A People's Guide to Publishing
Episodes
Episode 253: Bookstore Solidarity Project: Alibi Bookshop of Vallejo, CA
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nestled deep in the heart between San Francisco and Sacramento lives the Alibi Bookshop! This week, in the latest of "What makes all of these cool ind...
Episode 252: How does a book publisher deal with failure?
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Not everything that you do will be a great success. It's a matter of how we navigate these less-than-graceful moments that determine our ability to re...
Episode 251: Why Does Publishing Create So Much Waste (and what can we do about it)?
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Largely due to consumer preference and obstinate legacy behaviors, the world of book publishing still operates on the same model from the 1800s. Mass ...
Episode 250: Joe Biel awarded PubWest Innovator 2024 by Andrea Fleck-Nisbet
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In February 2024, in Maricopa, AZ, IBPA's CEO Andrea Fleck-Nisbet awarded the PubWest Innovator Award to Microcosm Publishing Founder and CEO Joe Biel...
Episode 249: Bookstore Solidarity! Josh Christie of Print: A Bookstore
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Print: A Bookstore has been a triumphant, bright light in envisioning what a bookstore could be. Both as a brick and mortar that is a champion for inf...
Episode 248: Which Publishers Grew 12% Over The Past Three Years?
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic was an unexpectedly magical time for the publishing industry. Sales went up when they were expected to go down. Printing slowed to a craw...
Episode 246: What is ONIX and do small publishers need to use it?
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How does the entire world get information about what you are publishing? It's from a feed called ONIX, that propagates every detail about your titles....
Episode 247: How Should Publishers Create Budgets and Predict Finances?
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Many publishers find money to be very unpredictable and scary. So this week we take a look at how to create budgets and predict cash flow as well as h...
Episode 245: Can Book Publishers Vertically Integrate? Blackstone Publishing President Anthony Goff
19 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
So much of book publishing is about distributing tasks, so how can publishers take more of these operational aspects in-house? This week on the pod, g...
Episode 244: 2023: A Publishing Year in Review
11 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What was 2023 like for publishing books? This week on the pod, we review what happened, how our plans shook out, what aspects threw wrenches into our ...
Episode 243: What Did We Learn at Frankfurt Book Fair?
04 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Frankfurt Book Fair is now the world's largest publishing industry show. It's open to the public, but it's primarily for industry veterans to pen big ...
Episode 242: How Should Book Publishers Talk About Current Events?
28 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We live in an era where Hershey posts perspectives on trans rights and Heinz offers opinions on foreign wars. Naturally, book publishers feel pressure...
Episode 241: How did we become the distributor for the new Lydia Davis book?
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Popular author Lydia Davis decided that she no longer wanted her books sold on Amazon. So she tasked her agent with finding a publisher who could do t...
Episode 240: How does design build community bookselling? w/ Rick from Shop at MATTER
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Shop at MATTER has been an innovative bookseller and design studio for decades. For our featured bookseller of the month we invite Rick Griffith t...
Episode 239: What is a Sales Conference?
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In several previous episodes, we've made reference to presenting your books at a "sales conference." It's a fundamentally misleading event, since you ...
Episode 238: How Should Publishers Handle Submissions?
23 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do authors find a publisher? (or how can publishers find them?) How do publishers choose which books to acquire? What does the development and con...
Episode 237: What are the jobs of a publisher?
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When we tell strangers what we do, they either bemoan the death of the publishing industry or assume that we sit around and read books all day. So thi...
Episode 236: How Do I Know if My Book is "Good?"
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Taste is subjective and arbitrary, but still, everyone carries a certain amount of imposter syndrome, wondering if their book if any good. So this wee...
Episode 235: Who is the book's client?
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When you are working on someone else's book, there is frequent confusion about who has the final say. Many people consider the author to be the final ...
Episode 234: How do you make a book's sales last forever?
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In traditional publishing, sales are thought of as a steep upward curve, a peak, falling action, and a steady plateau, moving slowly downward towards ...
Episode 233: How to Love Your Queer Kid, an interview with Marc Campbell
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Marc Campbell, a Black, gay therapist, works with queer kids and parents to create loving and accepting homes where people can safely be themselves an...
Episode 231: Bookstore Solidarity Project: Copper Dog Books of MA
12 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Copper Dog didn't set out to be controversial; just a lovable weird bird next door to spooky Salem. However, some of their customers don't underst...
Episode 232: How do you manage book inventory and reprints?
05 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Too much or too little inventory is almost always a publisher's biggest problem. These are the two biggest problems facing the industry. So this week ...
Episode 230: What Does It Mean to Have Distributed Client Publishers?
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Once upon a time, we were a client publisher of Independent Publisher's Group (IPG). Then, as we continued to grow, we embarked out on our own and now...
Episode 229: Who is your reader?
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The first step of writing a book is figuring out who will read it. What else are they interested in? What attracts them to those things? What implicit...
Episode 227: Bookstore Solidarity Project: The Raven Bookstore of Lawrence, Kansas
14 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Each month we feature a new bookstore that we operate in solidarity with. This month it's the Raven, a classical bookstore of many reboots, owners, an...
Episode 228: How Do You Get A Job in Book Publishing?
07 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is the question that just about everyone actually wants the answer to, beneath all of their qualifying questions: where are the jobs in publishin...
Episode 226: How Do I Protect Bookstores? (with Danny Caine)
31 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every trip out of the house results in sad looks from strangers about how nobody reads anymore or how the bookstores are all gone. It's not uncommon f...
Episode 225: How should you utilize Profit & Loss Statements?
24 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For most publishers, profit and loss statements are either an afterthought, something they "don't have time for," or a ritualistic capitalistic enterp...
Episode 224: Do Smaller Publishers Have Different Economic Models?
17 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Much ink has been spilt over the illusion that big publishers have different economic models. The reality is that larger publishers benefit from scale...
Episode 223: How Can Publishers Expand Adult Reading?
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You can read many academic articles about the need to get more people reading and how wonderful this would be for critical thinking and education. But...
Episode 222: Why make masturbation graphic? An interview with Vic Liu
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Vic Liu's Bang! delivers a walloping dose of information about masturbation; probably more than most readers have ever thought about it. And we think ...
Episode 221: Queer Affirmations (an interview with Joe Carlough and Ally Schwed)
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It started as a joke at the kitchen table at 7 AM before AWP. We were looking at the many books of "helping sayings" that really didn't say anything a...
Episode 220: How do we solve Publishing's Biggest Problem?
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last week we presented to you the biggest problem in publishing. So this week, we present the solution. Yes, the industry is very crowded but people a...
Episode 219: What is publishing's Biggest Problem?
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We've said it hundreds of times on this pod: the problems that everyone assumes and claims to plague publishing aren't programs at all. So what is pub...
Episode 218: What Does a Day in the Life of a Publisher Look Like?
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Most people imagine us with our noses in a book or having charmed candlelight talks over a manuscript in development. The reality, as always, is very ...
Episode 217: How we came to distribute Seth Tobocman's War in the Neighborhood
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The year was 1999. Seth Tobocman's landmark graphic novel, War in the Neighborhood was published by Autonomedia. We ordered some copies. Quickly, we n...
Episode 216: Year of the Witch (An Interview with Francesca Black)
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Wanting to create a keepsake of meaningful discoveries she made as a younger woman, Francesca Black created Year of the Witch for her daughters. This ...
Episode 215: How does an old punk get fiction published?
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Question on the pod this week: an old punk wrote a novel and is finding that it's harder to find open submissions without an agency from an amenable p...
Episode 214: Queer Community with Laura Q (A Tight Squeeze)
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Laura Q writes Queer Smut in the tradition of Nerve Endings and the sparse and isolated incidents of trans erotica. This week on the pod, we talk abou...
Episode 213: Be Present in Your Emotions with the Monthly Manifestation Manual, featuring Jessica Mullen and Kelly Cree
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week we feature the very exciting guests, Jessica Mullen and Kelly Cree of the School of Life Design and their brand new book, Monthly Manifestat...
Episode 212: How Do You Write a Pitch? w/Jessie Kwak (From Big Idea to Book)
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
So much of publishing work is explaining something to someone else, why they care, what their constituencies are getting out of it. So this week on th...
Episode 211: How did we end up with a Third Book Warehouse?
18 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You never end up with the problems that you expect or plan for. In fact, the biggest problems are usually caused by unexpected successes. Many publish...
Episode 210: What does it mean that Booktok represents 4% of book sales?
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past year, it was reported by a wide variety of sources that TikTok sells 3-25% of ALL books—about 90 million book purchases last year—by...
Episode 209: Should an author have a contract when they self-publish?
04 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The question seems silly at first, but what happens when the publisher releases a book that they wrote? What happens a year, five years, or ten years ...
Episode 208: If an author doesn't have an agent, should they hire a lawyer?
27 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Most novice authors do not have a lot of familiarity with a contract and do not have an agent, so they both don't know the standards of these agreemen...
Episode 207: How should publishers think about Platform w/ Guy LeCharles Gonzalez?
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It is oft repeated that an author needs to already be famous in order to publish a book. This week on the pod, we are rejoined by Guy LeCharles Gonzal...
Episode 206: What Forms Your Publishing Perspective?
13 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What defines a "good book" for you? Where do your ideas come from? What is "worth" publishing? This week on the pod, we answer these questions and mor...
Episode 205: How do I make a living as a writer? An interview with Jessie Kwak
06 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For many, the ultimate dream is to make a living as a writer! Jessie Kwak (From Chaos to Creativity, From Big Idea to Book) has achieved just that for...
Episode 204: How do I publish a book without someone stealing my idea?
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ideas are everywhere. Thus they don't contain a lot of value. The worth is in the execution. So this week on the pod we take a look at the frequent co...
Episode 203: How do you know if a book will sell?
23 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week on the pod, we invoke our dark wizardry to predict the future. WE look at tools that publishers can and do use to know which books will be s...
Episode 202: How Can Publishers Better Work with Libraries? w/ Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
16 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A few years ago, an author tweeted complaints about people checking out his book from libraries, only to be rebuffed by dozens of librarians how he ac...
Episode 201: How Do You Make Lemonade (Out of a Bad Situation)?
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Recently, a news story appeared about a customer ordering hundreds of dollars worth of books...and then attempting to return them as no-longer-needed ...
Episode 200: Episode 200: How Would We Like Publishing to Change?
02 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, for our 200th episode, we take a look towards optimism and utopianism. What would we like to be different about our industry? How can publi...
Episode 199: Why is Guy LeCharles Gonzalez honest about the industry?
23 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week on the pod, special guest on the pod, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez walks us through his career in publishing as well as how this was formative to ...
Episode 198: The History of Miami Hip Hop: An interview with John Cordero
16 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
John Cordero was on the ground floor as Miami reinvented itself with graffiti, hip hop, and 24-hour parties. As Pitbull and DJ Khaled got their starts...
Episode 197: How Should publishers respond to callouts and controversy?
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week on the pod, we answer a reader question about how to manage it when we are publicly accused of something. What happens when authors attempt ...
Episode 196: From Conflict to Community, an interview with Gwen Olton
02 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week we are joined by Gwen Olton, Executive Co-Director of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence and author of From Conflict to Community: So...
Episode 195: Reviewing Our Annual Reports: Why 2022 Was Our Best Year Ever (A People's Guide to Publishing)
26 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After posting our annual reports and final numbers for 2022, we take a look back this week at why it was our best year ever in publishing. What strate...
Episode 194: From Big Idea to Book! w/ an interview with author Jessie Kwak (From Dream to Reality)
19 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For many would-be authors, it's a major struggle to find tools, methods, and time to create. This week on the pod, Jessie Kwak, who writes for a livin...
Episode 193: What Editorial References Do You Use?
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Another reader question this week, from someone who wants to know how we reinforce and and substantiate our editorial choices. Essentially, what refer...
Episode 192: How Do You Become An Editor?
05 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reader question this week is how we became editors, specifically Elly, who now runs the department of editors. We trace our career trajectories, job s...
Episode 191: How Do You Level Up Your Publicity?
29 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Three things we've heard from publishers all year is that 1) There isn't any media anymore 2) It's a lot harder to get publicity without any media 3) ...
Episode 190: How do you get book publicity?
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Back to basics this week! Many publishers get stuck on how to talk about their books so others will listen and can find their own interest. So we offe...
Episode 188: How do I pack for an event? (with Jess Driscoll)
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week we answer a reader question "How do I know how much to bring to an event and how do I set it up?" Elly and I draw upon our combined 40 years...
Episode 189: Finding Your Path with Friday Gladheart (Practical Witch's Almanac/WitchAcademy.org)
08 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Back in the wee infancy of the Internet, Friday Gladheart was busy creating WitchAcademy.org, the oldest and one of the most respected teaching librar...
Episode 187: "Thanks, it has pockets!" with Jess Driscoll (Magic of Pockets)
01 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week we feature guest star Jess Driscoll to talk about her brand new book, Magic of Pockets! We discuss the history and politics of pockets, the ...
Episode 180: Do Cowbots Get Blue Balls? An interview with S. Park (Queering Consent)
24 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We all write our own stories. And some of those stories are a little racier and saucier than others. The work of S. Park straddles multiple worlds and...
Episode 186: An interview with Set Sytes (Born to be Weird)
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week we feature guest star Set Sytes to tell us all about the brand new edition of his book, Born to be Weird! We talk about writing fantasy as a...
Episode 185: Where do you get your economics theories?
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week a reader asked us what books we read to understand our economic theories. And that was a bit of a stumper, so we thought about it all week a...
Episode 184: Do Authors Need a Platform? with Ariel Gore (Wayward Writer)
03 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
High among common myths repeated about publishers is that "authors need a platform" before someone would consider publishing them. It's not bad to hav...
Episode 183: How did we become Publisher's Weekly's fastest growing publisher in 2022?
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year, we received some shocking news: Publisher's Weekly determined that Microcosm was the #1 fastest growing publisher! We sat in shock ...
Episode 182: Is Scientific Accuracy and Liability a Consideration for Publishers?
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week on the pod, we tackle a reader question: How much is scientific and factual accuracy a concern for publishers? Can this lead to liability is...
Episode 181: What did we learn about profit & loss statements from PRH/S&S trial?
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
During the course of the Penguin Random House / Simon & Schuster merger trial with the Department of Justice, the defense claimed that profit and ...
Episode 179: How Do I Become an Imprint of a Larger Press? (A People's Guide to Publishing)
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Before long, it is not difficult to see the limitations of being a small publisher. So this week on the pod, we answer a reader question about how to ...
Episode 178: A contributor to my anthology says it's a ripoff. Is it fair?
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week, a reader got in touch because they are publishing a values-based anthology with 20 contributors. 19 have signed the agreements but one is c...
Episode 177: How do you protect your title and your name?
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What's in a name? Why do so many books have the same title? What if another author has the same name as you? What if you change your name or pseudonym...
Episode 176: Did 1/2 of books published in 2021 really sell fewer than 12 copies?
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Last week a tweet appeared, interpreting testimony from the Penguin Random House/DOJ trial to mean that half of all books published sell fewer than a ...
Episode 174: Could Barnes & Noble's cutbacks on middle reader fiction hardcovers be a good thing for indies?
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Twitter lit on fire when Barnes & Noble announced that, due to low sales and high return rates, it would no longer carry as many middle reader fic...
Episode 174: What did we learn at the Penguin Random House/Simon & Schuster trial?
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lots of news and cold takes about the Penguin Random House / Simon & Schuster attempts at a merger this week, so this week on the pod, we offer so...
Episode 173: What Do Elly and Joe Disagree About?
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
While we have little things that we've always bickered about, this week on the pod we take a deeper look at fundamental differences and disagreements ...
Episode 172: How do you balance your values while selling books?
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Before too long in your publishing quest, you will quickly be dumped into various ethical quagmires. We offer some experience, advice, and tools for t...
Episode 171: An Interview with Eric Sandy about his history of Speak In Tongues, the legendary Cleveland venue
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode of the People's Guide to Publishing podcast (https://microcosm.pub/podcast), we interview Eric Sandy about his new book Speak In Tongu...
Episode 170: How do Publishers Make Good Decisions?
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
So much time is spent debating the waste, morass, and outdatedness of the publishing industry and so little ink is spent offering practical solutions ...
Episode 169: Who are your influences?
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Most people have educations or backgrounds that influence how they approach their work. Often, these influences cause them to replicate similar power ...
Episode 168: How do you bypass publishing gatekeepers?
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
So many people have suffered endless rejections and want to know how to get their foot in the door. They think that if they can just get the right edi...
Episode 161: How do you bypass publishing gatekeepers? (with Ariel Gore)
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
So many people have suffered endless rejections and want to know how to get their foot in the door. They think that if they can just get the right edi...
Episode 167: How Do You Navigate Gatekeepers?
15 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If you read author forums, you can watch them complain about gatekeeping all day long. "If only the agent/editor/publisher/buyer would READ my book, t...
Episode 166: How do I build a writing career?
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's entirely too typical to be told by a new author that there is no way to get their foot in the door. It's easy to only look at and see the hardshi...
Episode 165: What do we think about new, upstart publisher models?
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Every few months there's a news story about a new, "innovative" publishing model. These are typically variations on funding or author compensation. Th...
Episode 164: Why are some books canceled? What is censorship? (A People's Guide to Publishing)
19 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes we're on the sidelines, really excited for a book to come out. And then it doesn't. Why? This week on the pod we take a look at those reason...
Episode 163: How do you cancel a book contract?
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes it's just not working out for the author or for the publisher or both. Circumstances, trends, and relationships change. Even though publishe...
Episode 162: What do you learn while training others?
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Often, walking through the many complexities of publishing and all of its contexts, you will have revelations about how to simplify and streamline thi...
Episode 160: What is a Niche Book?
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Most inquiries seem to believe that the most successful titles are the ones with the broadest appeal, like "anyone could love this book!" but in reali...
Episode 159: How Do I Receive a Pallet of Books?
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Back to basics this week! We are looking at everything that you need to think about when a pallet of books arrives at your door!************Thank you ...
Episode 158: Can I be my own agent?
19 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's a common and seemingly logical question. A would-be author learns that publishers screen manuscript submissions through relationships with agenci...
Episode 157: How does a publisher leverage?
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
You may have noticed that we were Publishers Weekly's fastest growing publisher so we've given a lot of thought to leverage over the past few years. S...
Episode 154: Why Does It Take Two Years to Publish a Book?
05 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The most common request when we create an agreement to publish a new book is that the author wants to publish as soon as possible! So this week on the...
Episode 156: A conversation with Carla Butwin and Josh Cassidy, authors of If Animals Could Talk
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For this week's episode of the People's Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly are interviewing (live!) Carla and Josh, authors of our new book, If...
Episode 155: Katie Haegele (Kitchen Witch) and Joe Carlough (Queer Horror)
23 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After a long week at the AWP conference, we sat down with Katie and Joe for a discussion on zines, their paths to success, the implications of creativ...