Microcosm Publishing

Spectacular Spring Warehouse Sale- 50% Off Over 1,000 Books, Decks, and Zines!

Yep, we're doing it again. 

Our biggest fan (pictured above) knows how much we care about the things we sell, and want to make sure you can afford them too. (Unlike, you know... other places.)

So we're doing an anti-billionaire blowout warehouse sale.

From now until July 18th, get 50% off any of the titles tagged Summer Sale when you use coupon code Summer25 at checkout.

There are even MORE books included in the sale than last time, so to help, we've made a few special toplists with popular subjects to get you started. There are some great picks in punk, witchy things, and a bunch of Microcosm-published titles!

• Microcosm-published
• Witchy
• Self-Care & Wellness
• DIY
• Music
• Last Chance & Hidden Gems

Plus, you can use the subject search filter at the top of the page to narrow things down by category, like if you want to search for all the books included that are published by us.

The sale runs until July 18th, so you still have a little time to snag yourself a book (or two!) as treat. Or maybe a friend is going through it right now and needs a boost. (Aren't we all)?

Thanks for support our shenanigans.
<3 Microcosm

Fun fact: We had actually totally forgotten about Prime Day being this week when we were planning this out, and are grateful for even MORE excuses to use fan puns. Let's blow them away.

The Practical Witch's Almanac 2026: Green Witchcraft

This year's edition of the Practical Witch's Almanac will help you deepen your connection with the earth through reflections, recipes, rituals, and celebrations tailored to the energies of each season as the wheel of the year turns. Inside, you'll follow the cycles of the moon to support your plans and goals, and you'll discover how plants can be our sacred allies in magic and medicine making. Important U.S. dates as well as traditional witchcraft holidays are noted, along with fun and less familiar ones like Appreciate a Dragon Day. Every week, you'll enjoy new, empowering practices that brighten the living world around you and connect you to the magic within.

The 2026 Almanac includes:

• Lunar Planner Pages
• Weekly & Monthly Schedules
• Moon Phases & Signs
• Sabbats
• Meteor Showers
• Eclipses
• Spells
• Recipes
• Rituals
• Meditations
• A master list of over 200 botanicals (including vegetables and houseplants) marked with symbols for quick reference to magical properties and research-supported medicinal uses

Now on Kickstarter- The Underground Is Bigger than the Mainstream

Make a Zine!: Start Your Own Underground Publishing Revolution

Share your passions and find your community!

Do you have a passion that you want to obsess about in a love letter to the world? In this new edition of Microcosm’s popular DIY guide to zine-making, Joe Biel updates the information provided in the first edition (edited by Biel and the late and great Bill Brent) to address zine making in today's digital and social-media-obsessed world. Covering all the bases for beginners, Make a Zine! hits on more advanced topics like Creative Commons licenses, legality, and sustainability. Says Feminist Review, “Make a Zine! is an inspiring, easy, and digestible read for anyone, whether you’re already immersed in a cut-and-paste world, a graphic designer with a penchant for radical thought, or a newbie trying to find the best way to make yourself and your ideas known.” Illustrated by an army of notable and soon-to-be-notable artists and cartoonists, Make a Zine! also takes a look at the burgeoning indie comix scene, with a solid and comprehensive chapter by punk illustrator Fly (Slug and Lettuce, Peops). Part history lesson, part how-to guide, Make a Zine! is a call to arms, an ecstatic, positive rally cry in the face of TV show book clubs and bestsellers by celebrity chefs. As says Biel in the book’s intro, “Let’s go!”

Comfort Eating With Nick Cave: Vegan Recipes To Get Deep Inside of You

Poor Nick Cave. Life is hard for him and there are many hurdles to deal with every day. And like all of us, Nick is human. In these pages, Mr. Cave finds healthy ways to feed his sorrows, with gusto, whether he's eating a giant bowl of mashed potatoes, a tofu dog, peanut butter from the jar, spicy potato chips, or licking the frosting bowl. "Get inside of me," he passionately tells a slice of pizza. And when you are ready to enter his psyche, there's Nick's favorite Rice Krispies Treats recipe to get inside of you, including, of course, "twelve tears for flavor." No matter what he's chowing down on, it's comforting to witness Nick and his comforts. 

We all know someone who needs the comforts of Nick Cave as much as they need Comfort Eating with Nick Cave. So the next time they are sobbing to Dumb and Dumber or Scream 2 with a container of chocolate chip cookie dough soy ice cream in their lap, hand them a copy of this cookbook and we'll all shed a tear together.

Hardcore Happiness: A Graphic Journey to Find Punk's Positivity

When you listen and scream along to your favorite punk or hardcore band, does that help your mental health or reinforce your frustrations? Artist Reid Chancellor leads us on a tour through hardcore musicians that have struggled with mental health—and written about it in their songs. In this standalone graphic novel, Chancellor picks up the discussion he began in Hardcore Anxiety, in an engaging narrative that will be deeply relatable to anyone grappling with identity, fear, and loss in the mosh pit. If you're considering supplementing your headbanging sessions with therapy and medication, or if you just want to read about the music scene you love from a unique angle, Hardcore Happiness can help you find your way. Punk opens the door to speaking out about mental health issues, but it doesn’t always encourage you to walk through the door and get help. Chancellor props that door open with humor and vulnerability, asking the question, “Why aren’t there more hardcore songs about seeing your therapist?” That’s a song we all might need to hear.

Unfuck Your Brain Deck: Healing & Encouragement from Dr. Faith G. Harper

"If someone you love deeply was embarking on a healing journey similar to what you are doing now, what would you say to them? How else would you support them?"

Draw on the whip-smart affirmation and healing wisdom in this 60-card deck from Dr. Faith G. Harper, bestselling author of Unfuck Your Brain, Unfuck Your Boundaries, and many other books about getting your act together and being your best self. Full of pithy observations and reminders to help you maintain perspective, heal from trauma, and improve your mental health and relationships—all written in Dr. Faith’s kind, no-nonsense style—this deck distills the core lessons of her work. Two types of cards are inside: healing cards prompt you to notice and reflect, while encouragement cards offer nontoxic messages to replace your brain's unhelpful narratives. Use as a daily practice, in therapy or group, or carry the deck in your pocket and draw a card whenever you need a reminder that unfuckening is totally possible.

Kinky Conversation Deck: What Turns You On?

Are you ready to explore your desires and expand your sexual horizons? This beginner-friendly deck invites you to consider what exactly you want to try and how to do so in a healthy, safe, sexy way. Draw a card to reflect on, or hand one to a partner to find out what tickles their curiosity in the bedroom and beyond. Learn about one another's weirdest experiences, wildest dreams, turn-offs, turn-ons, boundaries, limits, fantasies, and what you most want to try next. Created by Dr. Faith G. Harper, author of Unfuck Your Intimacy and Unfuck Your Boundaries, these prompts will help spice up your sex life, experience new sensations, build deep trust and respect with partners, and enjoy yourselves and each other more than ever.

Unfuck Your Communication Workbook: Connect, Collaborate, and Make Yourself Heard

Talk out personal and work conflicts, without fighting or shutting down

In so many facets of our lives, it can be surprisingly hard to speak up, make ourselves heard, and listen effectively. At some point, all of us will experience an unfortunate miscommunication with a friend or intimate partner, and sometimes there’s just no escaping a difficult conversation with a family member or colleague. This workbook from bestselling author Dr. Faith G. Harper offers exercises and tools to help you communicate confidently and listen empathetically. From using “I” statements to identifying toxic communication patterns (in ourselves and others) to learning how to really apologize, this standalone companion to Dr. Faith’s Unfuck Your Communication will help you hone your skills to become an expert communicator in your everyday life.

Unfuck Your Brain Graphic Guide: Using Science to Get Over Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Freak-outs, and Triggers

Dr. Faith's original hit, Unfuck Your Brain—with 5 million copies sold—in a new, illustrated format is appropriate for adult and young-adult readers alike.

Your brain has a mind of its own. And sometimes, even when it's doing its best, it can feel like it's out to get you. If you've ever had a meltdown in class, suffered emotions nobody understands, or found yourself shutting down at the worst time, you know this all too well. Thankfully, this graphic guide is here to help you understand your brain and retrain it to better respond to serious upheavals as well as everyday indignities. Sit with Dr. Faith as she explains her insights and neuroscientific nerdiness (and swearing) in the form of a nonfiction graphic novel with artwork by Gerta O. Egy. If you're struggling with trauma, depression, anxiety, anger, grief, or addiction, or if you just want to have a more chill response to life, this guide will help you get your brain back on track so you can take on the world.

The Horrors of Being a Human: A Cola Pop Creemees Comic

The band experiences a wide range of emotions

Experience every emotion and endure life's ups and downs with this series of short comics. Featuring Desmond Reed's unique style of fluid, cartoony lines, these everyday vignettes strike a variety of emotional chords as they tell the story of the fictional band the Cola Pop Creemees. This standalone volume follows the adventures of the wacky personalities behind the group, letting us in on their candid thoughts and outsized reactions to experiences ranging from the chaos of the grocery store to memories of heartbreak at religious summer camp to a bona fide zombie apocalypse. Their antics will make you laugh as you reflect on life's difficult moments and emotions. As one character muses, "Am I a strong person for doing things while feeling sad, or am I a weak person for feeling sad to begin with?" Dramedy has never looked so squiggly . . . or relatable.

Perfect for fans of BoJack Horseman, this collection serves both as an entry point to the popular web comic and as a continuation of its familiar characters and scenarios. Includes "Memories," winner of a 2022 MICE Mini-Grant.

Return to the Snake Pit: Daily Diary Comics 2022-2024, San Francisco-Richmond

Outsider art about punk, dogs, and aging parents

In his classic no-frills style, Ben Snakepit documents the daily events of the years 2022 to 2024. Each day since 2001, he's drawn a three-panel comic about his day, creating a rhythm with subtle humor and genuine feeling that draws you into events both startling and mundane. This collection starts off in San Francisco, but aging parents and a major family emergency cause Ben to move back in Richmond, VA. After 23 years away, Snakepit returns to the place where it all started. His band breaks up, he turns 50, and the world and his life change dramatically, but Ben keeps bringing us a comic—and a song—every day throughout it all. Grown-up punks, fans of outsider art and diary comics, and anyone with aging parents will get it—and once you get it, much like growing older, there's no going back. 

Our Portland Warehouse is Open by Appointment for In-Person Shopping!

Yep, that's right, if you're in Portland, you can come shop in person at our Portland bookstore (located at our warehouse), by appointment! Our staffed hours are 11am-3pm Mon-Saturday.

Here are the details:

If you're shopping for items for yourself

• To help with juggling our workers' busy schedules, we're asking shoppers to purchase a digital gift card for $50 or more in order to make a shopping appointment. The gift card will be applied to your in-store purchase. Leave an order note that says "I want to make an appointment to browse at the store," when you check out. (If you forget to leave a note after purchase, email orders@microcosmpublishing.com with your order ID and someone will be in touch!)

If you're shopping for items to resell in your own store

• Email our sales department at sales@microcosmpublishing.com or call us at 360-291-7226 and we'll figure out a time for you to come by.

Face masks are required for everyone entering our building!

If you have any questions, please email orders@microcosmpublishing.com, and someone from our customer service team will help!

See you soon!
<3 Microcosm

We're in this together.

Hi friends. We’re not big on making statements—we hope our work speaks for us most of the time—but these are extra-troubling times and we were inspired by Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC to share what we’re doing to meet this moment.

There’s this idea of “locus of control” that we think about a lot at times like this when the static is overwhelming and it’s easy to feel helpless. It’s a great way of cutting through the overwhelming static so you can focus on what you actually can do. 

Maybe your locus of control is very small and encompasses only the freedom of your thoughts. Maybe you can set priorities for your personal spending or a project you manage, maybe you have an online platform, or maybe you have an artistic outlet or are good at writing letters or making a compelling argument. There are always going to be more things outside your locus, like you can’t control what others think or do (and honestly that’s probably a good thing). But we bet most of you have a lot more influence than you think.  

One of the most important factors that increases the impact of acting from your locus of control is Martin Seligman’s “Learned Optimism,” the idea that you can change your situation through concerted effort, focus, and perspective. You can find this idea in a few of Dr. Faith’s books, and she and Joe wrote about it extensively in How to Be Accountable. 

What's in our locus of control as a company? How do we stay optimistic? That’s a moving target, but here’s what we’ve got so far:

• Sharing our existing resources. In other words: getting you the books you need more than ever. Since the beginning, we’ve created work by and for those of us living closer to the margins than the center. We’re prepared with resources for survival, action, and care in a national crisis because crisis isn’t new to us. 
• Adding new resources. We are actively adding new titles to our catalog that provide support to those most harmed. Books and decks take a couple years or longer but we’ve been putting out a flurry of zines since November and acquiring more all the time. Let us know if you have requests. Or submit your own idea and we’ll see if it’s a fit.
• Shoring up our policies and procedures. We’ve recently improved a bunch of existing policy and procedures around privacy and security, and refreshed our team on it.
  • To protect our team: We already had a policy that was basically “don’t call the cops or let them into the building unless extreme violence is occuring.” We added more specifics about what to do if, say, ICE knocks on the door (don’t let them in or talk to them) and made sure our workers know what to do. 
  • To protect our customers and community: We won’t share your private data with anyone, ever. We’ve added some more layers of security, and we added a bit about online safety to our FAQ in response to reader questions. We are continually improving our data security practices. 

• Offering sliding scale prices on our published books.We’ve done this for a long time and everyone wins—if you can afford less, you can pay less, if you can afford more, you can pay more. 
• Sending books to people in prison. We have a mutual aid program to send books to imprisoned readers whenever they ask, which is nearly every day. The community chips in to help with the cost of the books so the authors can still get royalties. Based on the mail we get, this is changing lives.  
• Donating books to causes we care about. Requests for donated books have skyrocketed this year. Instead of pulping our overstock, we donate as much of it as we can. If your organization can use books as leverage for doing better work, hit us up on our contact page.
• Being in community. It’s sometimes harder to figure out how to do this as a business. We’re not tiny, but we’re not big enough to make a huge splash. We do some “I’m a local business owner and I care about this issue” advocacy stuff, which doesn’t usually feel very impactful. Our Portland office is at a bus stop, and one of our team members has stepped up to pick up trash every day and maintain the trash can there. We host a Futel public phone and just added a free bookshelf.
• Not being butts. We recognize that everyone’s feeling jagged and having a tough time. Us too! This is one of the harder ones, but we are trying extra to be kind and patient even in the most frustrating interactions or when we have to say no to something someone really wants. Is “trying not to ruin anyone’s day” a worthy entry into our locus of control list? We think so. 
• Always getting better at what we do. This is a choice we make every day. Being able to do the things on this list is what gets us up every morning. Publishing and distributing more books and zines that people want, selling more of them, reducing our costs, improving our systems and efficiency, improving morale, increasing our wages… being better at the business part isn’t the goal in itself, but it’s a force multiplier for the good we’re trying to do.  

A lot of the items on this list are things we’ve been doing for years. That’s not a brag: it comes out of necessity. Many of our readers and team members are certainly in more danger than before from recent and upcoming executive actions, but, unfortunately, none of these threats are entirely new.  

As our friends at Chickasaw Press said of our common ground when we started working together, “We are the voices that are being muffled.” But that is also our greatest strength, because when times get tough, we’re prepared. For better or worse, the margins are our comfort zone.

So we’re sorry to say that we’re as ready as we can be. None of us can stop the tide alone, but we can stand together against it.

Want to boost these actions? You probably have a long to-do list of your own, but if you’re struggling to find a path forward, here are a few ways to get started:

• Buy books! Read zines! If you’re getting ones by us, the best ways to support us are to get them either directly from us, from your local independent bookstore, at Bookshop.org, or check them out from the library. 
• Want to help distribute our poster catalogs to your local coffeeshops and other community flyer spots? Drop us a line.
• Send a care package to a friend who’s having a hard time.
• If you know someone who’s really struggling, talk to them about it! Talking about what’s wrong saves lives. Here’s a handy resource shared by our author Sascha Altman DuBrul.
• Pitch in to help send our books to people in prison.
• Make a list of actions in your own locus of control. Feel free to share with us if you’d like, we love to see this stuff!

Thanks for being in this with us. 

Events! Microcosm In Your Town

Want to meet us in person, check out our books, or see an author speak? We've got author events and convention events coming up!

Upcoming Author Events

Upcoming Tabling Events

None listed. Want us to table at your event? Reach out to daley (at) microcosmpublishing.com!

Upcoming Trade Shows and Industry Events

Usually not open to the public, these industry events are a chance for store buyers to peruse our books, write orders, and chat about terms. We plan to either attend or exhibit at the following events. If you'll be there too, drop us a line—we'd love to meet you.

Interested in having an author at your store or event? Reach out!!

Planning an event and want us to be part of it (speaking, author readings, movie screenings, setting up a book and zine pop-up shop, etc.)? Let us know!!

In the Portland area? We can set up a book fair at your workplace like the ones your school used to have.

Microcosm now on PubStock

Direct ordering for bookstores just got even easier

Hey, this is a fun little piece of news, but it's going to be most useful and interesting to our industry pals and bookselling buddies, so feel free to keep scrolling if that doesn't feel like it applies to you! The good news for everyone, though, is that this should make it even easier to find Microcosm titles on your local bookstore's shelves—and easier to order them if you don't see what you're looking for. Thanks to everyone on both sides of the bookstore counter keeping this radical publisher afloat in wild times!

In our continuing mission to shore up the independent book world ecosystem, Microcosm Publishing's in-house and distributed titles are now available on PubStock! PubStock is a Bookmanager tool that allows U.S. bookstores to get a live look at our available inventory—bookstores that use Bookmanager for their website/inventory/point of sale can now browse and purchase Microcosm titles with even greater ease, without having to look through our site and without running into availability issues. Our stock counts are updated daily, so our indie bookselling friends get a clearer picture than ever of what titles we have available, and how many.

Even better for the folks linked up with Batch, since we're there, too! Ordering, receiving, and record-keeping just got way easier, building Microcosm's inventory into the tools booksellers have at hand.

Love you, indie bookstores. Thanks for keeping it real! And as always, we'd love to hear from you about what we can do better to keep us all working, organizing, and thriving together.

Microcosm Declares 2025 the Year of Zines

The DIY information technology helping us build a better world

In an era of book bans, people are still finding ways to read, write, and share freely. One result we’ve noticed: a groundswell of zines. That’s why we’re calling 2025 the Year of Zines.

What’s a zine? It’s a stapled, photocopied love letter to a passionate interest. People write zines about whatever they need to: to tell their story uncensored, to express themselves fearlessly in words and art, to share knowledge or resources, to celebrate something they care about deeply, to connect directly with readers. Zines can take many forms, from a handwritten manifesto distributed out of a fanny pack to a polished product sold in stores. 

We have published and sold zines since 1996, and we’ve seen many waves of interest come and go. But we haven’t seen anything like the surge of zine sales that began on November 9, 2024. Sure, there was a two-week run on reproductive rights resources, books like How to Get Your Period and zines like Reclaiming Our Ancient Wisdom pushing aside all other holiday bestsellers (even Slingshot Planners!) on their way to the top of the charts. But that urgency quickly died down, revealing an even stickier trend on our orders page—people were, and still are, loading up with assorted, seemingly random zines, on every topic, from every era. Zines about bees, government misdeeds, backyard building projects, mental health, abortion, abortion, abortion. Zines and books about how to make zines.

What’s behind this hunger for zines? To us, it’s not that hard to see. We are all desperate to expand our understanding, to think freely, to feel safe connections with others and with our own thoughts, to learn the skills we need to survive this era. Online media, especially social media, is compromised. Books can be slow to come out, ponderous to read, relentlessly gatekept, banned up the wazoo. Zines are none of these. They’re a fix that satisfies the urgent need for pithy commentary, bigger perspective, getting a look inside someone else’s head without needing to have your own perfectly-formed and fully-informed opinion. They provide a small, safe bubble with no mandate for response. A zine is a safe place to not know, to be wrong, to change your mind, and to entertain other perspectives.

Zines can be banned, but they’re too slippery to be stopped, too slight to be taken seriously, some too underground to even be found. They are decentralized, passed hand-to-hand, and there are no gatekeepers to corrupt or bottlenecks to plug. 

And the best thing about zines is that you can create one! You can publish it yourself, all you need is something to say and access to a printer or copier. You can give copies to your friends, leave them in the public library or at Little Free Libraries, mail them to the creators who made you fall in love with zines in the first place. This is far from the expensive corporate allure of self-publishing a book-shaped object to remain forever hidden in the algorithm. Zines are a form of energy that can’t be contained by anyone, even us, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

So we’re calling 2025 the Year of Zines, and this is what it means: read zines. Seek them out. We have a ton in our catalog, and we sell them to more and more stores. You can find a plethora of printed zines on Etsy and digital ones on itch.io. More and more cities and towns are hosting their own zine fests. You’ll find them hiding out in craft fair booths, in a bin at the library. Search for zines + your area of passionate interest. Once you start looking, you’ll see them everywhere. (And if you have a store, check out our zine about selling zines!). 

And when you aren’t finding the exact zine you want, well, you know what to do. How do you think we got started making them? 

If you'd like to submit a zine or an idea for one to Microcosm, you can read a little more about our guidelines and process here. Happy creating!

Thornapple Press to be distributed by Microcosm Publishing

Meet our latest distributed publisher

Starting April 1, 2025, Microcosm Publishing will become the new worldwide distributor (excluding Canada) for Thornapple Press, a Canadian publisher specializing in thoughtful titles about love, sexuality, and relational ethics with integrity. Publisher Eve Rickert founded Thornapple as the successor to Thorntree Press, publisher of popular and award-winning polyamory- and relationship-based books such as Polysecure, More Than Two, and Love’s Not Color Blind.

Microcosm founder and CEO, Joe Biel, says of the new agreement, "I've found Thornapple to have an excellent point of view, good publication packaging and design, and thoughtful ideas throughout their existence, so when they approached us to become their distributor, the answer was obvious. Independent presses are stronger together and it's clear that this tide lifts all boats." 

Rickert adds, "The new arrangement offers a lot of benefits for Thornapple, our books and our authors. Microcosm has a large sales staff throughout the USA, with excellent reach into specialty shops, such as sex shops, that are well-suited for our books. Microcosm is also closely aligned with Thornapple in terms of both brand identity and company culture."

Microcosm will distribute Thornapple’s full backlist as well as all forthcoming titles, such as Transforming the Shame Triangle: From Shame to Love Using Parts Work by bestselling authors Jessica Fern and David Cooley, scheduled for release in 2025. While Microcosm has always sold Thornapple Press’s catalog, Thornapple titles will be exclusive through Microcosm starting in April 2025.

Excited? Us too! Exclusive distro rights begin in the new year, but you can still browse the Thornapple titles currently available on our site, with more to come!

Call for Submissions for Neurodiversity zine series

Farewell to Joyce Brabner: Microcosm remembers a beloved author and mentor

Microcosm Publishing founder Joe Biel recently shared a remembrance of his close friend, mentor, respected comic artist and writer, and Cleveland publishing legend Joyce Brabner, who died August 2, 2024 after a long fight with cancer. She was 72 years old. 

Though Brabner is perhaps best known through her marriage to comics pioneer and American Splendor creator Harvey Pekar, she was herself an esteemed artist, activist, and writer, publishing numerous books of her own alongside collaborations with other graphic publishing luminaries such as Alan Moore, Denny O’Neil, and Stephen R. Bissette.

Brabner’s final published book was The Courage Party: Helping Our Resilient Children Understand and Survive Sexual Assault, a project of great importance to her which Microcosm published in 2020 at the very beginning of the COVID crisis. This groundbreaking YA comic book tells the story of a child who fights off a sexual attack (she prefers to be called a “crime fighter” over “survivor”) and the support she receives from her community, including an empowering “courage party” thrown for her by older women with their own stories to share. The book contains thorough and age-appropriate insights on how to navigate interactions with police, the legal system, support groups, and how to deal with teasing and inappropriate behavior from peers; it also offers extensive resources both for children and adults.

Detailed obituaries for Brabner have appeared in Cleveland Scene and Cleveland 13 News. Microcosm mourns the loss of Joyce Brabner as a friend, a Cleveland fixture, a fierce activist, and a publishing visionary.

Microcosm expands Cleveland warehousing operation

Microcosm Publishing has purchased the building adjacent to their Cleveland, OH warehouse, where construction is currently underway to connect the two buildings. This major project will double Microcosm’s warehousing capacity, as well as create an additional sales capacity of $5 million per year to serve the needs of Microcosm’s vertically-integrated publishing and distribution operation, which earned their recognition in 2022, 2023, and 2024 as a Publishers Weekly Fastest Growing Publisher.

Microcosm develops agile new systems for publishing and distribution programs

Microcosm Publishing has developed new internal buying, sales, and marketing systems for their publishing and distribution catalogs, tailoring their efforts across all departments to work more flexibly, efficiently, and more responsively to reader taste and customer demand.

With an eye toward seasonality as well as prioritizing curiosity and steady growth over quick trends, Microcosm’s new strategy will allow the press’s operations to focus on and more keenly track its strengths, such as titles on nature, the outdoors, and survival; mental health and neurodiversity; witchcraft, astrology, and metaphysics; mushrooms, gardening, wild foods, and more. Microcosm founder, publisher, and CEO Joe Biel explains, “We're adjusting our strategy to focus on subjects by month; essentially, we are treating all months like holidays to synchronize our sales, marketing, and purchasing departments, so the offerings are streamlined. This will allow us to accentuate the strength of our thematics and create a throughline from marketing to sales, and to manage the over 10,000 stores we added as customers over the past four years.”

Says Microcosm co-owner and vice president Elly Blue, “We've set aside publishing's cynical tendencies to chase bestsellers or churn out large quantities of dreck. Instead we're staying true to our values while serving the diverse needs and interests of our readers. We spent the past year running the numbers on what subject matter our customers want so we can give them more of that and evolve along with their interests, while building up our stable foundation to support our workers and mission. Want to go mushroom foraging by bicycle and then prepare a vegan feast? Start a co-operative coven consultancy? Get high, get sober, or get help turning your trauma into wisdom? We've got you."

Too Much Coffee Man to be distributed by Microcosm

Microcosm will be the new distributor for publisher Too Much Coffee Man, home of the iconic socially analytical humor comics and character created by Shannon Wheeler. Founded in 1991 and appearing everywhere from The New Yorker to The Daily Texan to MTV, Too Much Coffee Man remains an enduring and influential presence in independent comics. 

Microcosm’s collaboration with Too Much Coffee Man will include the forthcoming Too Much Coffee Man: The Original Comic Books #1-9, currently slated for release in March 2025, along with other reissues of prior releases and updated and new material. Stay tuned!

Microcosm becomes first independent publisher to join bookseller tech Batch

Microcosm Publishing has become the first U.S. independent publisher to sign on with Batch, a business tool owned by the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland designed for independent bookstores to electronically store and organize invoices, reduce administrative workloads, and prepare publisher payments.

Microcosm hopes that this exciting and innovative development will strengthen relationships with independent booksellers, streamlining payment processes to create more ease and better communication for everyone. Booksellers and shop owners have already responded enthusiastically to the news from Microcosm's sales team, such as Kelly Justice of Fountain Bookstore, whose response to the news was, "GOD BLESS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry for the all-caps, but seriously, thank you."

Of the Batch partnership, Microcosm founder Joe Biel says, "When Allison Hill told every bookseller at Winter Institute to simplify their workloads by signing up for Batch, my next move was marching over and signing up as a publisher. Our field sales reps have always cited that the greatest impediment for opening new accounts to Microcosm is convincing stores to take on the payables workload of a self-distributed publisher. I know how much work goes into managing payments on our 242 accounts and how consolidating that workload will enable booksellers to add more cool, independent publishers. But it was shocking to learn that we were the first independent publisher in the U.S. to sign up!"

Batch is free for booksellers to join; stores interested in Batch services may sign up here. For bookstores interested in setting up accounts with Microcosm Publishing (which can be serviced by Batch's invoicing system), please feel free to contact us here.