FAQ + Contact

1. It's easiest to use our website, click on the Add to cart buttons next to the items you want to order.  We accept credit cards, PayPal, or mailed in check, money orders and well-concealed cash.  Or you can print and fill out our microcosm order form.
2. The online ordering system can calculate your total (including shipping costs) for all orders.  If you don't want to use a credit card or paypal, you can print your order form at checkout and mail it with a check (or cash or money order).
3. When sending us orders in the mail be sure to include your name, address (inside the envelope), phone #, e-mail address, your order, some alternates in case we are out of other things that you want, and a nice letter. People outside the US can only pay with US cash or Postal Money Orders in US funds.
4. If you prefer to do the math manually, you can add up the cost of your items and the shipping weights. Enclose well hidden US cash (wrapped in two sheets of paper), check, or money order to MICROCOSM PUBLISHING!
5. Credit card orders are best placed on our website. We no longer have a physical terminal.
6. Postal address is Microcosm / 222 S Rogers St. / Bloomington, IN 47404

Our website is tested and coded for Mozilla Firefox and that is the browser that we'd recommend you to use for web browsing in general. It's faster, less buggy, safer, and updated more often than Internet Explorer. Our website should also work well using Google Chrome, Apple Safari, or Opera. You have many excellent, free browsers to choose from these days, all of which we'd recommend over Internet Explorer.

Granted, things do change and sometimes new bugs appear on our site and in that case it's best to report them. Nate will thank you.

When contacting us about orders, please provide the name under and ref code, which is a combination of numbers and letters, such as 926db or a326g.

Most orders are mailed out the day after they are received unless we are out of something you ordered. Sometimes we hold an order when we know a zine is out of stock and new copies will arrive soon. Sometimes things get lost in the mail before they get to us or after we ship them. You can see the status of your orders on your mycosm page if you have an account. Please sign up for one if you haven't! You can CHECK FOR YOUR ORDER IN OUR ONLINE SHIPPING LOG.

Please provide an accurate email during check-out.  We email you with shipping confirmation emails with tracking numbers so you can track your package along the way using our US Postal Service.

If your item happens to be OUT OF STOCK and we’re confident that it will be restocked within 2 weeks, we’ll hold your order until it’s complete, then ship it immediately.

We do our best to keep the site updated, but things go in and out of stock quickly and sometimes we have trouble keeping up so PLEASE LIST ALTERNATES.

If an order is lost in the mail that is worth less than $20 we will replace it, on our dime. If your order is over $20, and you don't purchase insurance, then you are responsible if it gets lost in the mail. We will replace uninsured lost orders over $20 for half of the total cost, + shipping.

Please wait at least two weeks after your order is sent in before inquiring about the status of your order. For international orders, please wait one month after your order is sent.  All we can tell you is when it was shipped.

We fulfill wholesale orders for stores and other resellers. If you purchase wholesale from us, please sign up for a My Microcosm account.  To order items for distribution or your store, just go to any product page (or the cart page if you've started an order) and click on wholesale button in orange.  You'll need to have a minimum total order of $40 and a minimum of 2 of each item. Items are generally not returnable unless they are damaged or they are items we publish and arrangements are made ahead of time.  Get in touch to find out.

Here's a catalog of just titles published by Microcosm. To set up a wholesale account:  You will have to make two orders with payment upfront and then we can work on net-30 terms, where you pay 30 days after placing the order- not when it's shipped.  Wholesale orders should ideally be placed on our website. Once you've done 2 establishing orders, you can order on the web site and specify net-30 in the order notes.

Our published titles are also available for wholesale through AK Distribution (510) 208-1700, Baker & Taylor (800) 775-1800, Ingram, and Last Gasp (415) 824-6636

1. Our gift cheques and credit slips are our older system of credit for customers.  For our new system, please read about our My Microcosm feature.
2. For old credit checks, simply mail the gift cheque/credit check back with your next paper catalog order.  Request a paper catalog.
3. Or you can use the information from your credit slip in our online store with your next order.  Within the "order notes" section of the checkout system, simply list the name and date of the credit slip, along with all the items that you want to use your credit on.  Make sure the items you select are "in stock!"  And please don't add the items you want to use your credit on to your shopping cart. We can't remove them.

All of our t-shirts are made in the United States. Did you know that the t-shirt industry is one of the largest markets for slave labor? Over 90% of t-shirts are made in 3rd world sweatshops. Because of this we printed t-shirts from American Apparel. Now it seems that their business plan is falling less and less in line with our ethics, primarily around union-busting and the sexual nature of their advertising. As a result we've switched our shirts over to AS Tees.

Our shirts are from AS Tees.  They makes their shirts in sizes and cuts that are nearly identical to those of American Apparel.  If you’d like some specifics, you should check their website.(we use AS Tees styles 2586, 1801, 1547, and 1848)  They are "fitted" which means they fit around the contours of your body and not like a "box" shirt. If you don't want your shirt to be tight, you should buy it a size larger than normal. We list measurements in inches next to each t-shirt.

Our "ringer" t-shirts (the ones that look like something from the '70s off "Dukes of Hazard") run significantly larger than the regular t-shirts and are not as fitted; about one size larger than a comparable regular t-shirt.

Our X-Small size is a Women's Medium shirt size and typically has the "Medium" crossed out and an XS written on the tag.

If you have further questions about sweatshop manufacturing of t-shirts or the politics involved in these decisions please get in touch.

We accept exchanges only if we send you the wrong item or a t-shirt does not fit properly. If we send you the wrong item, or an item is missing from your package, please just get in touch and we'll send you the proper item.

Due to costs involved, we cannot accept returns.  If you would like to make special arrangements, please email orders@microcosmpublishing.com.

We've been getting near daily t-shirt exchanges and it's really taking a toll on what else we can get done. As a result, we had to grudgingly pass along our costs. If you are exchanging a t-shirt because you ordered the wrong size, you are required to pay shipping to us, a $2 handling fee, and postage to send a new one to you. We've listed the fittings of the shirts above. Please do your homework and measurements so we don't pay the price packing your envelope twice.

You'll have to send a sample copy for us to check out. If you want a response, you should write a note regarding your submission including all relevant contact information.  We are most interested in zines, books, DVDs, t-shirts, patches, stickers, and other creative DIY items. We reject most slick magazines, poetry chapbooks, or music related publications because that's not our focus and they haven't sold well in the past.

We strongly suggest you not to think of being distributed by Microcosm as a "goal" or mark of success with your zine. Zines are one of the few non-hierarchical forms of media remaining in the world and it would be a shame to ruin that by creating echelons of success based on things as arbitrary as our tastes and the fact that we really can't distribute nearly as much as we get offered to us!

Please do not send more than two titles at a time. Please send your two proudest moments rather than your entire back catalog. If we want more, we'll ask for it.

Please be patient!  It normally takes up to a month to respond, as it takes a while to read everything that gets submitted AND we make these decisions collectively, which can be slow. Unfortunately, we reject 70-80% of what is submitted to us. (See our submission box to the right.)  We will contact the publisher after we have checked out a title. If you don't hear back from someone after a few months you can contact e-mail us.

We like hand-done, unique, historical, educational, cooking, bicycling, and instructive zines. We like zines containing information you'd be hard pressed to find elsewhere. We like to learn about things we didn't know we were interested in. We like the occasional literary work. Screen printed or otherwise fancy covers are a huge plus. Creative layout never hurts either. As far as we are concerned, cut and paste = good, magazine formatting = bad. Only 1% of our zine titles could be dubbed "magazines" and only 1% of our book titles are from major presses. You can buy magazines and major books anywhere.

Our arrangements are:

1. We send you a check after receiving the zines. Normally we pay a 50/50% split. When sending zines that we've ordered, be sure to include a slip of paper (invoice) stating title and quantity, how much money we owe you, your name (to make a check out to), and address. Here's a sample form to use for sending your zines to us. This will drastically increase how much faster you get paid. Also, be absolutely sure to send zines to Microcosm 222 S Rogers St. Bloomington, IN 47404.
2. We can also trade for items in our catalog or custom stickers/pins. You get a 60/40% split if you take your payment in trade.
3. If we opt not to distribute your zine, you'll at least receive a response in the mail or via email.

When distributing a particular title, we'll normally take about 30-200 copies at a time if it's a zine or about 10-20 copies if it's a book. For stickers or patches we prefer to print them ourselves and pay a license or give you a percentage of the print run. It's easier than depending on someone else to provide these things. We sell items mostly through mailorder but also sell to stores, to distributors, at conferences, and on tour once a year.

In order for your work to be considered for publishing, you must first have a pre-existing working relationship with us. For example, we must distribute your work already and obtain it from you directly. This is to help us maintain our mission statement of helping zines to flourish and supporting self published authors.

Once we have a working relationship, you may propose a publishing project or we may suggest one to you. Granted, we distribute about 2,500 titles and have only about 70 published titles so we are very selective about those projects into which we decide to invest our space, effort, time, and money.

The things we publish are normally out of the necessity that we distribute them and the author can't provide us as many copies as we are selling. We are not looking to expand the style or scope of our publishing operation.

We just started out publishing a few titles, and then people began sending us with their manuscripts like we are Random House or something. This seemed strange at first since we had been publishing work primarily by our friends.

Our published titles are generally sold to what is considered the "non-trade" of clothing stores, newsstands, toy stores, novelty shops, and other places that aren't bookstores. We also have standard booktrade distribution through AK Press, Ingram, and Baker & Taylor.

Microcosm specializes in DIY goods. That's a pretty vague term, but all our items are DIY in some sense. Most of the items in the catalog are of a similar spirit, passion, and set of intentions. We began Microcosm with the goal of making available those materials that would otherwise be difficult for people to get their hands on.  The content of books and zines is important too. We wouldn't carry something that we thought was irrelevant; but that doesn't mean it has to be overtly political social commentary either.  Basically, it has to have some entertainment value and some greater purpose or universal appeal. We like history, educational, and instructive zines. Personal zines are great, but it's important for readers to be able to relate to them also.

"I think that the punk ethos of you don't need anything, you just need to do it and figure out what you're doing as you go, has probably informed everything I've done since. It seemed a pretty sensible and refreshing idea at the time. Likewise the idea that you ought to be enjoying what you're doing and be doing it because you think it's cool and fun. The idea that mistakes are part of what make things interesting, and it's probably wisest to get it right and move on and not spend the rest of your life polishing it." - Neil Gaiman

To borrow the words of Chris Landry, "Zines are the best expression of the d.i.y. ethics of the punk rock subculture. While bands can be co-opted into the mainstream and the music scene continues to be male-dominated and increasingly a-political, zines have been keeping it true. Zines take the profit and fame motive out of artistic expression and focus on communication, expression and community for their own sake. Zines are the one truly democratic art form. Zine writers are the most important writers in the world."

To borrow the words of Aaron Cometbus, "You can put out a fanzine and you can reach all kinds of fuckin' people for really cheap and you can do a novel and there's no way that you can get to as many people in the same way. Fanzines are, in a way, the perfect form. You can get your fanzine, if you hustle, to bookstores, record stores, maybe even magazine stands. I've had it on sale at toy stores. You can sell it at shows. It's not at all limited to shows and to punk culture. You can sell a book to a record store but it doesn't cross formats in the same way. So in many ways I think that the fanzine is the ultimate and better than a regular magazine too. It really can appeal to all kinds of people."

Most importantly, and as much as we hate to admit it, like any DIY upstart project --we are in near-constant financial peril.  So orders and donations are probably what benefits us the most. I hate to have to be asking for money all the time and admit that we are struggling but it's fairly common to tell you the truth. Mostly our troubles come from publishing projects as so much money is required upfront. Each and every one feels like an insurmountable goal at times. Donations are very beneficial.

Kind letters and messages are a close second.  We derive a lot of our energy from the idea that we’re helping make good things available to people can put them to use.  It’s nice to be reminded that that’s actually the case.  Drop us a line and let us know about any successful projects, good times, or moments of transcendence you experienced with the help of some of our materials.  It will make our day.

While it's rarely exciting, we always have plenty of work to go around. If you are inclined to help out we have mass mailings that need addressed, zines that need stapled, patches that need cut, text that needs proofed, descriptions that need written, and zines that need read. Most of all we need to hear what we are doing well or could do better. If you find errors on our website let us know so we can fix them. What a great opportunity to hang out and make new friends! If you are interested in volunteering, just fill out this form, and we'll contact you. 

Also, unlike major book publishers, we do not have a large budget for promotions and advertising. In fact, we don't pay for many ads anywhere, even in publications or on websites we whole-heatedly support. In keeping our books cheap, we forgo the luxury of having a promotions department almost entirely.

So how do we get the word out about our books? Our existence is owed almost entirely to people like you telling your friends and spreading the Microcosm word. It's a vastly different way of working than any major publisher and is unheard of in dealing with the numbers of books we sell.  Check out more here.

Click here to go to our press page

An idealogy is a set of morals that determines how you live life. It is too often oversimplified and assumed that all people from the same subculture share the same ideology. Not every punk or zine reader is a young anarchist vegan bicyclist.

The basic ideologies that we operate on are that bicycles are superior transportation to cars within cities, meat and dairy based diets use land inefficiently and thus destroy our planet and keep many people starving, governments serve the rich and big business, equal rights are deserved by all genders, all races, all economic classes, people of all ages, and all religions. Creation of community and dialogue is a good way to start addressing this and solve problems.

We started in 1996 by contacting the projects that we liked and asking them if we could distribute their stuff. At the time, most of these people were working locally, at the grassroots level.  They understood what we were doing for the most part. In most cases, they were pretty happy to have someone else selling their items.

We put ads in zines, on newsgroups, and made flyers that we mailed around and hung up.

Pretty soon we started getting a small pile of mail every week from people who actually wanted their stuff distributed. This was before internet distros existed and there were only a few mailorder distros. Most seemed to focus locally. As we got larger and more financially capable we started to order from larger distributors like Mordam, Revolver, No Idea, Lumberjack, and others to buy from in addition to buying direct from the creator. When a publisher gets to a certain size they no longer like to do the mailorder or sell to stores themselves. They prefer to send several hundred or thousand copies to one big distributor who then sells to all sorts of stores and small distros as well as even sometimes doing mailorder straight to the kids buying the records. This is a problem in my eyes because it creates a void and financial dependency on these distributors. When they go out of business, they normally take the publisher with them. It also drives prices up further which hurts a lot if you are a small distro looking to sell things for cheap. As a publisher, you also have to be careful to make sure you are comfortable selling to stores that your distributor would. In my experience, it is much more desirable to deal as direct as possible to avoid all of these problems. We have had a pleasant time dealing with No Idea and AK Press. Most of the rest have ceased to exist. Old Glory Records, RIP.

Microcosm operates financially as a not-for-profit. All money goes back into the organization and into new projects. We are not a 501(c)3 because such an organization requires outside management. This may sound like a bold move, but the writing was on the wall. Publishing is not the profitable industry that it once was and we feel like we can do the best good by putting our finances where our mouths are. There are no profits to divide between "owners". We pay ourselves a very small wage every month. We start at $7.50 an hour and get an additional 25 cents every 3 months with a wage cap at $13.

Aside from that, it's not hard to see constant examples of the ethical quandries that for-profit companies go through all of the time to make money--or to make more money to please their shareholders. We have no loans or investors or shadow partners. All of our money is raised the old fashioned way--by selling things.

This project was built on the hard work of everyone who has ever ordered from us, volunteered here, or stuck around for gainful employment. We wouldn't be where we are today without you. We believe very strongly in local and DIY economics and are fairly conscious of how we spend our money and where it goes. We believe that strengthening the economies of things we believe in is an effective way of demonstrating our power as individuals over megacorporations.

Living on small wages forces resourcefulness. A further breakdown is like this: about 48% of what we earn in a month goes right back to reordering things or getting new stuff. About 17% is what we split for our work, 2% pays the rent of our store and the house that we do mailorder and storage out of, and 33% goes into printing (and reprinting) new books.

Check out our Blogifesto about Microcosm's 2009 Financial Report

1. My Microcosm credit is our online customer service and credit system.

First, you have to sign up for a My Microcosm account.  Save your login username and password, you'll need this in the future.
2. If we don't have items in stock that you've ordered, you will receive either an email or a slip in your package explaining how much credit you have with us. You can view your credit within your personal My Microcosm page.
3. The next time you order, your credit will automatically be removed from your order total in the payment section of check out. If you have problems, let us know!

4. So, your My Microcosm account is linked to your email address, login, and password-- if you are a store or distributor-- it's important to consistently use the same information when ordering as your ordering history, credit, and invoices are linked in our My Microcosm system in this way.  Let us know if you have problems.