Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid Twitter profile

Pinned Tweet

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

7 years

#evergreentweet

The Simpsons Quotes

@thosesimpsons

7 years

“One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them, the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them, as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.”

2

53

154

1

3

62

Last Seen Profiles

@AYANONASDAQ

@LeoJame85106728

@joepraize

@Amy_Kellie539

@xyz957272097677

@JMartineztbs

@DimitriMoore7

@H4PPYCHI

@Krishnavk2003

@noninoc13

@itsrobbylaw

@Red365N

@hef_u

@stwmaniax

@CtrlAltDele7e

@pinkmxxnlight

@etherealkingsph

@irapuatooficial

@Diacocere304

@iamthemkx

@Safia_Alsnaani

@KMSColeman

@Tapo152

@aiugbi1

@nekooomaro

@jandakembangstw

@Lloydbhudda

@dig79

@aiennBvv

@sL1m3CS

@Reniq15

@R2I5x

@lohangjs

@Astr0fy

@kyunamaira

@nande_julian

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

6 months

why does my coworker's dress look like it's going to be longlisted for the national book award in 2022

51

460

16K

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

i know complaining about supply chain issues is VERY 2021 but I want to state clearly: they have gotten worse. A very short thread of this week's nightmares.

26

572

3K

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 months

not every book can be a world-changing event and it's insane to pitch book after book that way. we need to relearn how to talk about books as well written, thoughtful, enjoyable, enraging, literally anything else.

Mire Marke

@MireMarke

3 months

What’s your current publishing/writing community hot take?

66

29

301

15

382

3K

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

8 months

oh, good.

38

302

2K

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 years

i hate to break it to you but every university (or institute cough cough) has enough funds to keep a quarterly or biannual lit magazine alive. they just don't want to.

11

78

960

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

going to start a magazine for mfa girlies to write great essays about their emotional ties to music released from 1998-2010 bc no one else wants this stuff lol

56

32

956

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

4 months

this soda looks like it's being released by Picador in 2016

5

60

958

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 months

That alice munro article is harrowing. It also touches on the kind of family dynamics and secret-keeping you see so much of in canlit narratives because, in my experience, they're so deeply ingrained in AM's generation of Canadian families.

6

79

943

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

a reminder that harpercollins, a subsidiary of News Corp, created JD Vance before Oprah did. also a reminder that the harper union strike starts tomorrow since this very same company doesn't pay its employees enough for them to live on!

2

201

861

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

5 months

btw this is caslon, an actual perfect typeface (sorry garamond stans)

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

5 months

If my decade and a half of designing books has produced one solid thing, it's my 6x9 hardcover base layout for novels with sections. she's perfect.

11

4

267

25

20

777

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 year

the take on today's big deal is NOT "big publisher corrects 'mistake' and buys next two books for $$$$$" it's "university/small publisher once again discovers singular talent and big 5 publishers rush in once the trail has already been blazed for them."

9

70

690

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

The reality is that we now have to go to press on books 16-20 weeks before we need them. That's essentially six months before. 6 months out our reps haven't started selling to stores yet. I can't overstate how much gut instinct is required to set print runs now.

3

47

612

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 year

love that I now enjoy a podcast about how much the supreme court sucks because I got into a pod about airport books because I loved one about the toxicity of the wellness industry all because of a podcast that recontextualized history. the @yourewrongabout extended universe!

13

38

590

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 years

send me all your 50k-70k word books

21

37

530

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

I'm venting. But if books are delayed, if they come in at a different price than you expected, just understand the difficult and protracted path they've taken to get to you. We're doing our best and I'm sure the printers are too.

2

41

506

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

🎉 It's publishers lunch official: Starting April 1, I'm the new Executive Director and Publisher of the Hub City Writers Project!! I'm so excited to start this new chapter. Thanks to all of you for the sweet DMs!

74

16

492

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

Two Black southern writers just won MacArthur "Genius" grants. The literary world should take note!

4

43

492

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 years

did you guys know that books that sell less than 2000 copies can also *~be good~*!? bc apparently that is a startingly awakening for many of the journalists covering today's news

9

35

472

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

4 years

psa for publishing people: very, very soon hub city press is going to be looking for contract PT editors. fully remote. If you know a talented editor who has been laid off or needs flexible at-home work, my dms are open. more soon! 🌈

19

254

449

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 year

some insight into small press publishing and the power of word of mouth: our entire dip in book sales compared to last year was made up--and exceeded--by Barbara Kingsolver's mentions of one book in the NYT and on Ezra Klein.

2

49

442

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

8 months

in case it's unclear, more books with less people [ai] sucks!

3

19

432

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

I think is especially hard for indie/UP outfits who are trying to do well by their authors, when everything feels like trying to build on sand. As always, have some grace with publishing folks because nothing is easy anymore. (I have an MFA, I never intended to be in logistics.)

3

19

405

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 years

"pub dates delayed because books were lost at sea" is this week's insane capstone publishing news item. welcome to total chaos.

21

131

400

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

Six months before, in order to confirm a (tentative) ship date, we sign a quote saying how much the books will. cost and when they (might) ship. These have become much more slippery but they still act as semi-guarantees so we can move forward doing the rest of our job.

1

10

376

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 year

getting rid of a fridge is the hardest thing i've ever tried. I made a burner account for fb marketplace but they shut me down for being a spammer (lol). I just reactivated my nextdoor and listed it as FREE FRIDGE - WORKS PERFECTLY and I have 10 messages that say: "does it work"

16

0

365

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

I don't mean to sound the alarm but every single day it becomes harder to see how we can continue to promote books when all the outlets that publish literary pieces timed to publication are shuttering and hardly any newspapers publish book reviews anymore.

6

42

353

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

10 months

I've worked for a 501c3 press since 2013 with the uneasy assurance that my MFA loans would qualify for PSLF forgiveness. Well, 10 years and 1 month, three administrations, one pandemic, and a whole lot of restless nights over my $28k increased balance later: THE LOANS ARE GONE!!?

19

5

342

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

Shifting ship dates has become increasingly normal and early ships--which used to be fairly commonplace--have all but vanished. I think most of us have gotten fairly accustomed to this. But then, paper goes up. A lot.

3

11

330

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

Some good news: one of our backlist titles did unexpectedly well this quarter, selling hundreds more copies than anticipated and we're suddenly out. But it's a title we print.....at the printer currently closed due to the ransomware attack.

2

6

320

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 months

My house is entirely under a canopy and my boomer neighbors HATE it. They've removed all their woods because they think trees are messy and dangerous. But even in this heatwave, my house is 75 degrees all the time with very little AC.

Edgar McGregor

@edgarrmcgregor

3 months

People who own private homes: Honestly, what is your reasoning behind not filling your yard up with native trees to shade everything in summer?

4K

782

14K

17

16

317

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

Or, like yesterday at a different printer--where a paper increase already happened back in February--printing a completely different book, sends you a notice that they've been victims of a ransomware attack. All production has stopped!

4

7

306

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

tbh my response to the printer about the paper vs this thread is indicative of the duality of working in publishing in 2022

1

2

306

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

for the love of all that is holy, please stop sharing BNN tweets

2

71

296

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

Suddenly we're being told to sign a new quote 3 months into this 6 month process. After we've set the price of the book with our distributor, who has sold it into stores with that price. So we're now on the hook for that.

2

13

297

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 year

just a periodic reminder that there are still people actively trying to make books in the south--not just ban them.

5

51

284

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

🎉 Still kind of blown away that the NEA fully funded @HubCityPress this year, recommending a grant of $35,000. This is the highest award to date and an affirmation that our publishing program truly has a national impact. Feeling really proud today.

Hub City Press

@HubCityPress

2 years

We are thrilled to announce that Hub City Press has has been approved by the @NEAarts to receive an award of $35,000. This recommended award is the most significant investment by the NEA in Hub City Press to date. Read the full release here:

6

14

191

24

19

279

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 months

It feels a bit like they are......listening to us??? I've been voting since 2004 and this is not a familiar feeling.

More Perfect Union

@MorePerfectUS

2 months

BREAKING: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will be the Democratic VP candidate, alongside Kamala Harris. Walz forged a reputation as a Governor who makes good policy happen. Last year he signed a law guaranteeing free breakfast and lunch for all Minnesota students. And that's not all 🧵

1K

13K

64K

7

5

275

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

5 months

If my decade and a half of designing books has produced one solid thing, it's my 6x9 hardcover base layout for novels with sections. she's perfect.

11

4

267

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

We're being asked to "calibrate our expectations."

2

4

247

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

6 months

Writers tend to ignore the mechanics of book distribution because we want to believe the literary world is fundamentally a meritocracy, where books find their readers because the writing is so strong

2

30

238

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

8 months

my whole mission in publishing has always been anti-centralization and anti-corporatization, but now it's literally like, "choose an indie publisher instead of the robots"

2

21

236

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

9 months

somehow hub city press is celebrating our 30th anniversary in 2025!? led and staffed entirely by women, working from a small post-industrial city in South Carolina, publishing 10 books a year that are covered regularly by major national (non-southern) outlets.

12

21

232

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

@clhubes this isn't a joke exactly, but back when I was still on facebook I was always shocked at how many people comment "I'll be right over!" on pictures of food?

2

0

228

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

5 months

for years writers posted some variant of "is publishing broken" whenever there are big shake-ups in the industry but I have to say from my pov (small press publisher/indie bookstore operator/observer of book industry), the vibe in May 2024 is that things are...very broken.

2

26

227

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 years

every time a brand new nyc thing gets a lavish nyt profile, i am reminded that no matter what level of success we achieve, we're still from SC so no one will ever give a sh*t. but i guess my real complaint--as always--is the total lack of book media in the south.

17

10

219

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

6 months

You can't convince me that six short stories and a novella isn't the perfect form for a book.

11

19

219

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 month

politely, what the heck is this opening

10

3

206

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

if you loved the cover for a novel published this year that eschewed the big book design mode (rainbow blobs, big white sans serif) for a more vintage style, please drop it below!

65

17

193

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

8 months

also, also, did he actually say this? really poor writing, nyt!

1

2

190

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 year

Yep. When we say indie presses are more sustainable, equitable, have more inclusive lists & people say "but I never hear about their books." That's not because they're not great books. It's bc the entire industry holds a bias that Big 5 books are better & more worthy of coverage.

4

44

182

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

9 months

"The lockout of small press literature is in fact much more problematic and violent than the “box out” of independent bookstores. It leads to a narrow, celebrity-oriented literary culture fueled by capital. It leads to market-based canonization." 100% worth a read.

2

39

172

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

really inspiring watching the whole publishing industry rally to support prince harry, a debut author!! 💫

4

12

169

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

7 months

can we please normalize crediting designers and artists in cover reveals?

5

17

163

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 year

Never sure how folks square "submission fees are unethical" with the "writing doesn't pay anything" with "no unpaid labor ever" because you essentially are asking underfunded nonprofits to work unpaid or even at a deficit to produce literary works.

11

9

154

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

4 months

Seriously bless Kate & @esquire for this industry coverage. They're the only people not just regurgitating press releases and instead getting folks to speak on record about what it's actually like these days. Also this quote about indie booksellers selling indie presses ❤️

Kate Dwyer

@KateDwyer

4 months

for @esquire , I wrote 3,000 words on why it feels harder these days to make a debut novel truly "break out." feat. Jack Kerouac, "the algorithm," literary it girls, and overworked publicists...

22

181

1K

3

17

155

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

I'm seeing so many tweets about starting new lit orgs. My god y'all. I'm writing three grants right now. We all want to build community but it is SO hard to do it the right, ethical way. Please send that support to folks who are already established and doing the work.

2

21

150

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

7 months

I have been dying to tell you about this book since before Christmas. Coming in at a slight 180ish pages, this "millennial pastoral" is heartbreaking and full of dread, but also self-deprecating & funny. One of those times I read a book on sub and I felt changed. @HubCityPress

15

8

141

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 year

The most in-depth piece yet about the blurb industrial complex!! When @svershbow asked me to comment, I thought hard abt why I hate them so much: blurbs are not an indicator of how "good" a book is. They're an indicator of the elite literary circles the author has had access to.

Sophie Vershbow

@svershbow

1 year

For @esquire , I spent the summer speaking to dozens of authors and publishing insiders about the broken world of book blurbs. It's my longest published feature to date and I hope you will read it.

90

375

2K

2

18

144

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 year

the world would truly be bereft of groundbreaking collections of short fiction if smaller publishers stopped continually championing them!

1

7

142

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

8 months

Truly honored that the @NEAarts continues to support @HubCityPress ! Their funding allows us to continue our work as the leading independent publisher of contemporary Southern literature, alongside some absolute stars of nonprofit indie publishing 🌟

9

142

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 months

A fun fact I discovered while crunching numbers for a project I'm working on: although the South represents 40% of the U.S. population, it received just 14% of the NEA's literary project funding in 2024.

4

42

140

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 years

🎉 Today, in the @nytimes ! Insanely proud to be Ashley M. Jones's publisher. Congrats, @ashberry813 .

4

12

137

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 months

Feeling pretty complicit due to how many copies of that damn book we sold pre-backlash.

7

3

136

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

11 months

the reason so many books feel so underwhelming now is that publishers are forced to pitch every single one as not just "important" but absolutely world-changing

7

12

134

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

7 months

A maybe little known fact: a lot of presses (incl. us and I believe graywolf!) do a three year minimum between books by repeat authors. It's healthier for authors, healthier for the press, slows prolific authors a bit but encourages those who need the publishing carrot to finish.

Gabriel Bump

@GabrielJBump

7 months

Half-joking: publishing a book is awful and made worse by social media and goodreads. Sincere: One book every three years seems prolific to me? Can think of plenty excellent writers doing at least that. Ward. Whitehead. Mosley. Everett. Brandon Taylor. Bryan Washington.

6

2

50

4

11

130

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 years

we're thinking about doing an open call for poetry manuscripts at the end of this month. no restrictions except, you know, our mission stuff. likely we'll open for 48 hours, so keep an eye out, southern poets.

5

32

129

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 year

as the head of a nearly 30-year-old org in a weird faraway state that tries to pay writers for all labor, I cannot overstate how painfully myopic these profiles of buzzy new outlets are. It's so much harder to sustain than it is to launch but no one wants to cover that.

3

9

128

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 year

honestly can't believe that we've had six months to figure out where publishing/book world twitter needs to move to next and we just....haven't. really bad news for books and authors.

17

9

129

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

6 months

Every publisher I talk with now (whether they were with SPD or other distro) is talking about how to increase direct sales, which pay for print runs, royalties, and generally keep the lights on. Ordering from affected presses is the very best thing you can do for them this week!

Jen Benka

@jenbenka

6 months

Hi, book friends. I found the list of publishers distributed by Small Press Distribution (SPD) as of the end of January 2024 on the Wayback Machine. I created a spreadsheet with links I could find quickly. It's a work in progress but I hope this is of use.

29

396

808

1

60

128

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

It's done!! 🔑

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

closing on the house (and this glorious/ridiculous 600 sq ft sunroom) tomorrow!

12

0

98

12

0

126

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

(also, if not clear, the "we" here is @HubCityPress ! Please order our very excellent books that mostly arrive on-time!)

3

4

125

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 years

here's a little how it started / how it's going, if you will. the first photo is what I received from major industry mag when I sent them news of Ashley's historic appointment.

7

125

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 months

I don't think I can withstand how much dumber things are about to get

1

24

127

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

if this place tanks, we are seriously going to need some new outlets to cover books. specifically, books published by non-big 5 publishers.

4

14

120

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

4 years

a reminder that the indie presses who are able to survive without a single millionaire backer or massive corporate, university, or foundation support, do because individual people reaffirm the importance of the press's mission each time they buy a book from them 🌈

2

22

119

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

@mcmansionhell I once had an essay killed at buzzfeed (at the height of their power) that was about my partner's increasing blindness explicitly bc I wouldn't add stuff in about our sex life.

3

0

116

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

4 years

Bragging is not in my nature but: I bet we are the only small press in the nation with three (THREE!) full-time employees that has gotten press from--in only the last 24 hours--the New Yorker, O Magazine, and the Millions.

11

7

115

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

6 years

My favorite thing is when people suddenly care deeply about Appalachia when NY publishing houses put out books on it. But a publisher based in the region is brushed off as being too regional to deserve interest/coverage.

4

17

112

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 year

if you're a writer with a significant following, you should be regularly recommending books. Barbara wrote the intro for LANDINGS but the press hits move units. Recommend books on your social media and in interviews if they'll let you. 1000 times more effective than blurbing imo.

1

21

113

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

PSA: a 1-lb package sent by Media Mail is now up to $3.65 (from $3.19 a year ago, oof). The ARC likely cost $4-$5 to print. If you're a reviewer who dislikes reading PDFs, please keep in mind the little publisher you love now essentially spends $10 to send one galley.

3

37

113

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 years

🚨 26 years publishing books, a decade fully national, we finally have a review in the newspaper of record. How's that for a story of publishing persistence? Amy Rowland reviews Andrew Siegrist's "deft" & "atmospheric" first collection, WE IMAGINED IT WAS RAIN for @nytimesbooks !

9

6

111

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

I feel like the moore county terrorist attack is THE biggest news story in months but i can already feel it vanishing bc it happened in the middle of nc and no one cares.

6

24

114

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

4 months

The summer sales slowdown for publishers--who don't publish beach reads--is reeeaal. June-August are our worst months. If you value nonprofit and small publishers and want them to stay around, consider ordering your vacation reads directly from them during the summer. It helps!

2

56

111

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

6 months

chef's kiss in three acts

5

20

109

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

7 months

Poets! We're looking for a Contract Poetry Editor for remote work this summer! This position is grant-funded at a rate of $40/hr with the expectation of up to 40 hours of service within the 8-week contract period. Previous book-length poetry editing experience is required.

5

67

106

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

7 months

It would be nice if the media took a break from lavishing attention on new initiatives from corporate publishing execs and wrote one article about the time and energy nonprofit & small LLC publishers expend navigating the narrowing & extremely corporate world of book distribution

4

15

107

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 years

💐Fiction writers! We need 2 paid readers for @HubCityPress to help us tackle the massive amount of queries we received this spring! Writers of color, Indigenous writers, and queer writers strongly encouraged. familiarity with our catalog is essential. dm me if interested!

7

75

108

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

congratulations team, we made decentralize publishing pogs (actually stickers!)

9

6

107

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

10 months

feat. one of my fav ending paragraphs ever

Dan Sinykin

@dan_sinykin

10 months

Proud that my essay "Fuck the Poetry Police" is a LARB staff pick for 2023. It offers an account of the hierarchies built into the literary field: who succeeds and how.

4

18

150

2

8

106

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

4 years

MEDIA. MAIL. MEDIA. MAIL. MEDIA. MAIL. every once in a great while i have to send a book first class ($8) or god forbid fedex to reviewer (idk like $11??) We would die without $3 MM rate. I live in fear of it vanishing.

Bernie Sanders

@SenSanders

4 years

What does the Postal Service mean for you and your community?

4K

2K

22K

0

12

105

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

a "news outlet" that doesn't link to actual stories in their tweets? have we learned nothing in the past five or six years?

0

8

101

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

making a bio adjustment on a dying platform is peak 2023. new job officially starts today!

3

1

98

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 months

I know it's last week's news but I feel like folks aren't quite alarmed enough about B&N buying indie bookshops at fire sale pricing

6

10

100

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

2 years

closing on the house (and this glorious/ridiculous 600 sq ft sunroom) tomorrow!

12

0

98

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 months

sure, that new yorker article makes european publishing seem pretty fancy but I'm a publisher in the hinterlands of the south who currently managed to get not only poison ivy but also a tick bite (complete with bullseye) so things are pretty glam around here too.

7

1

97

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

6 months

This closure directly means: less poetry and literary work on bookshop shelves and continued book market dominance by corporations. This is so so bleak.

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

6 months

chef's kiss in three acts

5

20

109

2

27

99

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

1 year

surreal moment in the grocery store checkout line finding @HubCityPress in people magazine 🙃

5

3

98

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 years

I keep things fairly work-centric over here but: my dad died suddenly last week. The pandemic closed the border so I hadn't seen him 20 months. Now I'm in Ottawa for the memorial service and I feel so incredibly cheated by the universe.

57

1

94

Meg Reid 🦦

@megireid

3 months

also, I love that the toronto star chose to reported this in third-person, as well as offering Andrea a first-person essay. Adds depth and helps address potential power issues for victims going to the media.

My mother, Alice Munro, stayed with my abuser

archived 7 Jul 2024 11:13:21 UTC

archive.is

0

13

96