Katie Haegele has been passionate about cats for decades. They have been some of the most meaningful relationships in her life. This time around she's organizing other people to share the most touching, heartwarming, wacky, and unbelievable stories about the behavior and emotional range of cats in her eighth book, Cat Party!************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663Get the workbook:...

Much hullaballoo and many predictions has been made about how AI will "disrupt" the publishing industry. Typically, with a new technology the steps are 1) fear the new way 2) figure out how to embrace it in a practical sense. How will AI affect publishers? Is the fear substantiated? What can publishers do?************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663Get the workbook:...

In the dawn of a young publishers' life, they focus on their own tastes. Gradually, they see which books are well-received and branch outward. Some publishers quickly find that the most popular books are things that aren't exactly the reason that they got into publishing! So this week on the pod, we talk about the limits of a press' curation and why that's important.************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book:...

What is a regional trade association? What can they do for you as a bookseller or a publisher? This week on the pod, we feature Larry Law, executive director of the Great Lakes Bookseller Association to learn about this ecosystem and how it can work even better.************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663Get the workbook: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/10031More from Microcosm:...

Corporate publishing has the distinct advantage of scale: they command more sales dollars, they can push customers and vendors around more. This week we take a look at some of the options available for small publishers to band together and share resources, learn from each other, and be stronger together. Andrea Fleck-Nisbet, CEO of the Independent Book Publishers Association, unpacks it all for us and more!************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the...

You may know King's Coop Bookstore as the winner of our How to Resist Amazon display contest, but they are so much more than that! This week on our continuing Bookstore Solidarity Project, we bring you a deeper dive into the realities of bookselling. From ripping books in half to walking around campus and seeing everyone reading the same book! 

At the release event for this very book, the first question was about making money from audiobooks. The answer? It's complicated. And increasingly so with Spotify joining the fray. This week we tackle best practices, best approaches, and how to sell audiobook content—with special guest Jane Friedman of the Hot Sheet! ************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663Get the workbook:...

Leah Hernandez has a story unlike that of most publishers. With a background in business, she realized that children relate better with younger authors and set out to do the thing that small presses do best: fulfill a need that big publishers cannot even detect. This week on the pod, we interview her about how she built Muse and Young Authors Publishing as well as the creative solutions that she's created for distribution! ************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing...

The Funk Brothers, the legendary bestselling band (possibly of all time) and house band of Motown Records, wrote and performed on more tracks than you could possibly guess. This week on the pod, we take a look at how their approach informed our approach to book editing: taking an author's expert views on a topic and expanding them into servicing the reader's interest and needs.************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book:...

After the recent news of Small Press Distribution (SPD) closing, we thought it would be prudent to walk through best practices for changing a distributor! A distributor is a publisher's warehouse, sales, and fulfillment arms. It's their to-market force, and it's often the difference between sinking and swimming. ************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663Get the workbook:...

In 2013, we predicted that the bookstore model would shift to more specialized indie stores that offered a narrower offering around their own curated interests and values, with more books face-out and unabashedly clear messaging about who the store is and is not for. And here are we are in 2024, with Charlie's Queer Books of Seattle, Washington offering a perfect example. This week on the pod, we interview Charlie, who has awesome stories about the importance of creating a safer space to...

Most small presses use a trade distributor. What do they do? What are the components of a distributor's function? Can you do them yourself? What does a distributor do? What does a distributor look for? This week we take a look at these things and more, as we unpack distribution! ************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663Get the workbook: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/10031More...

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 indie bookstores tick?" we present to you, their proprietor, Karen, to unpack what publishers could do better to interface with stores like hers and the funniest things that happen when you bring back the 90s.************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book:...

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 respond and move on with being reactive. This week on the pod, E&J walk through some of their own failures and how they could have handled them better as well as what they handled well. You are forever judged by the last thing that you've done, so make it count! ************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get...

Largely due to consumer preference and obstinate legacy behaviors, the world of book publishing still operates on the same model from the 1800s. Mass production creates overprinting, and the ship and return model creates damaged books that don't have anywhere to go. This week, we take a look at how that happened and what publishers can do about it!************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663Get...

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 for "Reimagining what publishing can or should be” and “Exceptional efforts to develop new skills that expand publishing into the future.” Here is Fleck-Nisbet's speech and Biel's Q&A period from the awards ceremony.************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book:...

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 information and reading, but also holding up its staff and creating entertaining skit videos with its staff! This week on the pod, we feature co-owner Josh Christie about the store in our ongoing Bookstore Solidarity project! ************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book:...

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 crawl due to the paper shortage. But four years later, we have some clear, emergent publishers who seemed to have permanently claimed an additional piece of the market share. This week we take a closer look at them!************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book:...

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. This week on the pod, we take a deep dive into ONIX and its role for small publishers.************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663Get the workbook: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/10031More from Microcosm:...

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 how to plan a financial future. It's not as difficult as it seems!************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663Get the workbook: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/10031More from Microcosm: http://microcosmpublishing.comMore by Joe Biel:...

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, guest Anthony Goff, President of Blackstone Publishing, walks us through many of their aspects that are vertically integrated, from recording studios to rights sales to printing and distribution—to performing these services for other publishers.************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book:...

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 plans, and what worked out magnificently. Also, we sold and shipped many, many tons of books!************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663Get the workbook: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/10031More from Microcosm:...

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 business deals. It's largely to sell foreign rights translations of your books (or buy the same!). And we did! Check out our report from what happened there in 2023 and how it might be useful for you!************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663Get...

We live in an era where Hershey posts perspectives on trans rights and Heinz offers opinions on foreign wars. Naturally, book publishers feel pressure to talk about what's going on in the world around them. This week on the pod we look at best practices for expressing yourself. ************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663Get the workbook: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/10031More...

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 this for her. Everyone said that it was impossible. But through a unique partnership between Microcosm and Bookshop.org, we found a way. And it wasn't even hard. This is how it turned out. Over 10,000 books sold in the first month and growing! ************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book:...