WHAT’S EMERGING AND WHAT IT MEANS

The question is shifting from “should writers use AI” to “what kind of writing is worth doing.” Tim Moon argues the shame regime around AI use is making honest conversation harder. The Atlantic piece shows the detection question is real but temporary — and the deeper question is what’s lost when the thinking that produces writing goes away. Ramachandran shows the Commonwealth Prize fiasco was really a story about what we’d been rewarding. Sun and Morine both argue the writer’s comparative advantage is not the absence of AI but the presence of voice and testimony and the kind of writing only this writer would do.

For the writers I’m trying to publish at Crossroads—for the writers in the cohort, for the writers I’m talking to in discovery calls—this is the frame I want to model. We are not the press that takes a position on AI. We are the press that asks whether every paragraph is bearing weight, whether the voice on the page is the writer’s voice, whether the manuscript contains things the writer brought back from somewhere only they have been.

Those questions can be asked of a manuscript written entirely by hand or one written with AI assistance or anything in between. The questions are the editorial standard. The tools the writer used to get there are the writer’s business.

What’s freeing about this conversation is that it lets serious writers be honest about their actual practice without performing a position. That’s what Sun and Ramachandran and Moon and Morine are doing. That’s the tone I want for Crossroads, for the show, and for the writers we’re working with.

THE READING LIST

- Sanjana Ramachandran, The Print — Should we leave writing to AI?

- The Atlantic — How to Tell AI Writing (May 2026)

- Tim Moon, Substack — AI: The Scarlet Letters

- Jasmine Sun, jasmi.news — Comparative Advantage of Independent Writers

- Nicholas Morine on LinkedIn — Mile Wide, Inch Deep

---

If you’re working on a manuscript and want a publisher who thinks this way about the editorial standard—voice, testimony, weight per paragraph—Crossroads is that press.

We’re in our founding season through summer 2026 with founding-rate engagements.

Discovery call → 20 min, free, let’s chat.

Author Engagement and First Draft Cohort here!

—Chad

In Dante’s Inferno, the lustful are not burned. They are swept, a great relentless wind moves them endlessly, helplessly, no footing, no direction, just the next gust carrying them where it will. This week’s episode is a weekend reflection; slower, more meditative, less about publishing and craft and more about the soul-work questions underneath. Lust in its oldest, broadest sense—unrestrained wanting. The fire the Greeks understood. The Cyclops’s single eye. Odysseus making himself Nobody to escape the cave. Emily Dickinson’s delight in being Nobody too. And the difference between failure (which you can face) and self-abandonment (which is harder).

This is from a nonfiction book I’m working on. If the reflection register resonates, stay close—these weekend episodes will keep coming.

The Difficulty is the podcast of Crossroads Publishing Group, a new IBPA-pledged hybrid press based in Chattanooga, TN. We publish serious nonfiction in three lanes—Argument, Reflection, Witness.00:00 What this episode is — the weekend reflection lane01:00 Dante’s lustful — swept endlessly by the wind02:30 The id, duende, and Heraclitus on fire03:30 The Cyclops — single eye, all surface, all appetite05:00 Odysseus calls himself “Nobody” — and it saves his life06:00 Emily Dickinson’s “I’m Nobody. Who are you?”07:00 The American problem with being Somebody08:00 Personal — what got abandoned along the way09:00 Failure vs. self-abandonment10:00 Soul work, calling, and the descentCrossroads Publishing Group: crossroadspublishing.groupLearn more about two engagement opportunities happening right now: https://crossroadspublishing.group/start/

Topics covered:

A field report from week one of Crossroads Publishing Group—what’s coming in the door, what’s surprising, what’s confirming.

What a hybrid press actually is. A working definition: a publisher where the author shares the financial risk via a fee (broadly $5K to $45K, depending on the engagement), in exchange for real editorial work, professional production, distribution under the press’s imprint, and a higher royalty share than traditional contracts.

Why the vanity-press confusion exists, and why it’s no longer accurate to the category as it stands in 2026.

The IBPA Hybrid Publisher Pledge—the trade-association standard the legitimate hybrid presses meet (and the vanity operations don’t).

Three case studies of serious hybrid presses: She Writes Press (founded by Brooke Warner, 2012; 500+ titles; Industry Innovator Award from the Book Industry Study Group in 2017; Warner is chair of the IBPA) Greenleaf Book Group (Austin; operating since 2003; 1,500+ titles; multiple New York Times bestsellers) Lucid Books (Texas Christian hybrid; 5,000 authors in 20 years of operation)

Three structural reasons the hybrid category is growing while the Big Five contracts:

* The agent and Big Five pipeline is capped (≈1,000 active US agents, 3-5 new clients each per year)

* Platform requirements at traditional imprints have become unworkable for serious working writers

* The math of a hybrid contract is often better for the author: The traditional advance reality in 2026: $5K-$25K for non-celebrity nonfiction, declining year over year, with the author doing the marketing anyway, on a 10-15% royalty, with the publisher owning the ISBN.

Why this matters for The Difficulty‘s actual listeners — coaches, therapists, consultants, pastors, mission-driven leaders, retired executives in second and third acts, working professionals in midlife transition.

Five questions to ask any hybrid press before you give them a dollar:

One — Are they IBPA pledged? If not, why not? Two — What is the author royalty split, in a specific number, with accounting schedule? Three — What editorial work is actually included in the price — developmental, line, copy, proofreading; at what stage; how many rounds? Four — Where does your book actually go after publication? Real distribution (Ingram, Amazon, Bookshop.org, library channels like Baker & Taylor and OverDrive) or just a SKU on a website? Five — What is the editorial selection rate? A serious hybrid press turns books down.

About Crossroads Publishing Group:

Crossroads is a hybrid press for practitioner authors—coaches, therapists, consultants, mission-driven leaders, and working professionals with a serious book and a body of insight. Three main category lanes on the site. 80% net royalties to the author. IBPA-pledged criteria built into the model.

Inquiry door: crossroadspublishing.group

Call to action:

If you’re a practitioner author with a serious book and the hybrid path sounds like it could be yours, visit crossroadspublishing.group to start the conversation. Feedback on the show is welcome — what episodes are speaking to you, what you’d like to hear more or less of.