
Hellstrip Gardening: Create a Paradise between the Sidewalk and the Curb
by Evelyn J. Hadden Author, Joshua McCullough Author and Lauren Springer Ogden Author
Help others and yourself appreciate nature in the neighborhood, by the sidewalk! Anyone can take advantage of every inch of space to create functional and aesthetically pleasing gardens. Whether you are looking to keep...
296 pages, color, 8x9, paperback
$24.95
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Cat Party #10
by Katie Haegele Author
Will this Cat Party never end? If Katie Haegele has her way, no, it totally wouldn't. In the tenth issue we join Katie and crew as they tell us the heart-breaking story of a cat who ventured out on her own, and the...
$4.95
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The Healthy Relationships Workbook: Understanding Yourself so You Can Understand Others and Strengthen Your Communication
by Lori Henry Author
Do you feel like your relationship is stuck? If you're struggling to communicate, to understand your partner and feel understood by them, fighting a lot, or just want to make sure you're building...
$7.95
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From Dream to Reality: How to Make a Living as a Freelance Writer
by Jessie L. Kwak Author
Want to make a living as a freelance writer? Here are the resources, answers, and real talk you need about what it takes to make a living as a writer for hire. Drawing on her own varied and successful years of...
$14.95
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$30-$2000 Superpack: Slightly Damaged Books! (Distributed Books)
by Super Pack! Author and Various Author
Each year we receive 6,000 damaged books from other publishers—and we're passing the savings on to you! We've got some books and zines with bent corners, scratched or slightly ripped covers,...
a whole pile of random books
$30.00
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Heirloom Plants: A Complete Compendium of Heritage Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs & Flowers
by Thomas Etty Author and Lorraine Harrison Author
In this guide for gardeners, dig into the world of heirloom plants and vegetables. Compiled in this compendium are some of the world's most delicious vegetables and rarest varieties of flowers, herbs, and more. Not...
$29.99 $18.00

If Animals Could Talk: An Adult Coloring Book for Adults
by Carla Butwin Illustrator and Josh Cassidy Author
Born from the book that went viral, If Animals Could Talk, Carla Butwin and Josh Cassidy created this coloring book so you can further channel and engage with the realness. Combining dark humor and intentionally...
$14.95
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Editing 101: Tips and Strategies for Working with Writers
by Lydia Rogue Author
Editing is more than just crossing out words with a red pen. Helping an author shape their writing is a complex, collaborative task that can take many forms, from beta reading to proofreading. This handy guide provides...
$5.95
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Constructive Beekeeping
by Ed H. Clark Author
The bee is an economical “fellow.” Efficiency is their stock and trade. For centuries they have been working at the same task and brought it to perfection. Bees amaze and inspire engineers and builders with...
$6.95
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A Quick & Easy Guide to Asexuality
by Molly Muldoon Author and Will Hernandez Illustrator
From the Quick & Easy series on sexuality and gender identity, this book offers an approachable and friendly introduction to asexuality for readers of all stripes. Designed to help increase awareness...
$7.99
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Unfuck Your Eating: Using Science to Build a Better Relationship with Food, Health, and Body Image
by Dr. Faith G. Harper Author
Food is complicated. And our relationships with food and eating are all kinds of fucked up. It doesn't help that cultural messages about health, diet, body image, and weight are fatphobic and often...
$14.95
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The Little Book of Axolotl Wisdom: Live Your Life Like the World's Weirdest, Cutest Salamander
by Jessica Allen Author
The axolotl, also known as the Mexican Water Monster, is a small salamander with a big personality. Capable of regenerating limbs, gills, and even brains, they're also incredibly resilient and offer a lot for us to...
$11.95
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Go By Bicycle #1
by Scott Larkin Author
Scott writes a smart, engaging zine about bicycle advocacy, bike culture, public transit issues, and the dark side of car culture. He has a positive, upbeat, yet realistic attitude about showing people the value of...
32 pages, 1/2 size, copied
$4.95
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Everyday Herbal Teamaking: A Pocket Guide for Health, Fun, and Self-Care
by Glenna A. McLean Author
This unfussy, spirited guide to 35 readily accessible herbs offers botanical names, medical reputations from various modern and historical sources, good-humoredly honest tasting notes, and illustrations to help...
$12.95
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Go By Bicycle #2
by Scott Larkin Author
Scott writes a smart, engaging zine about bicycle advocacy, bike culture, public transit issues, and the darkside of car culture. He has a positive, upbeat, yet realistic attitude about showing people the value of riding...
32 pages, 1/2 size, copied
$4.95
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Occult Russia: Pagan, Esoteric, and Mystical Traditions
by Christopher McIntosh Author
Dive into the history of occultism in Russia, and learn about the recent revival of spiritual traditions in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Touching on ancient Slavic deities, pagan and shamanic practices,...
$24.99
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Consensuality: How to Love Other People Without Losing Yourself
by Helen Wildfell Author
There are infinite possibilities in human relationships, but the fairytale ideal of companionship does not exist for most people. In Consensuality, Helen Wildfell and her co-adventurers detail the process for creating or...
$14.95
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I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor
by Andrew Boyd Author
In this timely guide to navigating the climate crisis, author Andrew Boyd shares his own crisis of hope with the reader and takes them along on his journey to reclaim a sense of agency. Speaking to renowned thinkers in a...
$29.99
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From Dream to Reality

Want to make a living as a freelance writer? Here are the resources, answers, and real talk you need about what it takes to make a living as a writer for hire. Drawing on her own varied and successful years of freelance copywriting experience, Jessie Kwak (author of From Chaos to Creativity and From Big Idea to Book) offers valuable insights on how to figure out if this fast-paced, ever-evolving career is for you—and how to make it work if you decide to go for it.
50 Ways to Protect Bookstores

Bookstores are important. So are booksellers. And they—and the ideas and communities they serve—need protection. Danny Caine, the best-selling author of How to Resist Amazon and Why and co-owner of the Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas, writes a stirring call to action. Bookstores are not charities, he writes, and they shouldn't get a pass on exploitative labor practices, but they play a vital role in our society that is worth upholding. Preparing the ground for a more expansive book on the topic, Caine offers 50 ideas for protecting this idiosyncratic business niche and, by extension, the neighborhoods that bookstores anchor.
Consensuality: How to Love Other People without Losing Yourself

There are infinite possibilities in human relationships, but the fairytale ideal of companionship does not exist for most people. In Consensuality, Helen Wildfell and her co-adventurers detail the process for creating or finding a healthy, successful relationship as well as common pitfalls and how to avoid them. Tackling topics like gender identity, sexual boundaries, power struggles, emotional dysfunction, and overcoming regret and resentment, the authors describe a journey towards a respectful social environment. Their experiences lead to lessons of self-empowerment and communication tips for building healthy partnerships. In a consent-based relationship, partners recognize one another's preferences and boundaries and discuss how those fit with our own. Filled with personal descriptions of the complex layers in human interaction, mental health, trauma, and desire, the book combines gender studies with memoir to truly make the personal political.
Everyday Herbal Teamaking

This unfussy, spirited guide to 35 readily accessible herbs offers botanical names, medical reputations from various modern and historical sources, good-humoredly honest tasting notes, and illustrations to help identify what you've just foraged, grown, or bought at the herb shop or health food store. With teacher and tea aficionado Glenna McLean as your guide, travel back in time by enjoying a blend of herbs that King Tut savored, a tea that was thought to ward off the Plague in the 14th Century, and the herbs imbibed by druids at Stonehenge and Puritan church services. Quaff brews purported to bring you courage, quench (or ignite) lust, ward off scurvy, and soothe stress and pain. Includes warnings and contraindications so you can pursue your herbal tea habit safely and happily for years to come.
The Transmasculine Guide to Physical Transition Workbook

A supportive workbook for transgender men and transmasculine and nonbinary people who are considering or in the midst of physical transition. Exercises help you check in with yourself every step of the way as you explore your needs, hopes, plans, and experiences. In these pages, you'll find plenty of space to work through what transition path is right for you, take notes about your research and appointments, track your meds and reactions, plan your surgery and recovery, journal through your fears and dreams, write supportive letters to yourself, and more. Compiled by someone who's been there, this safe and supportive workbook is designed to help you find yourself and enjoy who you truly are. Can be used on its own, or alongside Sage Buch's book The Transmasculine Guide to Physical Transition.
Unfuck Your Eating

Food is complicated. And our relationships with food and eating are all kinds of fucked up. It doesn't help that cultural messages about health, diet, body image, and weight are fatphobic and often medically dangerous. Dr. Faith Harper, author of the bestselling Unfuck Your Brain and Unfuck Your Body, brings her trademark combination of science, humor, and real talk to help us work through our food, health, and body image issues and develop a healthier relationship with food so that it can fuel us and bring us pleasure. She delves into the difference between eating disorders and disordered eating and the causes and consequences of both, breaks down the difference between various behaviors, tackles trauma and other co-occurring conditions, and provides compassionate and practical steps to improve your eating habits and repair your relationship with yourself.
Unfuck Your Business

How do you start and run a successful business, despite the odds? In this unique guide to entrepreneurship, successful business owners and bestselling authors Joe Biel and Dr. Faith G. Harper teach you practical math and management skills alongside the emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and coping skills that you need in order to overcome internal barriers to success no matter what type of business you are in.
The History of Miami Hip Hop

In the late 90s, the music scene in Miami was at the infancy of becoming the multi-million dollar cultural and artistic force that it is today. Musicians like Pitbull, DJ Khaled, and countless others staked Miami’s claim as the newest Mecca for Hip Hop heads and graffiti artists. During this time, The Cipher was created. An independent newspaper that followed the scene and included reviews, interviews, essays, photos, and more, The Cipher was the choice source for discovering Miami’s underground. The History of Miami Hip Hop chronicles the ups and downs of this legendary rag during its short tenure. Author John Cordero presents both a memoir of his time as one of the newspaper’s creators, and an anthology of some of The Cipher’s greatest hits. An essential chapter in the history of Hip Hop’s third coast.
The Transmasculine Guide to Physical Transition

This in-depth exploration of all aspects of physical transition is an accessible and supportive guide for transgender men, transmasculine people, and nonbinary people. Drawing on their personal experience and extensive research, Sage Buch walks you through a wide array of safe transition options. Inside, you'll learn about non-medical interventions like chest binding and packing, explore the varieties and effects of hormone replacement therapy, and get a comprehensive primer on choosing, preparing for, and recovering from top and bottom surgery.
Creative, Not Famous Activity Book

Are you a small potato, pursuing your creative passions without expectations of fame or fortune? This playful workbook is designed to help adults with years of creative experience explore unconsidered art forms, amp up your creative approach, and wrangle your personal triumphs into a sustained and fulfilling practice. Interactive exercises and assignments will inspire you to write, draw, sing, rhyme, craft, improvise, observe, engage, document and express yourself in every medium imaginable. Get out of your rut, embrace your inner child, and see which seeds will bear the fruit of larger projects. Prepare to discover fun ways to increase your creative visibility, live by the Golden Rule, and expand your community.
Bicycles & Broomsticks

A coven races—literally—to fight off the magic smog that threatens their city. A janitor at the last rocket launch site on a dying planet sends the rocket up with a special spell of comfort. Instead of casting the resiliency spell she asked for, a girl's grandmother teaches her to ride a bike. A midwife's bicycle is stolen, resulting in a fitting comeuppance. An urban witch falls for a bicycle mechanic and learns to reconcile her double life. Smash the petropatriarchy and enjoy these and more science fiction and fantasy stories in the pages of the supernatural 9th volume of the popular Bikes in Space series.
In The News
Summoning All Witches
Since 1996, Microcosm has published and distributed books, zines, and other goods that put your power in your hands. Including, lately, an increasing number of pagan, mystical, and othersuch witchy books, zines, and decks.
We've recently updated our submission guidelines to make it extra clear: We're looking to publish and distribute more works of magic, witchcraft, and pagan spirituality. Send us your anarcha-feminist oracle deck, your spellbook for finding queer platonic relationships, your comics journalism about the history of witchcraft, a guide to the magic your grandparents taught you, agricultural tips for witches, adorable drawings of animals on broomsticks, or whatever creative way you've found to help people see beyond the pale of normalcy to change their lives and the world.
We are always, especially, looking for submissions from authors and artists who are Black, Indigenous, people of color, mixed race, disabled, neurodivergent, queer, transgender, nonbinary, or who don't see themselves well represented in mainstream publishing.
What we publish
Our first tarot deck, The Gold Lyre Tarot, was funded on Kickstarter in early 2021:
We're proud to publish Friday Gladheart's annual The Practical Witch's Almanac.

And we have many more books, zines, and stickers in print and on the way, like these:

To submit your work to our publishing program, check out our submission guidelines to assess if we might be a good fit. We aim to work with authors and creators who can work within our processes, so following our guidelines exactly is an important first step when submitting a project.
What we distribute
Microcosm is also a specialty wholesaler, selling thousands of books, zines, and decks from other publishers, big and small primarily to non-book-focused gift stores. We work with Big 5 publishing houses, zinesters cutting and pasting in their closets, and everyone in between. And these folks are putting out more and more books celebrating paganism, crystals, astrology, tarot, the occult, the moon, and more.

If you already have your own publishing program and want to see if our wholesale program is a good fit, check out our distribution info.
WorkingLit: Publishing Software from Microcosm

WorkingLit is cloud-based software developed by Microcosm Publishing that gives independent publishers tools to thrive and grow at their own pace. Our industry is run by billionaires and conglomerates, and we want to give our fellow publishers the freedom to market and sell your books, understand your business, and painlessly pay royalties.
Microcosm built our own software from scratch starting in 2002, and we owe it our survival, success, and continued independence. Now we want to share it with you.
Get involved and stay in touch!
We're planning to launch our first phase publicly in summer, 2022.
- Take our survey for publishers
- Join our email list
- Are you a programmer? We're looking to grow our team. Email elly at microcosmpublishing dot com with your skillset and why you're interested in being part of WorkingLit
- Take the tour:
Call for Submissions for Neurodiversity zine series

A People's Guide to Publishing Podcast
In 2012, Microcosm founder and CEO Joe Biel started writing blog posts. Biel wanted to share 25 years of experience and how Microcosm sold millions of books to leave a trail of bread crumbs for others to have similar success. Biel has also written a book about the topic, A People's Guide to Publishing.
Joe and Microcosm's marketing director Elly now make the weekly People's Guide to Publishing People's Guide to Publishing podcast. You can listen to it on your preferred app, or watch the video version as a vlogcast.
Got questions about the publishing industry or need help troubleshooting your own process? Submit your question to podcast at microcosmpublishing dot com, and we'll try to address it on an upcoming episode.
Find the series of blog posts that started it all here:
For authors: How to Pitch Your Book to a Publisher
Data About Your Book's Details (MetaData)
The Economic Case for Traditional Format Offset Printing
Distribution Question (with infographic)
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! There's a full calendar at the bottom of the page.
Upcoming Author Events
- March 18, 2023 (5pm): Meet and greet John Cordero, author of The History of Miami Hip Hop, at Sole Garden 2200 NW 2nd Ave, Ste 109, Miami, FL 33127.
- March 30, 2023 (7pm): Danny Caine reads from How to Resist Amazon and Why and his upcoming zine, 50 Ways to Protect Bookstores at Schuler's Books, 2313 Jackson Ave, Ann Arbor, MI, 48103.
- April 13th, 2023 (7pm): Gwendolyn Olton reads from From Conflict to Community at Burning Books, 420 Connecticut St, Buffalo, NY 14213.
Interested in having an author at your store or event? Reach out!!
Upcoming Tabling Events
Where we'll be selling books and zines
- May 8-11, 2023: Peerpocalypse, Seaside, OR
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.
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.
BFF Book Subscription
