A People's Guide to Publishing

Once upon a time at a big five publisher far, far away, a book was published. But it was made to look like it was about how weddings made women happy. A decade and a midlist press later, the book took a new shape and form.

We just returned from the American Booksellers Association nat'l show, Winter Institute. And from there it was straight to the Las Vegas Gift Show. Here's what we learned at each one!

2019 was a year of tremendous growth for Microcosm (55.77% to be exact) and we've split open our numbers to talk about how we did that, what it means, and what comes next!

This week on the pod, we walk publishers through Kickstarter, its usefulness, the stigma, and how to get the most out of it!

What should you do next? What is your most pressing task? What is an important task? What is a priority? This week we discuss how to figure out how to manage your time.

It's back to basics this episode as we retrace the who, what, where, why, and how of publisher acquisitions. What to look for, what to avoid, and how to redirect the conversation towards making something work for everyone!

This week, we landed Dr. Faith Harper's Unfuck Your Brain on the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post bestseller lists. So we explore the significance of bestseller lists as marketing and their place as an effective strategy for launch.

This week on the podcast we look at how to launch your book through the lens of the 2002 classic Making Stuff & Doing Things, how to go viral, and why organic buzz is always superior to the largest publicity budget. ************ Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast! Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663

Last week during our talk on author platforms, we touched on the idea of what is "difficult," "cooperative," and "reasonable" behavior for an author so we thought it would be helpful to discuss the author's behavior from the publisher's perspective.

There's a lot of conjecture out there about how to get published, what to do to prepare, and how to make yourself attractive as an author. Elly and Joe talk about what we look for in an author and how to refine your work and platform to be attractive.

So much of what needs to go on in the publishing ecosphere is thinking about the costs and consequences of each of our actions and how they impact the greater whole. So that's what we talk about this week on the podcast!

In recent years the publishing industry has suddenly realized how homogenized and myopic its viewpoints are and is struggling to figure out how to make itself more diverse. This week on the vlogcast, we present some answers. ************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663 Get the workbook: https://micro...

So much focus in publishing is on education but there are things that we can learn everywhere so today Elly talks about what she learned in liberal arts college and Joe talks about what he learned from metal scrappers.

It's often assumed that if a book is "good" enough it'll be discovered, create buzz, and get placements in bookstores around the world. So this week we're going to look at how books land placements, what goes on in the background, and what considerations rep groups take when selecting publishers for representation. ************ Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get...

There's a deep wall of opacity in the world of "standard" book contracts so this week we do a deep dive into what a good contract looks like!

There are so many aspects to book production—from typography to images to grids to design to proof-checking to working with the printer. Many publishers make these an afterthought so we teach you how to bake it in from the start. ************Thank you for watching the People's Guide to Publishing vlogcast!  Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3663

So many times people who have read books all their lives do not see editing as a technical, professional skill like dentistry or plumbing. This week we are here to set that straight with many lessons!

So many times people's #1 question is how to tell readers about their book. It's rather quite simple so we break it down in this week's episode!

Our protagonists swashbuckle their way through how recent threat of additional tariffs will affect the publishing industry Get the book: https://microcosmpublishing.com

This week we discuss #submission guidelines, what ours look like, how most of the #publishing industry operates, and what best practices are both as a publisher and for submitting #books to #publishers.

So much bookselling muscle goes into marketing, let's see where we can combine that with selling.

This week, A People's Guide to Publishing tackles the sexiest and least controversial of topics, what good process looks like to organize your workflow. Microcosm Publishing bosses talk about their own failures, successes, and lessons learned from dealing with third parties ************ More from Microcosm: http://microcosm.pub

Did you massively overprint? Did it just stop selling? How to give it some new life and understand why it's underperforming.

Joe Biel and Elly Blue draw upon 24 years of publishing and selling millions of books in order to explain what goes into designing a successful book cover. ************ Get the book: https://microcosm.pub

MetaData is one of the more confusing aspects of publishing a book, even for industry "pros." This week Elly and Joe dig deep into the semantics of the dishonesty from inflating print runs and whether that's right for you or not. ************ Thank you for enjoying A People's Guide to Publishing! Get the book: https://microcosm.pub