This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly talk (slightly belatedly) about our publishing goals for the year ahead and how we plan to achieve them. Stabilizing our systems, ever so slightly slowing our roll, and sharing what we know all feature prominently. Watch the video to see them all!
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly lift the hood on the Microcosm engine to investigate why 2021 was such an unexpectedly successful year, and share some of the lessons learned. From external factors like the booming gift trade to internal factors like our amazing staff’s teamwork and management restructuring, we discuss what we did and why it worked.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast / vlog, Joe and Elly answer a reader question—how many books should a publisher put out every season?
For those new to the game, the traditional publishing industry has two or three seasons—Spring, Fall, and Winter (with Fall and Winter sometimes being combined). In today’s episode, we talk about when those seasons run, why they are important, what it means for your workflow, and, of course, how many books it makes sense to fit into each one—and what kind of books do best in each season.
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:
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:
We also publish short stories in quickly-read, pocket-sized zine format!
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!
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly tackle a reader question. They noticed that a major publishing house had announced a book that they were interested in… but then years passed, and that book never came out. What happened? We talk about some of the many reasons a book’s publication might be delayed or canceled.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly tackle the question that stymies many a newly-minted publisher – how do I make a great book cover?
Today on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly talk about some of the books that inspired and motivate our work.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly talk about the various steps involved in opening our new warehouse. (This episode was recorded a year ago, when we were in the midst of doing all these things.)
Check out more episodes in your preferred video or audio format, as well as articles for book publishers on our podcast page.
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.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly talk about one of the scariest topics in publishing: growth and how to manage it. How do you know you’re growing? How fast should you grow? How do you pay for it? What do you do if it stops?