Last call: my book proposal course begins January 5.

All in all, it’s been a good year for Belt Publishing, the ‘small press’ in the title of this newsletter.

We published thirteen books in 2025: a biography of Amelia Bloomer; map books about Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Columbus, and the Great Lakes; a literary novel set in a fictional Pittsburgh and a neo-noir set in Las Vegas; two reissues of novels deserving more contemporary readers by Dawn Powell and Booth Tarkington; an anthology about Rockford, IL; a memoir about cross-dressing and one about environmental changes in Ohio, and a rhubarb cookbook.

Sales figures are always opaque in publishing, but I can tell you the titles that sold the most number of copies are all from our 50 maps series. People like maps!

The single most important factor in a press’s success is the backlist, and now that we have significantly more backlist titles than frontlist ones (it takes many years to get to that point!), we now generate a significant percentage of our yearly revenue from books published in previous years. Our stalwart backlist bestsellers are What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia and The Last Children of Mill Creek. Newer titles that are delighting us with their suddently-backlisted stamina include Chicago House Music and Cat and Bird.

I had the honor of accompanying two authors to award ceremonies: in New York I joined Zito Madu, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and in Philadelphia Darius Stewart, a Stonewall/ALA finalist (and also a Lammy finalist!).

On the staffing front, longtime Belt staffer Phoebe Mogharei was promoted to full-time senior editor, marking the first time Belt has had two full time, salaried employees. Hallelujah, as they say this time of year.

Of course, most of the daily work we did in 2025 won’t be visible to the public until 2026, when we publish the books we’ve been acquiring, editing, and designing. You can find many of those titles listed here, including one edited by me (I’m putting the final touches on my introduction this week). Not yet ready for pre-order but coming in 2026: a fascinating literary history set in the Upper Peninsula in the 1830s, more maps (either Minneapolis or Chicago, depending on delivery dates), revivals of novels by Frank Norris and Glenway Westcott, and a cranberry cookbook. 2027 is also well underway, and will include a book about a Tadeo Ando building, horse track racing, paczki, more maps (D.C., Madison, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee are all in contention), and a Midwest music anthology. And of course Phoebe and I have our eyes open for more acquisitions.

Speaking of which, I’ll be hanging out where prospective authors go early in the new year and am available to chat about your book ideas. You can find me at:

AHA conference, Chicago January 8-11
Winter Institute, Pittsburgh, February 23-28
AWP conference, Baltimore, March 4-7

(We’re working on having a Belt happy hour at an off-site event in Baltimore.)

I hope to see some of you in the flesh next year, and to hear many more of you reading and/or proposingBelt books new or old. And I’ll be here, writing about copyright history and AI debates, the latest debates in publishing and its American history, my idiosyncratic leisure reading, book collecting and flipping, and of course what’s happening in my day job. Thanks for hanging around with me as I do.

Here’s to finding as much creativity, intellectual engagement, and fun in 2026.

Two spots left in my book proposal course. When it’s full, it’ll show up as “sold out” so no need to check with me first. Starts January 5!

If you read ‘classics’—here defined as any book that published more than a century ago, and of which there are numerous editions, because still widely read—and also read ebooks, you will be familiar with a decade-long frustration: it is just about impossible to ascertain if an edition of an ebook is reliable before buying it. Why? Because low-rent, fly-by-night, individuals-posting-as publishers have been swamping online sites with crappily scanned versions of these books for years. On Amazon, the situation is maddening, because Amazon often smushes all the different editions of a single ebook into the same listing. You have no idea which version of the many crappy ones out there you will receive.

Sometimes it can be possible to find the version you want, as in this screenshot from Amazon (see which one I picked). But if you want David Copperfield? Just try to decide. Even Libby, the library app where I find most of my ebooks, is prone to this problem.

This longstanding, terrible situation is what I think of when people worry about AI-written books replacing human authors. I am not worried about this eventuality—or, at least, any more than I am annoyed already at the current situation. I think we will see more of the sort of crap I describe above—but crap is not new: Amazon and other online sites have long been overrun by shitty books, sloppy editions, and pirated books sold for 99 cents. AI will make it easier to list slop and more of it. But it’s nothing new. And I don’t see that it will hurt most publishers or authors.1

Why not?

• You cannot copyright a book without a human author (There are caveats to this, but I’m going to try to stay at the top-level here). If a work is not copyrightable, a reputable publisher will not be able to put it under contract. Here’s the language in ours, which is pretty boilerplate and standard.

• Sure, authors may lie and sign contracts even though they are not the “sole Author”. But that brings up the question of gatekeeping: a reputable publisher would likely not be interested in a wholly AI-authored manuscript, just as they already turn down the slop books found on Amazon.
  
  Now, it is certainly true that there are many extremely formulaic books out there published by reputable publishers. But there have always been such formulaic books (read up on Minerva Press!); this is not new. Also (sorry but I have to go there): all language is formulaic! Every time you write you pick and choose from existing options—words—and put them in a new order. Language is the original Large Language Model. It’s a virus.

  

  
  

• Some authors may use AI in their process of drafting, revising, editing. They may use it to come up with comp titles or marketing plans. To do research. These sorts of hybrid and edge cases may be interesting to discuss and debate (and perhaps form the basis of lawsuits), but I don’t think they pose an existential threat to publishing or authors, because (1) they are not different in kind from what people do already/did before (spellcheck, friends who provide feedback, photoshop, etc.); (2) it may not do a good job, in which case an editor would have improve things by taking out AI language; also, such a manuscript would likely be unattractive to a publisher because it wouldn’t do well in the marketplace; (3) contract language can be added, either by the publisher or author, to spell out if any AI use is allowed, and if so to what extent. (I think these addenda are often arbitrary and end up hypocritical—use this form of computer assistance but not that— but those who don’t agree can negotiate contract language.)
  

• This brings up the question of publishers using AI to do their work. Again, we are in the world of edge cases and questionable differences between what has been done by editors since the advent of computers and what might be done now. I think if an editor simply puts a manuscript through, say, ChatGPT, asking it to edit the work, and then that exact version was published, well, that’s a problem! But again, I don’t see reputable publishers doing this. And, of course, there are many poorly edited books out there now, even from reputable publishers. So this is not new, and has nothing to do with AI.

So, the tl;dr: Sure, there will be (are) AI-created books. They join what is already a very robust industry of crappy books on the market. They haven’t brought down publishing yet, and they won’t in the future. There are forces causing publishing headaches, but AI-generated books is not one. If you are an author who is using AI in your book, consult your contract language—or imagine potential future contract language— to avoid any possible legal issues. Or just not use it at all. It’s a virus.

My Book Proposal Course Starts January 5: Six of the 12 spots have been claimed; want one of the remaining ones? Some news from former-participants: a NYT bestseller, a contract with Princeton, getting a big time agent and an IP deal w/Hollywood. And lots of, “this really helped!” “most courses don’t offer such good feedback; thank you!” “the way you structure the course really helped me, so good!” comments.

Every so often I indulge in a newsletter that simply tells you all the really cool things that will be coming soon from my small press! While I may cringe a bit at such a marketing-focused newsletter, it is also the most important part of my day job—acquiring and organizing a catalog of titles—and this newsletter is about the ins and outs of being a small press publisher. So here you go!

BELT 2026

Our series of Revivals, reissues of overlooked books with some Rust Belt/Midwest connection, grew by two in 2025, and it will grow by another three in 2026. We will publish Susan Glaspell’s *incredible* Fidelity, Frank Norris’ extremely Chicago The Pit, and Glenway Westcott’s Goodbye Wisconsin. We have lined up amazing writers to write the introductions, including Sarah Blackwood for Fidelity (once the others are official I’ll reveal their names).

• HERE IS AN AD! All Belt Revivals are on sale right now: buy 5 or all of them and take 50% off! Choose lesser-known novels by heralded authors such as Willa Cather and Sherwood Anderson! Or ones by unheralded ones such as Clare Winger Harris and Major Taylor! Split the difference and choose ones by kinda-heralded-but-should-be-more like Charles Chesnutt, Dawn Powell, Hamlin Garland and Booth Tarkington! Or go all muckrake-y with Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens! There’s a book to please everyone!
  

Our 50 Maps series is also growing! Next week we will launch Cincinnati and Columbus. For 2026 we will bust through artificial geographic boundaries like the Kool-Aid man to bring you Boston!!. Also! We’ve got Minneapolis-St. Paul, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Madison (my hometown!!!) clamoring in the background (one of these will publish in 2026, the others in 2027; stay tuned to find out which) and we have a few other cities almost under contract as well (We are eager to acquire more, so hit us up, cartographers!)

• Clearly what you need are all the 50 maps books we’ve published! In one bundle! For 50% off! That’s Cleveland, Buffalo, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Great Lakes. So much territory in one package, imagine!

50 Maps and Revivals are two ‘backbones'’ I use to rough out the catalog each year. The third ‘series’ is one we only use by name internally: we call them Notches, our signature 5x7” trim size of short books of really smart nonfiction. Our most recent ‘Notches’ is The Great Black Swamp, which published this month. (Last year several of these works of nonfiction were recognized by awards, including The Minotaur at Calle Lanza, Love and Industry: A Midwestern Notebook, and Be Not Afraid of My Body. Previous Notches are also our bestselling titles of all time, including What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, and The Last Children of Mill Creek—all, you guessed it, on sale now—just fill up your cart to see the discounts grow)

Next year our Notches will include the book I am editing, American Made: Stories of Work from the WPA (which could also be a Revival, but at Belt, trim size is destiny, so it’s a Notches); a really exciting work of very literary nonfiction about a literary society of sorts in the Upper Penninsula in the 1830s (!) (stay tuned for details); a second edition (with photos!) of that now-Chicago classic, The Battle of Lincoln Park. To lighten up everyone’s mood but not your wallet, we will be publishing a guide to estate sales. Bring Cash comes out in March and you can reserve your copy now. And finally, we will be debuting a truly fabulous writer, who is both funny and very smart, a rare and much-desired twosome. The Trouble with Loving Poets and Other Essays on Failure publishes in February, to launch our 2026 catalog, and Elizabeth Zaleski is a star in the making (galleys available).

Okay, so where are we? We have three Revivals, two 50 Maps books, and three Notches.

But what about anthologies, you might ask? We have one for 2026: coming out in March (galleys available) is a literary collection about HOMES: On An Inland Sea: Writing the Great Lakes, edited by Michael Welch and featuring many of your favorite freshwater lakeside-dwelling authors.

Cookbooks? Of course! We will be continuing our series of single-ingredient cookbooks with cranberry, which we plan to release during its season next September (details tk). Sometimes we chose single foods instead of ingredients, so on deck we have a paczki cookbook for 2027, the thought of which reminds me that I skipped breakfast.

• Our cookbook series is on sale! We’ve got cookie tables, pawpaws, rhubarb, vegan Eastern European, and pie. Buy them all and take 50% off.

So that’s three Revivals, two 50 Maps, three Notches, one anthology, one cookbook (now hearing this to the tune of Chad Gadya)….what else? Always have to have some one-offs. We have a tiny but soon-to-be-larger groups of books about architecture. Adding to it will be this beautiful and smart book of gorgeous photographs and essays featuring Chicago houses.

And there we have it! A nicely balanced catalog that features each of our series, and a nice representation of the Belt’s sensibility, niche, and focus. Some of our 2026 titles are listed in databases, up on Edelweiss, and on our pre-order page; others are still being edited and earlier in the production process.

And while I’m only “announcing” this list to you now, my mind has long already been in 2027, as I work to craft that year’s list, based on books we have under contract, the amount of time we will need to edit, design, and print titles that have already delivered, and which would be the best month to publish a book (paczki for February, of course) Any new acquisitions will be scheduled for summer 2027 at the earliest.

And that’s it! It took me forever to write this newsletter because I had to add so many links, so the least you can do is click on some of them, add to cart, assign to a reviewer, or order some copies for your library or bookstore. ;)

Substacks about Substack is my least favorite newsletter genre, and I’ve held off for years now, but today I am caving in. I’ll be brief!

First an overview:

• Substack has been a controversial platform for a few years now, based on several decisions made by its owners, regarding who is and who is not allowed on the platform.
  

• Many people left the platform in the wake of these controversies, and subsequent related ones, and an even larger number of people refuse to pay for or read anything published here.
  

• I respect the opinions of those who have left and those who have stayed.
  

• I am not a fan of the policies and decisions made the owners of Substack.
  

• I expect this platform to become increasingly unfriendly to newsletter writers like me, who are not chasing Big Scale, who do not participate much in the Notes (social media-esque) part of Substack. Enshittification is the right word.
  

• I have tried to leave the platform for one of the other platforms many others use and have stalled out, several times, for varying reasons.
  

Now some longer thoughts:

• There are many writers here who are making a living, or a substantial portion of it, from Substack specifically. They have been here for a long time, and it’s an extraordinary accomplishment and godsend that they have been able to be sustain themselves through newsletters which, like blogs, have been historically well-nigh impossible to profit from. I am thinking of people who started early, like me, such as Alicia Kennedy Anna Sproul-Latimer Raechel Anne Jolie. That these people may feel pressure to abandon a key income stream, or lose readers because people refuse to read writing hosted here, pains me quite a bit (and, to be clear, the money I earn from these newsletters has always been important to my bottom line as well, but has always been as a side hustle).
  

• When I started on Substack—I joined when they started, moving over from TinyLetter, because they had a way to get paid for newsletters, I gave this platform ‘maybe three years” before it would get bad—in my mind, back in 2018, that meant filled with ads or junk or basically like all the other similar efforts beforehand. That it has lasted as long as it has—getting worse all the time, yes, but not quite yet unusable—has been a surprise.
  

• Although many people espouse how easy it is to move to another platform, I did not find that to be the case when I tried recently. And I have heard, from people who left and are dependent on newsletter income to pay their bills, that they have seen drop-offs in subscription revenue as well as readers since they left Substack, and that really really upsets me to hear. What an accomplishment to have made a decent freelance income from a newsletter, and what a shame to potentially lose it, not because one’s politics and/or morals compel you to, but because other peoples’ calls to leave this platform compel you to (especially as it is extremely difficult to find ‘pure’ policies on any platform anywhere, ever).
  

• A few months ago, when I had decided to move to another hosting service—from what I understood of the finances, I would do better if I did, even if it meant a large initial payment from me, and I find anytime I go to Notes I end up in a bad mood— I met a stranger who turned out to be a subscriber to my newsletter. It was very fun and exciting for us both to meet! I told him about my planned move, and he said “oh I only read you on the app so if you move I won’t read your newsletter anymore” and that took a lot of wind out of my sails (more wind was released when the help desk at the new place I was setting up with wasn’t really helpful.)
  

• After that experience, I experimented with creating a newsletter co-operative of sorts: get 5-7 people who all write about a similar topic, work out the backend admin between us (as longtime newsletter writers/freelancers, we’d be pretty good at figuring out how to divvy up the money, etc.). We’d offer one bundled subscription price to avoid the very real problem of individuals supporting too many different newsletter writers. It wouldn’t be a magazine so much as a rotating roster of weekly newsletters, with one payment option. And it would be off Substack, and thus free from the morass described above, and a fresh new start. I reached out to a few possible people about the idea but the response was, well, nill. So I shelved the idea

  

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To sum up: I do wish there were other options for supporting this newsletter financially (let people give a few bucks every so often!). I am not a fan of the owners, and I don’t trust their business model to last. I do understand why people left. I do understand why people refuse to pay for this or other newsletters. I do find refusing to read anything written on this CMS less palatable than the other positions, and likely leads to hypocrisy (do they know the politics or moderation policies of every hosting platform they might click on? Also, I tend to fall into the “boycotts don’t work” camp more generally. And I bet they read the Lizza piece last night anyway. ) It pains me to no end that the money that independent writers have made here—not the six figure big newsletters but the ones like those mentioned above— may shrink. I would be thrilled if better alternatives arose, but I lean more towards “this newsletter era will simply end at some point” thinking.

And so I remain here. And appreciate those of you who support me, and see those of you who do not, as well as those who may be biting their fingernails over a truly unfortunate ‘must the poor get poorer?’ possible decision.

And now of course I add the lol button lol below and also remind you that my book proposal course starts sooner than you think!

I was a guest speaker for a course on publishing last week, and one student asked me how I find books to read, because she was having the damnedest time. What a good question! I rambled a bit (“find your subculture, and then ask those people”), and then, after the course, I asked other people the same question.

I could angle this newsletter by discussing the ills of contemporary books coverage, but why not focus on the positive?

A few presumptions to start:

• It has become harder to find ideas for good books to read over the past few years. Previously reliable sources are less reliable, or less interesting, or don’t exist anymore.

• The contemporary fiction craze for certain genres has created an even more bifurcated landscape for readers than existed previously: for instance, Alchemised and The Correspondent are two insanely successful novels of this season, but I was not made aware of either through my usual channels (what I read, headlines I scan, who I follow on social media, etc.). When I discovered their popularity I felt idiotic for not knowing about them sooner. Now obviously there are huge numbers of readers who have been inundated with news of these books; they and I simply spend time with entirely different publishing/review/reader ecosystems.
  

• For those of us who are interested in finding out more about serious and narrative nonfiction and literary fiction, the old ways merit fewer gems. Or—and this is of course an entirely possible thesis for this entire newsletter—this is just really about me: I am just not finding them or reading the things I probably should be.
  

Nonetheless! All these explanations and caveats aside, I thought it would be useful to offer recommendations for good book recommendations. So I asked some people who share similar reading tastes as me, and combined their recommendations with my go-tos, and then culled them all down to something manageable. Because these lists often become way too long, and thus overwhelming, I studiously restricted each category to five, and didn’t include all possible categories.

Sound off in the comments to add more!

1.) Publisher catalogs and newsletters. This is a superb method for a few reasons: it helps to create more brand recognition of certain presses that are publishing the sorts of things you might like, and it also might bring you to purchase books from them directly, which is a huge boon to publishers, particularly small ones. You don’t necessarily need to get catalogs per se, you could instead simply sign up for newsletter from those folks. Here are some I recommend:

Galley Beggar Press
Biblioasis
Heyday Books
Belt Publishing (I mean I couldn’t not include it)
Paul Dry Books

2.) Curated lists and newsletters from booksellers: Find a bookseller or store whose collection seems to connect with you, and then just follow their suggestions (of course staff picks at your fave store can accomplish this as well)

Leviathan Bookstore newsletter
Phinney Books
Powell’s
Book Marks/Lit Hub
Greenlight Staff Picks

3.) Podcasts:

TLS
LRB
Between the Covers
Backlisted
All The Books

4.) Newsletters from writers, readers, critics:

Robin Sloan
Austin Kleon
Book Club (Ron Charles)
The Process (Irina Dumitrescu)
Five Books

4.) Awards Short and Long Lists

Booker
NBCC
Women’s Prize
Pulitzer
NBA

Finally, as I do like to add my recs to this newsletter: I was stunned in the best way by The Mandelbaum Gate, which I read last week, so have just started the new biography of Spark, Electric Spark, which I really like thus far. And I read The Pit by Frank Norris, which Belt will reissue next year as part of our Revivals series (now on sale!): through it I revived my old grad school/dissertation-focus love of the naturalists.

I hope this helps you find the books you are eager to meet.

Wanna work on a book proposal with me? My next course starts in January.