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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 8h

I'm not an escapist reader so my reading habits haven't changed at all (ie lots of serious sad books). But yeah, not a great environment to be pitching sad books into.

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Reposted by Meg Reid 🦦

NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 15h

Whether it’s Donald Trump saying J.B. Pritzker should be in jail or Donald Trump being convicted of 36 felonies but not going to jail because the American people re-elected him as president, both sides have been linked to jail time.

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 9h

If you're interested in what we've published recently in this vein, I'd highly recommend:

YOU WANT MORE: Selected Stories of George Singleton
GOOD WOMEN: stories by Halle Hill
JUNAH AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Dan Leach

www.hubcity.org/books

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 10h

(is this also a likely byproduct of the way I've curated my social media feeds? absolutely.)

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 10h

folks who publish translated literature have a rightful complaint because only like 1% of books sold are works in translation but I have to say, with love, it feels like there's a different translated book prize list announced every single day of the fall.

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 10h

In an age of rising fascism and tyranny-via-Medbed-meme, the truth is that fun is probably too much to ask for. Today’s literary culture is obviously more imperiled than it was when The New Republic first became a Nobel analysis outfit a decade ago. Subtle and blunt-force censorship is on the rise everywhere, and more people are spending more money than ever on technologies that claim to make art, definitely don’t make art, harvest art’s raw materials, and are ultimately invested in the project of destroying art altogether. They won’t win, but they’re damaging and extremely tiresome. Which is all to say that as much as we’d prefer to make jokes about @krasznahorguy1954, we have to acknowledge that, in the age of ChatGPT, there is almost something heroic about never shutting the fuck up about The Melancholy of Resistance. The Nobel Prize got it right, and literary life is far better for having the Nobel be a part of it, as esoteric, imperfect, and eerily Swedish as it might be

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 11h

Also, although I have no insight into corporate Big 5 publishing, it does seem like this is probably related to why they're picking up so many fanfics and books by content creators. A risk adverse business becoming even more risk-averse.

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 12h

Ha! We're the one upside. (I should also note that you don't have to live in the South if your book is about the South.)

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 12h

I once read a very funny novel that took place entirely over one night from the pov of a pizza delivery man and his dispatcher. I passed because it was not a perfect fit, but I think about it all the time.

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 12h

Texting with my editor about this and she just said the same: "Something that can be a welcome distraction but still have meaning."

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 12h

If you're a writer in the South with a funny, irreverent novel, this is the time to send it to me. I would love to read something like that right now.

Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 13h

Serious books bum us out, fun books feel like they're not addressing THE TIMES. Getting something that's both is impossible. Writers are cranking out novels to please their agents, and agents are sending them unedited, and no one is answering anyone's emails because we're really, really tired.

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Reposted by Meg Reid 🦦

Mitchell Nobis @mitchnobis.bsky.social · 12h

I totally sympathize with Meg's overall point here, but also hey lit agents, my manuscript does kinda balance fun and The Times (in the sense of lower/middle class financial crush, at least). ~62K words and basketball action... [waggles eyebrows]
bsky.app/profile/mitc...

Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 13h

Serious books bum us out, fun books feel like they're not addressing THE TIMES. Getting something that's both is impossible. Writers are cranking out novels to please their agents, and agents are sending them unedited, and no one is answering anyone's emails because we're really, really tired.

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 12h

I'm sure corporate publishers are dealing with the host of different issues. But this is what it looks like in the small non-profit world.

Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 12h

Same here. Authors that are a year late on sending us manuscripts. Increased author anxiety. And yes, waves and waves of queries that aren't right or are not done. (We got a novel from an agent recently that just....didn't end, it just stopped.)

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 13h

I took too long to get back to this agent who's followed up ten times and so I feel bad and send an overlong email about why the book isn't working and then the agent ghosts and doesn't even reply to the email. And that used to feel bad but now it's just like...I get it.

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 13h

Serious books bum us out, fun books feel like they're not addressing THE TIMES. Getting something that's both is impossible. Writers are cranking out novels to please their agents, and agents are sending them unedited, and no one is answering anyone's emails because we're really, really tired.

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 13h

The clearest place the burnout from our times is showing up in my line of work is in acquisitions. Readers and editors are tired just thinking about a 400-page novel. The question does this even matter? feels more complex than ever. We need to keep making art, but the artmakers are worn out.

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Reposted by Meg Reid 🦦

Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 16h

This is so damn scary. The book claimed that Jeffrey Epstein was the one who introduced Donald and Melania. Now the CEO of Harper UK is out.

Jay Rayner @jayrayner1.bsky.social · 21h

In other news Charlie Redmayne, the long serving CEO of HC in the UK, resigned yesterday.

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 13h

Update on the MEASLES OUTBREAK in my county: "Spartanburg County has the highest rate of religious exemptions from vaccine requirements in the state at around 6 percent, representing about 3,200 kids. The last measles outbreak in the state was 2018."

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 1d

I'm sorry, you can't convince me Dakota Joshua didn't fill out his forms in reverse.

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 1d

I have one in my beloved copy of Bekki Lee's BOBCAT AND OTHER STORIES (one of the best short story collections ever, even with a missing sentence.)

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 1d

a chance to drop my fav near-retired publishing term that no one ever wants to hear: "erratum sheet."

Josh Cook @joshthelibromancer.bsky.social · 1d

I don't know if it's terrifying or perfect that some number of copies of Sea, Poison have a little quarter sheet stuck in them with a pretty significant text correction

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 1d

So much has been taken from us. I loved the little tiles in the 90s (which turned out to be some elaborate scam?!)

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 1d

even tho RUTRTW destroys the utility of the cup if you're drinking hot coffee...

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 1d

I think we need to bring back more tactile fast food promotions. I don't want to scan a QR code, I want to peel a tiny Monopoly tile!! I don't want to enter in a code on a website, I want to know if I won by looking under the cap. The Canadians understood and brought back Roll up the Rim to Win!

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