This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly answer a reader question. This reader wants to launch a publishing company, but isn’t sure where to start. We bring it back to basics for them.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly interpret and analyze the recent news that book distributor and wholesaler Ingram is centralizing its warehousing for its distribution clients. Hang on and enjoy the ride through some serious publishing industry inside baseball!
On this episode of the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly take on a reader question. This reader is planning to publish a tarot deck, and wanted advice about how to map the project out to best actualize their concept. Our advice is geared towards their specific project, an illustrated deck, but holds true for people wanting to publish books, board games, and other creative projects as well.
Full time position in Cleveland, OH. This is a warehouse and fulfillment position, helping people get their books and be happy. We practice mask-wearing and are set up for social distancing. You can get a sneak peek at the humble work place here. Position closes May 28, 2021.
We need someone who can:
• Lift at least 50 pounds
• Demonstrate an exquisite attention to detail (we aim for 99.99% error free shipments)
• Work unsupervised
• Believe 99% in what we do but is confident to identify flaws in the system, ask questions, and bring up their own ideas about how things could be better
• Listen and find solutions that work for everyone involved
• Be very comfortable with alphabetizing and similar data sorting
• Show up prepared and work hard for their whole shift
• Locate books and pull and pack orders four to five days per week (90% or more of their time)
• Work 40 hours per week on site
• Start as soon as reasonable and commit to at least two years
Benefits:
• All company profits are distributed to staff in the form of raises and bonuses—we aim for (and have been exceeding) 20% annual raises
• Health insurance after trial period
• Employee ownership program after five years
• Options for paid vacation and professional development training programs
• Some flexibility in work hours
• Own voices focus to empower readers to change their lives and the world around them
• Access to owners, management, and other staff for clarification, direction, priorities, continued education, and guidance
No experience needed. Entry level position. Equal opportunity employer. Preference given to former interns and diverse hires. Starts at $14/hour with 90 day trial then $15/hour.
Apply by May 28, 2021 by completing this application and submitting it to apply at microcosmpublishing.com with the subject line “warehouse application”; no resume or cover letter necessary unless you believe that additional details would be helpful.
On a rare current events episode of the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly talk about the latest big fish in publishing to be swallowed up by an even bigger fish. We talk about consolidation, specialization, and how sometimes your most successful experiment is the one you don’t want to keep.
Thanks for listening / watching! If you have a publishing question you’d like us to tackle on the pod, send it to podcast at microcosm publishing dot com.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly try to break down the roles of author and publisher. There’s a lot of variation and a lot of grey area, and this was a fun conversation about what works and what doesn’t.
It’s time to start planning the tenth volume of the Bikes in Space feminist bicycle science fiction anthology! The theme for this one is books.
Submissions are now open for original short fiction about bicycling and books, from a feminist perspective. These elements need to be intrinsic to the story. Send your most creative tales of bicycle-powered interlibrary loan on the moon, characters who literally leap out of books and go for a ride, a two-wheeled revolution sparked by seditious literature, the competing stories of steampunk velocipedists, a manual for futuristic bike messengers, a Borgesian meta-library, a literal rewriting of gender norms… Have fun with this one!
I especially welcome #ownvoices submissions and work by first-time writers.
Genre: Stories can be in any speculative or fantastical genre—hard science fiction, space opera, epic fantasy, alternative history, paranormal romance, hope punk, modern fairy tales and anything around or in between. No fanfic, poetry, or erotica, please.
Word count: 1,000 – 6,000 words
Format: Google doc, MS word, Pages, text document, or PDF. Comics submissions of up to 6 pages can be submitted in thumbnails.
Payment: A portion of profits after expenses from the Kickstarter project used to fund this book is split between contributors, with a guaranteed minimum of $50 each, plus copies of the book.
Deadline: September 1, 2021
Send your submissions to elly at microcosmpublishing dot com
I respond to all submissions and share my reading notes on request.
Publishing is a business with lots of opportunities to make really expensive, embarrassing, and/or hurtful mistakes! We don’t really have a culture of talking about our failures in this industry, but we think it’s healthy to acknowledge and learn from them.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly talk about some of the biggest mistakes we’ve made over the years at Microcosm . . . and how we recovered from them. We didn’t have time to get to everything we ever botched, but maybe we’ll make this an annual episode!
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly answer a reader question from someone who wants to start a regional publishing company but isn’t sure how to figure out what format and market niche to pursue.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly answer a listener question! A relatively new publisher has been turned down by distributors, but a larger publisher made a proposal to license her books. What do these things mean and what is in her best interest?