How does design build community bookselling? w/ Rick from Shop at MATTER (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

The Shop at MATTER has been an innovative bookseller and design studio for decades. For our featured bookseller of the month we invite Rick Griffith to discuss the intersection of revolutionary bookselling and radical design.

Check out their interview on the blog here!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!

Check out other Bookstore Solidarity Project Posts here.

What is a Publishing Sales Conference? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

In several previous episodes, we’ve made reference to presenting your books at a “sales conference.” It’s a fundamentally misleading event, since you aren’t actually presenting to buyers. So this week, on the pod, we answer the reader question “What is a sales conference?”

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!

A Holiday Shopping Guide, Microcosm Style

Welcome to the first ever Microcosm “oh crap I’m supposed to be thinking about gifts for people” guide! Between zines, buttons, books, patches, and more, we’ve got something for everyone on your list.

(Or yourself, because you deserve something fun, too.)

Plus, you can use coupon code DECEMBER to get 10% off on your order from now until December 8th.

We’ve sorted it all by interest, to make things easier for you. Happy scrolling!

The Zine Lover

Disgruntled Barista Coloring Book is part graphic novel, part coloring book. This zine takes you on a caffeinated journey through the working lives of baristas and the customers they serve coffee to every day.

Other ideas: Conspiracy Fun Book (Holiday Edition)Indigenous NomsThe Revolution Won’t Forget the Holidays,  True Cat Confessions50 Ways to Protect Bookstores

The Cozy One

Everyday Herbal Teamaking is a great little pocket guide to 35 easily-accessible herbs that make great teas, perfect for the comfy-cozy time of year.

Other Ideas: Flowering Plants & How to Grow ThemWinter Window Gardens & How to Grow ThemMake Your PlaceBread of the Resistance

The Memoir/Music/Travel Journal/Self Improvement Fan

That’s very specific, but you’ll definitely want to check out Beatles Blackouts, Jack Marriott’s journey to visit every single Beatles monument in the world after he hit rock bottom. 

Other Ideas: Couple’s Vacation PassportSober Travel HandbookCola Pop Creemees, “Hittin’ the Road” PatchPunk USA

The Activist

From Conflict to Community is Gwendolyn Olton’s guide to resolving conflicts without calling the cops (or HR). It’s a realistic and kind read for anyone looking into the world of mutual aid and community care.

Other Ideas: “Free Palestine” Button“Defend Trans Kids” stickerDirect Action HandbookHow to Organize Inclusive EventsThe Enduring Legacy of Portland’s Black Panthers

The Cyclist

The Bikes in Space series is full of fun and feminist sci-fi and fantasy short stories. The latest volume, The Bicyclist’s Guide to the Galaxy, adds a bookish twist to it all!

Other: Cruiser Bike Sticker“Put the Fun Between Your Legs” ShirtGo by BicycleHow to Ride SlowBiking Fun Magnets

The Witchy One

The Practical Witch’s Almanac 2024 is all about growing your craft in the new year. This planner has recipes, spells, DIY projects, all focused on herbalism, magic, divination, and more!

Other Ideas: Pocket Guide to Futhark RunesCulpeper’s Complete AstrologyDivine Deco Tarot (and Coloring Book!), Year of the Witch“Kitchen Witch” Sticker

The Writer

The Wayward Writer is all about writing without selling out or selling yourself short. With practical advice on balancing your writing craft with progressive ideas, this is a book for anyone who wants to turn writing into an honest literary community.

Other Ideas: From Dream to RealityPromote Your BookUnf*ck Your Writing“This Font Is Chaotic Evil” Sticker, “Revolution Between the Lines” Pin

The Self-Help Reader

Unfu*ck Your Stress might seem like a strange gift (“here, I got you this book to help you calm the heck down!”) but honestly, we all know someone who could use Dr. Faith’s clutch advice on helping turn overwhelm into excitement. 

Other Ideas: Stress Coping Skills DeckMonthly Manifestation ManualHow to Get Off Social Media and Still Keep In Touch With Your FriendsI Love My Queer Kid“Do No Harm Take No Sh*t” Pin“You Got This” Sticker

The One You Don’t Know How To Shop For

Whether they don’t like gifts or have read just about everything we have, hook them up with a gift certificateBFF subscription, or even donate books to incarcerated folks in their honor.

We hope this list was helpful!
Remember to be kind to folks this holiday, and shop local where you can.

How Should Publishers Handle Submissions? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

How do authors find a publisher? (Or, how can publishers find authors?) How do publishers choose which books to acquire? What does the development and contract negotiation process look like? How can the publishing process be re-shaped to be more inclusive for diversity, equity, and inclusion? What are the best practices? Why do they work?

You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!

What are the jobs of a publisher? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

When we tell strangers what we do, they either bemoan the death of the publishing industry or assume that we sit around and read books all day. So this week on the pod, we take a look at what a publisher actually does and the outcome of all of this work!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!

How Do I Know if My Book is “Good?” (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

Taste is subjective and arbitrary, but still, everyone carries a certain amount of imposter syndrome, wondering if their book if any good. So this week on the pod, we take a look at what makes a book good, successful, and resonating with readers!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!

An Interview with Gretchen Treu, owner of A Room of One’s Own Bookstore in Madison, WI.

Welcome to the next installment of the Bookstore Solidarity Project! Every month, we’ll be highlighting indie bookstore owners and booksellers across the country.

This month, we got to chat with Gretchen Treu, owner and manager of A Room of One’s Own Bookstore in Madison. Named after the iconic Virginia Woolf essay, Room is a feminist, queer- and trans-friendly little store. (Room was also featured in Danny Caine’s How to Protect Bookstores and Why!)


Your name and pronouns?
Gretchen Treu (they/them)

Tell us a little bit about the store and your community!
Room was founded in 1975 as a scrappy little feminist bookstore, and has grown over the years into Madison’s biggest independent bookstore. We are an all-around indie with a strong focus on LGBTQIA, anti-racism, abolitionist, feminist, progressive voices in all genres. We’re a dog-friendly shop (and sometimes shop dogs Clio and Janeway come to work with us!). We are known for our community work and activism (we initiated Bookstores Against Borders in 2019, raising over $100K with the help of other indie bookstores and readers to benefit RAICES, an immigrant rights org that does important work particularly in Texas). We have a quirky and no-holds-barred social media brand and are particularly known for our book flowcharts and other queer social media vibes. Wes Lukes and I bought the store in 2018 from longtime owners/founder Sandi Torkildson and Nancy Geary, and reinvigorated its radical commitments just before the onset of the pandemic. We have a beautiful new space (we were displaced from downtown Madison due to a gentrifying high-rise that demolished our former block). We’re in the beautiful, low-key Atwood neighborhood on Madison’s East side, in an old barrel-roofed building, surrounded by tons of families and progressive community members and dozens of likeminded local small businesses, which is a perfect location for us.


What got you into bookselling?
I loved books from a young age and just never let go.

What’s something about your store that you think will surprise people?
Our store’s floors have a very slight slope, because over a hundred years ago when it was built, the building was home to a car repair place, (there’s a pulley from the Model-T Ford system that’s hanging above the original entryway near our checkout counter). The floors sloped so that oil and water and whatever other fluids would flow out the building into the street to be washed into the sewer. When we moved here and the builders retrofitted our old bookshelves into the space there was much gnashing of teeth and some very creative solutionmaking to accommodate this reality.

What are some of you favorite ways your community supports your store?
I love when customers get into a particular staff person’s recommendations, or tell us about how a book we sold them was the perfect choice for what they were looking for. I think of books as an elaborate and uniquely human way to communicate expressively and asynchronously, we’re all just yelling into the void. You know. More or less quietly. It’s magical to feel an off-the-beaten-path real connection with a community member. I also just love hearing people come into the store and exclaim over the huge breadth of queer books and sidelines we have. Being a destination for queer people, especially trans and non-binary people who don’t always feel directly welcomed in queer spaces (particularly legacy feminist/lesbian ones like Room historically was) is what we’re here for. Those community-building connections are huge.

What are two books you can’t wait for people to read, or your current favorite handsells?
I can’t wait to sell The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo–it’s the historical fiction T4T monsterfucking horror novella of my dreams. I’m also very excited about Mercury Stardust’s Safe and Sound book of home repair for renters–I think it’s such a kind and helpful book that serves a niche nobody else is paying attention to.

How can customers who aren’t local shop your shelves?
They can order on our website at roomofonesown.com, or email us for recommendations at room.bookstore@gmail.com

Be sure to follow room on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (where you might recognize some of their very clever book recommendation graphics).

Check out our other Bookstore Solidarity Project posts here!

Who is the book’s client? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

When you are working on someone else’s book, there is frequent confusion about who has the final say. Many people consider the author to be the final authority on decisions. Others look to major account buyers who essentially gatekeep the book within the industry. Yet others would look to readers themselves. This week on the pod, Joe and Elly discuss these issues and how to navigate conflict when developing a book or differences of opinion emerge!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!

How do you make a book’s sales last forever? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

In traditional publishing, sales are thought of as a steep upward curve, a peak, falling action, and a steady plateau, moving slowly downward towards the book’s “resolution” and “conclusion.” Jokes aside, this week Joe and Elly talk about how you can break this cycle and make book sales last forever.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!

Call for Submissions – Queer Halloween!

We’re seeking your queer Halloween feminist bicycle science fiction and fantasy stories for the 13th anthology in the Bikes in Space series of books, guest edited by Summer Jewel Keown!

Please submit your original queer Halloween short fiction (in written or comics form) about bicycling from a feminist perspective. We’re looking for stories that give us a shiver or make us leave the hallway light on at night. Raise our hair and make our spines tingle. We’ll also consider Halloween-themed stories that aren’t as frightful, but they should still be infused with all things spooky season.

Stories should be written by authors who consider yourself queer (in whatever way you identify), and should feature Halloween and/or otherworldly elements, and queer characters/themes, as well as feminism. All four elements should be intrinsic to the narrative:

  1. Halloween (or stories sufficiently scary or thematic enough to be read around Halloween)
  2. Queer
  3. Feminism (it is sufficient to simply not include sexist themes or tropes)
  4. Bicycles

The genre can be anything fantastical—ghost stories, horror, hard sci-fi, comedic fantasy, slipstream, or anything in that constellation—despite the series title, stories need not be be set in space. No fanfic, poetry, nonfiction, or erotica for this series, please. Stories should not include extreme body horror or graphic violence.

For this volume of the anthology, we ask that all authors be queer/part of the queer/LGBTQIA+ community, in some way, shape or form. We aren’t the queer police (which sounds both fabulous and like a bad idea) and if you identify as queer/LGBTQIA+, that’s good enough for us.

We welcome submissions from marginalized authors and first-time authors.

Stories are submitted in consideration for inclusion in the anthology. Submission is not a guarantee that any given story will be accepted or included. All stories are selected by the editors. 

Word count: 500 – 6,000 words

Format: MS Word or PDF. Comics submissions of up to 6 pages can be submitted in thumbnails. Contact us if you are unable to submit in one of these formats.

Payment: A portion of profits after expenses from the Kickstarter project used to fund this book is split between contributors, with a guaranteed minimum of $50 each, plus copies of the book.

Deadline: April 15, 2024

Submit via Google Form here: https://forms.gle/41PxyvJUtiLR1kqb7 

Questions? Email summer@microcosmpublishing.com. Please do not email your submissions. We don’t want any getting lost in spam!

Haven’t checked out the other Bikes in Space books yet? Take a look at them here!