- What a Book Can Do: The Publishing Infrastructure of Contemporary Literature
> - 2019, University of Minnesota Press
- Reading American Genre Fiction: A User's Manual
> - 2015, University of Texas Press
- Vinyl: The Artifacts of History
> - 2009, Feral House
- Up and Down California in '78: The Last Big Trip (with Hunter S. Thompson and Warren Hinckle III)
> - 2009, Last Gasp
- Straight Jacket: True Tales of Life Inside the World's Largest Men's Magazine (editor)
> - 2004, Simon & Schuster
Anthologies
- Best Music Writing 2018 (co-editor with Daphne Carr)
> - 2018, Da Capo Press
- This Is Rock 'n' Roll: The First 500 Singles
> - 2002, Sterling
- Rock and Pop Annual II (co-editor, with Scott Isler)
> - 1991, Rolling Stone Press
Fiction
- What Matters (Novel)
> - 1997, Villard; Pocket
- Levi (Linked Stories)
> - 1994, Crown/Harmony; Pocket/Touchstone