This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly continue to talk about how to find distribution for your book publishing company.
Last week, we talked about how to get a trade distributor interested in working with you. This week we turn the tables to discuss the equally important question of how to choose distributors that you want to work with, particularly ones who have expertise in selling the types of books you publish.
Great news—we’ve got more interns! Meet the newest members of our team: Cassie Birk (she/her) and Kevin Glynn (he/him).
Where are you from/ where did you grow up?
Cassie: Grew up in Vancouver, WA right across the river from Portland.
Kevin: Born and raised in Boston MA, just moved out to Portland.
What first got you interested in publishing?
Cassie: I’ve been a big reader for as long as I can remember. I got involved in editing with a lit journal while I was in college and never stopped!
Kevin: I’ve always loved reading and writing and was involved in some zines and poetry publications in Boston. I have been pursuing publishing professionally for the last year.
What’s your favorite Microcosm book/ a Microcosm book you’d really like to read?
Cassie: The Velocipede Races will always be one of my favorites! I’m also proud to be an ex-barista who owns a copy of the Coffeeshop Crushes zine [ed: RIP]. Not a book, but I am excited to get my copy of the Gold Lyre tarot deck.
Kevin: I’ve really enjoyed reading Imprisoned in Prison [working title] while I work on editing it, eye-opening and sad to hear about life in prison during the pandemic.
How’s the pandemic treating you?
Cassie: I feel like I’ve performed a dozen mental backflips. At the start of the pandemic I was trying to graduate college in a basement apartment in Iowa City with a couple jobs in food service. Now, a year later, I’ve moved back to the PNW and I’m just trying to avoid video call burnout.
Kevin: Definitely been a crazy year, I moved across the country so that’s been stressful but also very exciting.
Do you have any pets?
Cassie: Not my own, but I have had many other people’s pets to keep me company over that last year. Shout outs to Benny, Lily, Milo, Marcellus, Harley, and Vincent (and their owners, of course).
Kevin: No pets personally but my roommate has a cat named Pax.
What do you do in your free time?
Cassie: Recently, I’ve been playing lots of DND and baking sourdough bread. I also like listening to music, trying new foods, and going on hikes.
Kevin: I like to hike, read, and play board games!
What’s one piece of media you’d recommend to anyone and everyone?
Cassie: Anyone who hasn’t listened to Welcome to Nightvale yet, totally should. Weird occult surrealism is translated perfectly to the podcast format, with awesome soundscaping and an entertaining story.
Kevin: Probably any Kurosawa movie, I love old movies and he’s my favorite director.
Where can people find you online?
Cassie: I’m always scrolling through Twitter @BirkCassie and I’m @cheezh8er on Instagram.
Kevin: Facebook is my only social media (don’t use it too much though).
On today’s People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly tackle a question we are asked all the time: how can a new or small publisher attract a trade distributor who can sell their books to bookstores, among other places?
3/24/21 Update: We’ve made some edits to this RFP/job description since posting, based on advice from tech-ier heads than ours. If you are applying based on the parameters in our initial posting, your application won’t be penalized.
Work with us to change the world! We are seeking proposals from web developers (or small firms) who can help us create a software service that will help book publishers become more independent. This service will be modeled after the in-house software that has enabled Microcosm to self-distribute and to continue to grow year after year through economic ups and downs without working with Amazon. We just need the technical capacity to bring it to the world.
WorkingLit Developer
Accepting proposals/applications through May 30, 2021
About the product
Microcosm Publishing, an independent book publisher and distributor since 1996, is seeking to contract a developer to produce WorkingLit, a web-based SaaS platform for book publishers.
The goal of WorkingLit is to give small, independent publishers tools to thrive and grow at their own pace and have the most fun, with options for distributing their books as the industry continues to shift towards consolidation. Level one of the platform will help publishers organize their data about books, authors, and customers, manage their accounting and royalty reporting, and understand their sales and potential. Level two enables publishers to reach consumers and retailers directly and cooperate amongst each other. Levels three and four help midsize and larger publishers manage their growth. By giving publishers tools and options to succeed, WorkingLit lowers the bar to entry and makes the publishing industry more inclusive.
The point of WorkingLit is to disrupt industry conventions by giving publishers their own agency back so that they can make the choices that are right for them instead of having those dictated. There is a myth that people just starting out in the book industry “have to” publish on Amazon or work with a trade distributor before they understand the basic timelines, rules, and mechanics of the industry. WorkingLit will lower the barriers to entry into an industry that is 88% white and excludes people who haven’t accessed a college education by providing a platform where small or new publishers can reach retailers.
We are seeking proposals for developing the basic version (level one) by October, 2021. Ideally, we would continue to work with you to build further levels throughout 2022 and beyond.
Phase one:
User Functionality: Basic databasing for
• titles
• orders
• invoicing
• customers
• authors
• expenses
• royalties
• royalty payments.
Functions:
• Shipping orders
• Accounting
• Royalty reporting.
• Blueprint for including front end e-commerce in next phase.
Our ideal partner
An individual or small firm who can design and develop a SaaS. We are especially looking for:
To apply, please provide
Location – Remote (we are in Portland, Oregon, you can be anywhere)
Send your application/proposal to apply@microcosmpublishing.com by May 30, 2021
Apparently we’ve been doing this podcast for a while, because it’s our 100th episode! We’re not even close to running out of publishing topics to talk about, but we took a break to share some of our favorite memories from the past 25 years. From charming encounters with readers and authors to those book tour moments where we were (literally) on fire, here are some of Joe and Elly’s very best memories.
We hope you enjoy watching or listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it!
On today’s episode of the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joestradamus makes some predictions about the lasting changes that we’ll see in the publishing industry as a result of the global pandemic of 2020.
Watch or listen to this and 98 other episodes about the art, science, and business of publishing books!
Coming up next week: our 100th episode!
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly answer a listener question: What is a fair royalty for a publisher to offer to authors for the rights to publish their books? There are a lot of different royalty agreements out there, each one more confusing than the last. Should you pay based on a percent of the cover price? Based on gross sales (ie, the amount the publisher actually gets paid per book sold)? Based on net sales after printing costs? Profit sharing?
Find out how these various options work, the costs and benefits of each, and how certain so-called indie publishing platforms use large numbers to trick you into agreeing to unfair royalty agreements. Listen or watch! And don’t forget to subscribe to hear our newest episode every Thursday.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing Podcast, Joe and Elly talk about the continuing effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the book publishing industry. Come for the hot takes, stay for Joe’s impression of a printer, and boldly join us as we scrutinize global supply chains and consumer behavior.
Like what you hear? You can watch or listen to new episodes weekly!
These days, it seems like every piece of software you use, and every entity that sells your books offer you some kind of metrics. Unit sales, revenue growth, top sheets, bottom lines… it’s possible to tell a lot of stories with numbers. But how do you actually know how your publishing company is doing? How do you measure financial health, growth, sustainability… and how true you are staying to your mission?
In this episode of the A People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly tackle the question of metrics and how to ignore the wrong ones and focus on the right ones so you can build the book publishing company of your dreams.
Find other vlogcasts, podcasts, and blog posts about publishing at microcosm.pub/podcast.
In the middle of a Cleveland winter in 1996, Joe Biel sat at a punk show with a milk crate full of zines and decided that he would turn it into something bigger—creating a publishing resource founded on punk and DIY values that would run parallel to the mainstream.
Twenty-five years and many ups and downs later, Microcosm is a fast-growing independent book publisher and distributor. We’re bigger than we used to be—by the end of 2021 we’ll have a staff of over 20 and warehouses in two cities—but we still hold to the values Joe started out with, of making books and publishing reflect the experiences of the real world rather than a narrow elite.
Joe and Elly sat down to reminisce about our favorite Microcosm memories over the years and decades. You can watch the video, or listen on our podcast.
Thank you, readers, for making it all worthwhile!