You likely pass all kinds of plants and herbs in your day to day. But do you know who they are? Where they come from? Maggie Herskovitz can help! Her new book, “An Urban Field Guide to the Plants, Trees, and Herbs in Your Path” recently released, and this week on the pod she joins Joe and Elly to talk about the book’s story, cover design, and how she got into plant identification.
How do you raise your kids to be functional adults with big hearts, especially in the current timeline?
This week on the podcast, Bonnie Scott and Dr. Faith, authors of Unf*ck Your Parenting, join Joe and Elly to talk about the book’s journey and what’s new, respecting your kid, book bans, and more.
The area in front of our PDX base, complete with bus stop, phone booth, and free books.
Hi friends. We’re not big on making statements—we hope our work speaks for us most of the time—but these are extra-troubling times and we were inspired by Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC to share what we’re doing to meet this moment.
There’s this idea of “locus of control” that we think about a lot at times like this when the static is overwhelming and it’s easy to feel helpless. It’s a great way of cutting through the overwhelming static so you can focus on what you actually can do.
Maybe your locus of control is very small and encompasses only the freedom of your thoughts. Maybe you can set priorities for your personal spending or a project you manage, maybe you have an online platform, or maybe you have an artistic outlet or are good at writing letters or making a compelling argument. There are always going to be more things outside your locus, like you can’t control what others think or do (and honestly that’s probably a good thing). But we bet most of you have a lot more influence than you think.
One of the most important factors that increases the impact of acting from your locus of control is Martin Seligman’s “Learned Optimism,” the idea that you can change your situation through concerted effort, focus, and perspective. You can find this idea in a few of Dr. Faith’s books, and she and Joe wrote about it extensively in How to Be Accountable.
What’s in our locus of control as a company? How do we stay optimistic? That’s a moving target, but here’s what we’ve got so far:
Sharing our existing resources. In other words: getting you the books you need more than ever. Since the beginning, we’ve created work by and for those of us living closer to the margins than the center. We’re prepared with resources for survival, action, and care in a national crisis because crisis isn’t new to us.
Adding new resources. We are actively adding new titles to our catalog that provide support to those most harmed. Books and decks take a couple years or longer but we’ve been putting out a flurry of zines since November and acquiring more all the time. Let us know if you have requests. Or submit your own idea and we’ll see if it’s a fit.
Shoring up our policies and procedures. We’ve recently improved a bunch of existing policy and procedures around privacy and security, and refreshed our team on it.
To protect our team: We already had a policy that was basically “don’t call the cops or let them into the building unless extreme violence is occuring.” We added more specifics about what to do if, say, ICE knocks on the door (don’t let them in or talk to them) and made sure our workers know what to do.
To protect our customers and community: We won’t share your private data with anyone, ever. We’ve added some more layers of security, and we added a bit about online safety to our FAQ in response to reader questions. We are continually improving our data security practices.
Offering sliding scaleprices on our published books.We’ve done this for a long time and everyone wins—if you can afford less, you can pay less, if you can afford more, you can pay more.
Sending books to people in prison. We have a mutual aid program to send books to imprisoned readers whenever they ask, which is nearly every day. The community chips in to help with the cost of the books so the authors can still get royalties. Based on the mail we get, this is changing lives.
Donating books to causes we care about. Requests for donated books have skyrocketed this year. Instead of pulping our overstock, we donate as much of it as we can. If your organization can use books as leverage for doing better work, hit us up on our contact page.
Being in community. It’s sometimes harder to figure out how to do this as a business. We’re not tiny, but we’re not big enough to make a huge splash. We do some “I’m a local business owner and I care about this issue” advocacy stuff, which doesn’t usually feel very impactful. Our Portland office is at a bus stop, and one of our team members has stepped up to pick up trash every day and maintain the trash can there. We host a Futel public phone and just added a free bookshelf.
Not being butts. We recognize that everyone’s feeling jagged and having a tough time. Us too! This is one of the harder ones, but we are trying extra to be kind and patient even in the most frustrating interactions or when we have to say no to something someone really wants. Is “trying not to ruin anyone’s day” a worthy entry into our locus of control list? We think so.
Always getting better at what we do. This is a choice we make every day. Being able to do the things on this list is what gets us up every morning. Publishing and distributing more books and zines that people want, selling more of them, reducing our costs, improving our systems and efficiency, improving morale, increasing our wages… being better at the business part isn’t the goal in itself, but it’s a force multiplier for the good we’re trying to do.
A lot of the items on this list are things we’ve been doing for years. That’s not a brag: it comes out of necessity. Many of our readers and team members are certainly in more danger than before from recent and upcoming executive actions, but, unfortunately, none of these threats are entirely new.
As our friends at Chickasaw Press said of our common ground when we started working together, “We are the voices that are being muffled.” But that is also our greatest strength, because when times get tough, we’re prepared. For better or worse, the margins are our comfort zone.
So we’re sorry to say that we’re as ready as we can be. None of us can stop the tide alone, but we can stand together against it.
Want to boost these actions? You probably have a long to-do list of your own, but if you’re struggling to find a path forward, here are a few ways to get started:
Buy books! Read zines! If you’re getting ones by us, the best ways to support us are to get them either directly from us, from your local independent bookstore, at Bookshop.org, or check them out from the library.
Want to help distribute our poster catalogs to your local coffeeshops and other community flyer spots? Drop us a line.
Send a care package to a friend who’s having a hard time.
Bugs are everywhere! Humans often think of insects as gross or creepy, but we couldn’t survive without them.
In this love letter to bugs, biologist, linguist, and bug enthusiast Karyn Light-Gibson introduces us to an array of our notable neighbors, from bees to bedbugs, caterpillars to butterflies, ladybugs to katydids, and so, so many more. With informative glee and striking illustrations, she identifies the many bugs we encounter every day and delves into their place in science, history, art, literature, culture, cuisine, and even warfare.
You’ll learn so many cool facts about flies, beetles, moths, aphids, cicadas, bedbugs, crickets, cockroaches, and the other creeping, crawling, and flying critters that make our world go round. For every human, there are 1.4 billion insects in the world, playing a vital part of our ecosystem. A small percentage of bugs can be dangerous or spread disease, but the vast majority are our allies as indicators of environmental health, pollinators of our food, and a key part of the food web we rely on. Even the most wary readers will come away with a new perspective on the tiny creatures around them and a serious appreciation of just how important—and cool—bugs are.
This week on the pod, Elly, Joe, and Bernie are joined by Jelani Memory of A Kids Co, which recently became an imprint of DK. They talk about taking making your press an imprint of a larger publisher instead of just having it distributed, sticking to your mission during the process, and making your business like a cockroach (unkillable!).
Direct ordering for bookstores just got even easier
Hey, this is a fun little piece of news, but it’s going to be most useful and interesting to our industry pals and bookselling buddies, so feel free to keep scrolling if that doesn’t feel like it applies to you! The good news for everyone, though, is thatthis should make it even easier to find Microcosm titles on your local bookstore’s shelves—and easier to order them if you don’t see what you’re looking for. Thanks to everyone on both sides of the bookstore counter keeping this radical publisher afloat in wild times!
In our continuing mission to shore up the independent book world ecosystem, Microcosm Publishing’s in-house and distributed titles are now available on PubStock! PubStock is a Bookmanager tool that allows U.S. bookstores to get a live look at our available inventory—bookstores that use Bookmanager for their website/inventory/point of sale can now browse and purchase Microcosm titles with even greater ease, without having to look through our site and without running into availability issues. Our stock counts are updated daily, so our indie bookselling friends get a clearer picture than ever of what titles we have available, and how many.
Even better for the folks linked up with Batch, since we’re there, too! Ordering, receiving, and record-keeping just got way easier, building Microcosm’s inventory into the tools booksellers have at hand.
Love you, indie bookstores. Thanks for keeping it real! And as always, we’d love to hear from you about what we can do better to keep us all working, organizing, and thriving together.
Publishing changes all the time. Reader tastes shift, markets move, sometimes the memoir you’re reading was actually about Jesus all along. This week on the podcast, Joe and Elly hang out with The Hot Sheet‘s Jane Friedman to talk about the shifts they’re seeing in publishing deals, acquisitions, and tastes.
Joe, Elly, and Bernie sit down with Karen Krebser, author of “Tarot Through the Witch’s Year,” to chat about tarot in dark times, how to reconcile your practice with your privilege, tarot spreads for diving the future of publishing, and a bit of the history of tarot.
We publish new zineseach and every month (you read that right!), and we want to make sure you don’t miss any that could help you change your life and the world around you. So every month this year, we are going to share a roundup of what’s been released, and maybe a few sneak peeks at what’s ahead in the zine pipeline. So let’s dive in!
Unfuck Your Tarot: Using the Cards for Growth and Overcoming Trauma by Dr. Faith G. Harper Starting with Carl Jung’s enthusiasm for tarot’s archetypal power up through contemporary usage as a way to explore symbols and imagery in therapeutic settings, bestselling author Dr. Faith lays out helpful basics about the tarot and its connections to therapy work, alongside activities, prompts, and questions to consider in your own journey toward personal development and healing.
Transition Diaries by Finn Animal Bro An intimate, reflective, and charming personal account of coming out and transitioning, defying transmasc invisibility and enforced cultural norms. Through alter-ego KweerKat, the author celebrates the simple pleasures of becoming, being, and loving one’s self; the satisfaction of weight-lifting; the psycho-spiritual process of transition; and many other smart and tender thoughts depicted through sweet cat illustrations. Remember that no one else can tell you how to be yourself!
How to Pack for a Tripby Joe Biel and Elly Blue Packing for a trip can be overwhelming! Trying to future-cast the weather, how much you’ll walk, whether or not you’re going to dump a coffee on yourself…it’s a lot. Longtime and frequent travelers Joe and Elly have made this fun and friendly little zine to help you break down packing and trip prep into manageable chunks, full of tips and tricks to make it all easier.
Criminal or Hero?: Relatable Crimes of Modern Timesby Joe Biel and Elly Blue From political actions to mistaken thefts, unfortunate miscommunications to gleeful mischief, the most sympathetic person in these stories is usually the one on the wrong side of the law, with choice details and a little art to match. Read to be entertained and consider what we consider criminality in a new light—and you, too, can argue with your friends about your faves and foes within!
To stay on top of the latest Microcosm news, including the zines digest delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter! Also often includes cute pet pics and good puns.
Save money, save the planet, and craft a sustainable domestic life without relying on smelly, toxic, expensive consumer products. This handwritten and hand-drawn book of charming tutorials for natural housekeeping and home repair, organic gardening and food preservation, herbal first aid, and mending clothes is both fun and accessible. It’s full of simple skills that anyone can and should learn.
From creating healthy tinctures and salves to preserving excess food to fixing a leaky faucet, this book is great if you’re looking to live more simply, create a comfortable nest, and truly do it yourself. Combining the power of Raleigh Briggs’s bestselling Make Your Place and Make It Last to form a complete guide to everything you need to consume less and live more in line with your values.
