Jackson writes.
The Mellon Literary Fund is the first seriously substantial new funding line that has been announced since I started in publishing. I'm 38. We need to get literary workers in front of philanthropists to make this case because I think most don't think of books as something they can/need to fund.
Our books are inherently non-commercial, art objects. I talk about this a lot in bookshop circles but, people don't hesitate to support dance, visual art, and other modes of artistic expression that are totally nonprofit but culturally valued. Why do people not apply that to books and literature?
November 24, 2025 at 4:15 PM
The Mellon Literary Fund is the first seriously substantial new funding line that has been announced since I started in publishing. I'm 38. We need to get literary workers in front of philanthropists to make this case because I think most don't think of books as something they can/need to fund.
November 24, 2025 at 3:48 PM
I run a small potatoes nonprofit press whose sales barely covers the costs of printing and overhead. My books are all in there and it makes me livid, for both me and for my authors.
Look, I am very small potatoes as an author. I make too little in royalties to live off them. But I can tell you the reason I got to write my 2nd book was bc the sales of the 1st were very good. That's what else you're eating into by pirating, our ability to keep writing what you claim to love.
November 24, 2025 at 3:10 PM
I run a small potatoes nonprofit press whose sales barely covers the costs of printing and overhead. My books are all in there and it makes me livid, for both me and for my authors.
Per my earlier post--more short stories coming from @hubcitypress.bsky.social in 2027. This "Denis Johnson x Over the Garden Wall" collection is so strange and tender and will stay with you for a long time after you finish it. Thanks to Bill Clegg for sending it to me!
Thrilled about this collection that reads as if Denis Johnson wrote Over the Garden Wall--coming out in 2027!
November 23, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Per my earlier post--more short stories coming from @hubcitypress.bsky.social in 2027. This "Denis Johnson x Over the Garden Wall" collection is so strange and tender and will stay with you for a long time after you finish it. Thanks to Bill Clegg for sending it to me!
Reposted by Meg Reid 🦦
This thread makes me want to cry but also gives me hope, because there are those of us out here who very much want to keep art and writing by humans alive, and I know we are going to do it. But it is increasingly countercultural to believe in...basic human culture.
i just reviewed 50+ applications for an arts award and most of them were written by chatgpt. And then the other reviewers said they put them into Gemini to rank them. At a certain point, if everyone is giving their thinking entirely over to AI, why are we even bothering with any of this anymore?
November 23, 2025 at 7:43 PM
This thread makes me want to cry but also gives me hope, because there are those of us out here who very much want to keep art and writing by humans alive, and I know we are going to do it. But it is increasingly countercultural to believe in...basic human culture.
Reposted by Meg Reid 🦦
In a time of slop, AI or not, it’s time to lean into niche communities and odd work by passionate weirdos with well-honed clarity of intention and craft
This is so relevant to my day-to-day thinking at @hubcitypress.bsky.social. instead of being demoralized and saying, let AI do all the publishing work and pump out more slop to boost sales, our new focus is carefully curated + clearly human created. Hence the focus on short stories, novellas, etc.
November 23, 2025 at 8:07 PM
In a time of slop, AI or not, it’s time to lean into niche communities and odd work by passionate weirdos with well-honed clarity of intention and craft
AI is a massive boon to the fly-by-night vanity publishers and high-output KDP book content. Even big 5 publishing has embraced AI for covers for their republished fanfiction. It's more important than ever for real independent presses to stress the human-made, anti-algorithmic nature of our work.
This is the only sensible way forward. If people don't want to do the work, they should do something else. Thank you for holding the line against the slop.
November 23, 2025 at 6:39 PM
AI is a massive boon to the fly-by-night vanity publishers and high-output KDP book content. Even big 5 publishing has embraced AI for covers for their republished fanfiction. It's more important than ever for real independent presses to stress the human-made, anti-algorithmic nature of our work.
i just reviewed 50+ applications for an arts award and most of them were written by chatgpt. And then the other reviewers said they put them into Gemini to rank them. At a certain point, if everyone is giving their thinking entirely over to AI, why are we even bothering with any of this anymore?
November 23, 2025 at 5:32 PM
i just reviewed 50+ applications for an arts award and most of them were written by chatgpt. And then the other reviewers said they put them into Gemini to rank them. At a certain point, if everyone is giving their thinking entirely over to AI, why are we even bothering with any of this anymore?
I will only worry the world is actually crumbling if I suddenly stop getting my 3-4 emotional support nyrb emails every day
November 22, 2025 at 1:25 AM
I will only worry the world is actually crumbling if I suddenly stop getting my 3-4 emotional support nyrb emails every day
one thing I've learned in a decade plus of nonprofit work: things will happen to you (good and bad) and you'll use them for fundraising but! you have to keep in mind there's a huge difference between storytelling and mythologizing.
November 21, 2025 at 6:35 PM
one thing I've learned in a decade plus of nonprofit work: things will happen to you (good and bad) and you'll use them for fundraising but! you have to keep in mind there's a huge difference between storytelling and mythologizing.
Reposted by Meg Reid 🦦
For 30 years, Hub City Press has championed the finest voices of the American South. This year, we formed our first-ever National Advisory Council to help guide our next chapter. Together, we'll continue to shape the future of independent publishing. Learn more at hubcity.org/advisorycouncil
November 20, 2025 at 7:56 PM
For 30 years, Hub City Press has championed the finest voices of the American South. This year, we formed our first-ever National Advisory Council to help guide our next chapter. Together, we'll continue to shape the future of independent publishing. Learn more at hubcity.org/advisorycouncil
Announcing @hubcitypress.bsky.social's National Advisory Council! At a time where independent publishing is under threat, support from authors like Kevin Wilson, Lauren Groff and John Jeremiah Sullivan blows me away. So proud of this little press that could. And retiring the world "scrappy."
November 20, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Announcing @hubcitypress.bsky.social's National Advisory Council! At a time where independent publishing is under threat, support from authors like Kevin Wilson, Lauren Groff and John Jeremiah Sullivan blows me away. So proud of this little press that could. And retiring the world "scrappy."
Thinking about THE RITZ OF THE BAYOU by Nancy Lemann today (4.7.26 @hubcitypress.bsky.social)
November 19, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Thinking about THE RITZ OF THE BAYOU by Nancy Lemann today (4.7.26 @hubcitypress.bsky.social)
Scrolling past quickly, I thought this was spiral bound for a sec (a la my bootleg copy of The Real Book) and am greatly relieved to see it's just a spine design.
seeing pics of people's preorders of this -- fsg really did such a great job of it, it's a lovely book
Was this supposed to arrive already? @themountaingoats.bsky.social
November 18, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Scrolling past quickly, I thought this was spiral bound for a sec (a la my bootleg copy of The Real Book) and am greatly relieved to see it's just a spine design.
I REFUSE to care this much about someone born in 1993
November 18, 2025 at 2:26 AM
I REFUSE to care this much about someone born in 1993
I think we're only beginning the absolute onslaught of upcoming books where writers make the California wildfires about them
We have to outlaw wildfire and invasive plant metaphors until someone can figure out what the hell is going on
November 18, 2025 at 2:18 AM
I think we're only beginning the absolute onslaught of upcoming books where writers make the California wildfires about them
"I spent hours hacking at the sprouts to keep the bamboo at bay, just as I had with all the secrets that Olivia and I shared."
November 18, 2025 at 2:07 AM
"I spent hours hacking at the sprouts to keep the bamboo at bay, just as I had with all the secrets that Olivia and I shared."
Reposted by Meg Reid 🦦
editors, now more than ever!
November 17, 2025 at 4:44 PM
editors, now more than ever!
Just got the amount I have to write off due to b&t defaulting. In this case "writing it off" means our distributor takes it back from us, likely pushing me into the negative in January (ie the worst time of the year). Can't imagine how much it is for bigger presses. Yay books.
November 17, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Just got the amount I have to write off due to b&t defaulting. In this case "writing it off" means our distributor takes it back from us, likely pushing me into the negative in January (ie the worst time of the year). Can't imagine how much it is for bigger presses. Yay books.
I've read applications for a bunch of different (public, private, statewide, national) arts grants in the past year and I have seen the biggest uptick in chatgpt usage over the past six months. The upside is that they're easier to read. The downside is they all read exactly the same way.
November 17, 2025 at 5:42 PM
I've read applications for a bunch of different (public, private, statewide, national) arts grants in the past year and I have seen the biggest uptick in chatgpt usage over the past six months. The upside is that they're easier to read. The downside is they all read exactly the same way.