Belt Publishing Submissions

Belt Publishing
Novels, Non-fiction, History, Culture, Rust Belt

beltpublishing.com
query@beltpublishing.com

“Publishing for the Rust Belt”

Belt Publishing is an independent press founded in 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. Originally a publisher of anthologies about Rust Belt cities, since 2015 Belt has moved into publishing a wider scope of both fiction and non-fiction. In February 2024, it was announced that the press company was acquired by Arcadia Publishing.

Belt is looking for the overlooked stories, particularly those written by writers from the Rust Belt. They love cultural criticism, books with an urbanism theme or about progressive politics, smart histories that are not nostalgic, and creative non-fiction. They publish everything from memoir to criticism, fiction, maps, and cookbooks.

Belt titles have been finalists for the NBCC Autobiography Award, the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and the ALA Stonewall Award.

Belt authors receive traditional publishing contracts and industry-standard royalties. Nordlyset handles our subrights. They welcome both agented and unagented submissions.

Belt Publishing Submissions

Unsolicited submissions okay. No agent required.

Belt welcomes queries from both writers and agents. Your query should be a 3-5 paragraph email summarizing your book, explaining why you think it would be a good fit for Belt, and providing information about your previous publications and relevant experience. If they think the query has potential for us, they will reply and request a full proposal.

What they are currently looking for:

– Narrative histories of the Rust Belt and/or Midwest
– Cultural criticism with sharp analyses and strong writing
– Non-fiction about architecture and/or urbanism in the Rust Belt and/or Midwest
– Novels in which place, preferably the Rust Belt/Midwest, is a character
– Editors interested in adding to our various anthology series.
– Food writers and recipe developers for our Cookbook Series.

They are also actively acquiring books about natural and environmental history, historical and natural field guides, politics, the regional roots of a musical genre, researched non-fiction on topical issues, books about place not covered in the above, and queries that make us go “wow what a great idea, and what a good fit it would be for us.”

Please send all queries to query@beltpublishing.com. Do not include a proposal or any attachments.

Meet the Editors

Anne Trubek (Founder/Publisher) – Anne is the author of So You Want To Publish A Book? (Belt 2020), and editor of Best of the Rust Belt (Belt 2024), and Voices From The Rust Belt (Picador, 2018). She is also author of The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting (Bloomsbury, 2016), and A Skeptic’s Guide To Writers’ Houses (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010). She has been publishing her Notes from A Small Press newsletter since 2018. anne@beltpublishing.com

David Wilson (Creative Director) – David was a recipient of AIGA’s “50 Books 50 Covers” award for his Belt Revivals book covers. He is illustrator, writer, designer, and filmmaker with an MFA from Kent State University. Currently, he is working on three unannounced graphic novels and a few things on the hush hush. david@beltpublishing.com

Phoebe Mogharei (Senior Editor) – Phoebe’s writing has appeared in Chicago magazine, the Chicago Reader, Electric Literature, and the Chicago Review of Books. She officially joined Belt in 2022 and lives in Kenosha, Wisconsin. phoebe@beltpublishing.com

Belt Publishing
5322 Fleet Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44105

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