Before Mutt Books, there was City Circle Books.
Jet Williams created City Circle after his manuscript was rejected by every traditional publisher he approached. Too risky. Too raw. Not the right fit. Rather than wait for permission, he figured it out himself. He named it after Sydney’s City Circle train line, the same loop that runs through the world of Off the Rails. He learned how to print, how to distribute, how to get books into stores. He built the whole thing from scratch, and he put the book out under his own label.
It worked. Off the Rails started selling. People were finding it, reading it, passing it on. The traction was real, and it was growing.
That’s when we got involved. A few of us had been watching what Jet was doing and believed in where it could go. We reached out. Jet was doing everything himself. Writing, printing, distributing, chasing stockists, handling emails, all of it. The work was good but the admin was burying the art. We wanted to take that off his plate so he could focus on what he’s actually great at. The conversations started small, but it became clear quickly that the vision was bigger than one book and one label. Wider distribution. Stronger positioning. A platform that could grow beyond a single title.
Through those early conversations, we learned more about Jet’s story. His indigenous heritage. The years of not fitting neatly into any one category. Being told his work was too this, too that. Never quite belonging in the boxes the industry wanted to put him in. That tension kept coming up. It was in the book. It was in his story. It was in everything.
The name came from there. A mutt is something that doesn’t fit into one box. Mixed. Hard to categorise. Underestimated. It felt right for the press, and it felt right for the kind of writers we want to publish.
Mutt Books is what City Circle Books became. Same independence. Same refusal to wait for permission. Just with more people behind it and a name that says exactly what we’re about.
-Mutt Books, 2026