Want a simple and effective way to improve your health? Hoping to survive the next wildfire smoke event without going through ten inhalers? Breathe easier with the practical support of this air care handbook, where you’ll find expert guidance on air quality and effective steps that you, a non-scientist, can take to preserve—and enhance—your own air health.
Sustainability consultant, engineer, and healthy building design expert Melissa Wrolstad handily distills the technical aspects of healthy air best practices, including strategies that people on any budget can implement with no need for fancy tools or training, and guides you through air exercises you can do in buildings you frequent. You’ll be equipped with the principles of indoor and outdoor air quality, understand common pollutants such as dust, smog, and radon, and learn strategies for how to protect yourself, your pets, and your loved ones from their effects. Written with passion and tons of research, The Air Self-Care Handbook offers insight and expertise at a time when reliable, non-governmental resources are more crucial than ever.
Get acquainted with the little creepy crawlies who make our world go ’round in this enthusiastic and informative love letter to the beauty of bugs by Karyn Light-Gibson, the author of Bug Life. This time around, Light-Gibson introduces us to under-appreciated insects like fleas, lice, silverfish, and earwigs. And then she opens up the wide world of non-insect invertebrates, taking us on a rollercoaster ride through the world of scorpions, spiders, ticks, millipedes, and even crayfish and snails. She offers fascinating, fun, and sometimes gross facts about how each of these bugs has shaped our world, from ancient times to today. She debunks common myths (no, you probably do not actually eat eight spiders per year). And she gives guidance on how humans can co-exist more peaceably with these creatures we often fear or see as pests—but who we also rely on for a viable ecosystem.
Read for the trivia night facts, to help cure your arachnophobia, or if you just want to gain a new appreciation for more of the tiny creatures that we share the planet with but rarely stop to get to know.
Will publishing fewer books make more money? It feels counterintuitive, but when you look closer, it frees up the ability to market more specifically, edit more thoroughly, and generally give more care in attention to what you’ve got going on.
Find out how Joe & Elly made the decision to find Microcosm’s “optimal number” of titles per season, and how they’ve discovered that more isn’t always better.
And hi, we have a solution!: Microcosm’s brand-new, unbeatable, unstoppable Deal of the Day!
How it works:
Every working day, we will offer a different book, super cheap, until it’s sold out.
Most deals will be in the ballpark of either $5 or 75% off the cover price.
And we’ll keep doing this every working day until we run out of books or you stop wanting them.
Sign up here to get an email every morning that gives you the first shot at the day’s deal.
Or just go to our Deal of the Day page, which will always be updated with the day’s deal.
Okay, but what are the books?
We’ve spent 30 years developing a vast catalog and several warehouses full of books and zines to help you rise to any occasion. Recession? Disaster? Grief? Boredom? Rage? Broke-assedness? Hunger? An inarticulate yearning for profound change? We’ve got something to meet every need. If today’s book isn’t your preferred flavor, wait for tomorrow!
How can we afford to offer these deals?
These books have so many origin stories. Some of them we found a great deal on and overbought during the heady pandemic book boom-times. Others got a little scuffed along their journey. Yet others are cool books we misjudged the interest in. Some of these stores don’t want to touch. Others just slipped through the cracks. Our deal price is pretty close to our cost, so we’re essentially passing these along to a good home with you.
I went to the deal page and it’s out of stock, what gives?
Sorry, friend, that means we sold out of this one before the day was through. You can search the title in our catalog to see if a full-price (or sometimes lesser-sale-price) copy is available. If you want to be among the first to be notified, sign up for our daily Deal of the Day newsletter.
Can I put a deal in my cart and buy it later?
Yes, but… if you buy it on a different working day, you won’t get the book you expected, as it will be a different book on that new day, assuming we even still have copies when you check out.
Can I buy deal of the day books for my store?
You sure can, so long as you add it to your cart on our website and check out same day with a $100 minimum order! There’s no additional discount and please be mindful of condition, but if you think your customers would dig a deal, go ahead and grab a few.
We are far from the only ones saying it, but 2025 was an ass-kicker of a year. From tariffs to Baker and Taylor closing to AI, publishing felt like a roller coaster for much of the year.
How did it impact Microcosm, and publishing culture? This week on the pod, Joe, Elly, and special guest Bernie the Office Dog recap 2025 in the book industry.
Make your next event even more special—and accessible
The ultimate guide to creating welcoming, safe, and accessible gatherings for everyone. With detailed strategies and illustrative examples, How to Organize Inclusive Events and Conferences uses principles of design justice to share how to put on truly inclusive occasions built for the needs and abilities of all. If you’ve ever attended or hosted conferences, organize events for fun or for a living, or if you have ever thought, “I guess these spaces just aren’t made for me and I wish I could change that,” this book is written for you!
Expert events organizer Alex D. Ketchum provides the ethical framework of what true inclusion in action means, considering a broad variety of identities and experiences such as economic hardship, childcare needs, racial and ethnic identities, disabilities, neurodivergence, and more. Whether you’re hosting an academic symposium, an activist meeting, a feminist zinefest, or a comics con, Ketchum offers a step-by-step guide through the planning and execution process, with useful tips, timelines, and templates along the way. This book is an indispensable companion to building events and conferences from an ethic of care, allowing us to cultivate authentic community and to create the better world we desire—together.
Have you ever wanted to organize a public event? Do you dream of hosting a battle of the bands, film screenings, concerts, poetry readings, art shows, teach-ins, lectures, seed exchanges, zine workshops, and panels? What about a conference? Maybe you already have experience doing this work but you have noticed that inequities from the society-at-large are replicated at your events, despite best intentions.
The goal of this book is to provide event and conference organizers of all levels with the tools to make their events accessible, sustainable, and rooted in social justice principles. Whether you are new to organizing or highly experienced, this book will provide frameworks and practical tips to create inclusive events. No matter the kind of event or conference you are interested in organizing, whether large or small, online, in-person, hybrid, synchronous, or asynchronous, this book includes what you need to know. From the smallest details (such as what to have in your bag on the day of the gathering) to large topics (such as choosing a location, selecting presenters, funding, designing publicity materials, working with community partners, etc.)
This book draws on my experience organizing hundreds of public events, including:
100+ events for Disrupting Disruptions: The Feminist and Accessible Publishing, Communications, and Tech Hybrid Speaker and Workshop Series
Several conferences, including:
Queer Food Conference (Boston and Montréal)
Food, Feminism, and Fermentation Conference
Circuits de consommation, a food, feminism, and technology conference
Multiple Feminist Research Colloquiums
I have also organized concerts, book launches, pumpkin festivals, sports tournaments, dances, parties, potlucks, podcasting workshops, film screenings, rallies, marches, and parades. As both an organizer and attendee, I have paid attention to what worked, what did not work, and what could be improved. I will also share insights from other event organizers, disability justice activists, feminist educators, and queer designers.
How we do the work is the work. In this book, I hope to help you organize events and conferences that reflect the ethos that inspired your event in the first place. We will explore how decisions over signage, outreach, website design, food, pricing, venue, technology, and so much more can foreground queer, feminist, accessible, socially just, and inclusive principles. This book will help you host an event or conference in which everyone who takes part feels included, supported, and valued!
This book begins in Part 1 by exploring the foundations of inclusive event and conference organizing. Part 2 focuses on event organizing. Much of the content in Part 2 informs Part 3, which focuses specifically on conference planning. Part 4 focuses on your needs as an organizer.
One other note: Part 2, the section on events, can inform your conference organizing decisions . . . because conferences are, in essence, a series of smaller events, grouped together.
While each section of the book builds on the next, I encourage you to flip to different sections as they are most useful for you. Templates for your event and conference organizing are distributed throughout the book. If your phone has word detection capabilities, you can turn your camera app on and select the text so you can use the templates more readily. Adjust them to your needs.
Finally, although I may mention certain applications and software, technology is ever-evolving. I encourage you to focus more on the technological capabilities of any tool (whether paper, email, computer software, or a phone app) and how they can serve the values of your conference rather than the exact software I discuss.
This book contains information that will help guide your decisions to ensure that your event is inclusive and reflects your goals and values.
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
Saturday, May 16 | Politics & Prose Connecticut Ave—Washington, D.C. | More info J. Hunter Bennett presents MORE PUNK THAN THE PUBLIC LIBRARYwith the legendary Kim Coletta.
Monday, May 18 | Prologue Bookshop—Columbus, OH | More info Let the book revolution begin! Danny Caine launches his new book, How to Defend Books and Why, with fellow anti-ban pioneer Ashley Hope Pérez in this reading, conversation, and celebration.
Wednesday, June 3 | Pulpit Rock Brewing with Dragonfly Books—Decorah, IA | More info
Thursday, June 4 | Moon Palace Books—Minneapolis, MN | More info
June TBD | Plum City Reading Series, Loganberry Books—Cleveland, OH Details to come!
Thursday–Friday, June 18–19 | Tomorrow Books Poetry Night and Meet & Greet—Indianapolis, IN | More info
Friday, August 21 | Beach Read series, Hamlin Beach State Park—Hamlin, NY | More info
Tuesday, September 29 | McConnell Arts Center—Worthington, OH | More info
Generous Press’s Tati Richardson is taking Struck Speechless on the road! See where you can catch an event for this latest release in her Boss Chicks Village Series:
Saturday, May 9 | Barnes & Noble Perimeter—Atlanta, GA | More Info
Tuesday, May 12 | Beguiled Books—Seatta, WA | More info
Thursday, May 14 | Grand Gesture Books—Portland, OR | More info
Saturday, May 23 | A Small Place Bookstore—Avondale Estates, GA | More info
Friday, May 29–Sunday, May 31 | Black Romance Book Fest—Atlanta, GA | More info Book sales provided by WanderLust Reads.
Friday, June 5 | Kindred Stories—Houston, TX | More info
Saturday, June 13 | Mis Amores Bookshop—Knoxville, TN | More info
…And if you can’t catch any of these events in person, signed copies are available for sale from Atlanta’s All the Tropes!
Generous Press’s Ayla Vejdani has events lined up to celebrate the release of sapphic story collection You x Me! Check out the schedule and see if your town is her next stop:
Tuesday, May 26 | Signing at L’Euguelionne—Montréal, QC | More info
Saturday, May 30 | Signing at Royal Ginette—Montréal, QC | More info
Tuesday, June 16 | Hopeless Romantic—Toronto, ON | More info
Saturday, June 20 | Evermore Books—Ottawa, ON | More info
Saturday, June 20 | Signing at Perfect Books—Ottawa, ON | More info
Interested in having an author at your store or event? Reach out!!
Microcosm at Roller Con 2023
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!!
Idealists, gather round! How do you pursue your passionate cause to the fullest while still meeting your own needs? How do you solve the world’s problems without perpetuating problematic dynamics in your organization? How do you put your energy into fighting for liberation instead of fighting with your board? Therapist Dr. Faith G. Harper and business leader Joe Biel, co-authors of Unfuck Your Business, bring their decades of experience in nonprofits to lend perspective and practical approaches to your thorniest issues with serving the public good. In these pages, you’ll learn to work more effectively with your team, resolve interpersonal conflicts, deal with severe dysfunction, and unpack your own baggage. If you’re struggling as a volunteer, worker, or board member, or starting a new not-for-profit or charity and want to create an organization that’s aligned with your values, there’s key wisdom here for you.
See the world through the clear eyes of sobriety with the support of this handy guide to alcohol-free globetrotting. From bachelorette parties to funerals to professional networking events, you’ll be equipped with strategies to gracefully navigate boozy scenarios in your travels, allowing you to soak up all the adventures you desire with none of the substances you don’t.
Drawing on extensive personal experience, as well as interviews with a variety of nondrinking travelers and addiction experts, travel writer Teresa Bergen shares helpful insights and social tools for staying sober anywhere the road takes you. With the help of her alter ego, Sober Cat, who tells the story in pictures, Bergen guides you through prepping for your trip, dodging drinks, and getting the most out of your travel experience—no matter your reason for abstaining.
Edelweiss is known in the book industry as a powerful tool connecting booksellers and librarians with publishers and their titles. But in the last year, Edelweiss’s new owners have made some changes in both the site’s functionality and pricing. What does this mean for publishers, and how do we think it’ll effect the industry? Jane Friedman of the Bottom Line is back this week to talk with Joe and Elly about her thoughts.
