This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast / vlogcast, Joe and Elly consider the term “indie author” and how various forces have tried to co-opt the meaning of independence when it comes to writing and creative work. No punches are pulled as we encourage you to think critically about what you value about independence and whether or not you actually are getting that from the company selling it to you.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly report back from Las Vegas Market—a giant trade show for the gift market. We talk about what “gift” means, why book publishers might attend such an event, what it was like, and some of the logistics and costs involved. Not mentioned, but deserving of a shout-out are Vegas’s bikeshare system and Tacotarian, two discoveries that turned our trip from a slog to a delight.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly consider the recent news that giant publishing conglomerate Hachette is buying one of the last of the large independents, Workman. We talk about what the acquisition means for the companies involved, for other publishers, and for people who buy books.
This week on the podcast, we invite a guest into our studio for the first time in almost two years! April Streeter, author of the new feminist bicycle history Women on Wheels, joined us to talk about the untold histories of women cyclists since the 1880s, share fascinating tidbits of archival research and costumery, and revisit a bit of shop talk about what it was like to publish with us (and how we handled all those amazing illustrations).
You can find this and over 100 other episodes of the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast wherever podcasts are served.
Publishing jobs are real jobs! On this episode of the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly talk about one of Microcosm’s biggest steps towards becoming a grown-up company—providing our workers with health insurance. The healthcare system is not easy to figure out, but the good news is that experience in the publishing industry really sets you up to handle with aplomb the piles of mystifying paperwork, strict schedules and rules, and contracts that need to be read super closely.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly answer a reader question from a bookseller wondering if they should try to match the prices in their store to the prices they find online, which are often much lower (but sometimes much higher) than the cover price.
Of course we legally can’t advise any publishers on how to price their books, and we don’t do that here, but we do discuss some strategies and perspectives for managing your business in a market where price is problematic.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly show off our newest zines!
Here we introduce you to:
Corking, about using bicycles as a protest tool, by some rad cyclists
Autism FAQ by Joe Biel
Imprisoned with COVID-19 by Tim Spock
White Riot / Black Massacre, about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, by Kris Rose
This week on the podcast, Joe and Elly tackle a very familiar situation—what do you do when the author turns in their manuscript and it’s really not anywhere near what it needs to be?
(Spoiler: The first draft is always bad. We just happen to be privileged to see a whole lot of them.)
On today’s episode of A People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly look at the Audio Publishers Association report on 2020 audiobook sales and listening habits. How many of us are switching to audio? Who is making the switch? What are we listening to? And how? And what does this mean for print and ebooks? Listen or watch for hot takes on all this and more.
Today on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly answer a reader question. The reader has an idea and a draft outline of a graphic novel; what are their next steps in pursuing publication? We offer some advice, a few cautions, and encouragement for getting into the comics side of the publishing industry.