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Posts By: Elly Blue

Queering Consent: Call for Happy Endings

Microcosm Publishing is soliciting submissions for our Queering Consent series of queer erotica stories, novellas, novels, illustrated books, and comics!

Pitch us your work in progress or your completed work—make it sexy, make it hot, make it consensual, and make it queer! Titles that fit this series show complex, healthy, joyful queer relationships, have a happy ending, and feature explicit erotic content forming the core of the work.

Anything queer is great! We are especially (but not exclusively) looking for: 

  • Lesbian erotica
  • Real-world (present or past) settings
  • T4T content
  • Polyamorous content

For books, manuscripts should be no fewer than 2,500 words (for a short story zine) and top out around 40,000 words for a book. Manuscripts can be composed of short stories or one longer narrative. Black and white illustrations are also welcome, and we love graphic novels. We are not able to publish poetry or fan fiction. We will consider previously-published work so long as you own the rights.

We are 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—including (but not exclusively) #OwnVoices content from these writers. 

Here’s a sampling of what we’ve published so far: 

the book cover of Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism, featuring a werewolf holding and licking a laughing man
Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism – A collection of m/m(+) short stories by MJ Lyons with a science fiction theme
Experience Points – An illustrated m/m novella about the evolution of a relationship that is profoundly healing for both people involved
Even Cowbots Get Blue Balls envisions transformative encounters between various beings
A Tight Squeeze shows a rich variety of transfeminine experiences and pairings

We also publish short stories in quickly-read, pocket-sized zine format!

Just a few of our growing collection of Queering Consent zines!

We also are delighted to consider pitches for nonfiction books and zines about queer relationships and sex!

If you have something you think fits, take a look at our full submission guidelines here and drop us a line through the contact form at the top of that page! 

We can’t wait to read the wildest adventures and happiest endings your imagination can produce!

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To ISBN or Not to ISBN?

This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly reveal the mysteries of the ISBN, aka the 13-digit International Standard Book Number you see on most books sold to the general public. ISBNs can be costly and a lot of new publishers aren’t sure when they should start using them. We offer some advice about when an ISBN is essential and when it isn’t.

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Experiments in Publishing (and podcasting)

Hi all, things got a little wild over the holiday season. We kept posting new episodes of the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, but we stopped posting them to our blog. So here’s a big post to catch up with what you up on what you missed!

We talked about how book publishers can experiment in order to keep their business limber and growing (but without losing tens of thousands of dollars when those experiments don’t pan out):

We answered one of the questions Microcosm is most frequently asked: “Why have I never heard of you?”:

We tackled a reader question about a pretty weird scenario that happens more often than you’d think: What do you do when a publisher pays you for your book and then never publishes it?

We gazed into our crystal ball and made some predictions about how the publishing industry will change in the next five years:

We talked about sidelines! Stickers, buttons, patches, etc. Not very many publishers make this kind of merch to sell alongside their books (unless they’re heavily influenced by punk music culture… ahem) but it’s often a good idea:

And finally, we talked about how publishers can sell translations, foreign rights, and other licensing deals:

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The Practical Witch’s Almanac 2022

Celebrate your path every day with this special 25th-anniversary edition of The Practical Witch’s Almanac. New resources, spells, recipes, and practices are paired with a selection of the best content from the last quarter century of Friday Gladheart’s iconic almanac, all presented in a fresh and modern light. Track important dates in the wheel of the year on weekly calendar pages that include plenty of room to write in your own dates, appointments, and habits. Set your objectives to achieve your goals using the Moon Phase planner pages. Moon Phase Planner pages help you set your objectives to achieve your goals effectively while using natural Lunar cycles. Monthly Study Guides and magickal correspondences make your almanac an indispensable resource for years to come, with a selection of tarot cards, crystals and stones, herbs and botanicals, deities, colors, runes, and more. You’ll find recipes, rituals, DIY projects, crafts, and insightful articles, all beautifully illustrated by the author to bring a bit of magic to your days. As always, the almanac provides precise calculations for astronomical and astrological events for any location on Earth.

How Not to Kill Yourself (new edition!)

A new edition of our most life-saving book!

Are you inclined to escape the crumminess of everyday life into fantasy worlds? Are you smart and imaginative in a way that isn’t really suited to your surroundings? Are you definitely misunderstood, likely angry, and almost certainly depressed? Set Sytes, hailing from the UK, would prefer you stay alive and sort things out rather than the alternative, thanks. He figures there are better opportunities for you out there and lays it all out in a way that’s compelling, funny, sharp, and useful. This book (please don’t call it a self-help guide, asks the author) is ultimately about how to be a person in the world. It can be done non-miserably, we promise.