Does AI help publishing? with Jane Friedman | A People’s Guide to Publishing Podcast

August 28, 2025

Ah, AI. We’re hearing about it constantly, and it’s not going anywhere any time soon. From “fair use” in recent court cases to bad advice from Anthropic, Jane Friedman of The Bottom Line is back to talk with Joe and Elly about AI, especially in the publishing world.

Is it useful? WE haven’t found anything that AI does well, have you? Let us know!

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Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Note: There are a few hops, skips, and jumps in the video do to some connection issues. It shouldn’t be too noticeable, but we are aware of it!

Incorporating Zines Into Our Marketing and Production Strategy | A People’s Guide to Publishing

August 21, 2025

Zines are small, often subject-focused booklets that can range in topic from how much you love your cats, to fixing your bike, to protest safety tips. How do we incorporate zines into our regular marketing and production strategy? Joe and Elly tell all this week on the podcast!

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Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Conferences, Promos, & More: How Booksellers & Publishers Work Together | A People’s Guide to Publishing

August 14, 2025

Continuing our series on tradeshows, bookselling, and bookseller/publisher relationships, this week we’re back at PNBA! Hear from booksellers and publishers on how they think they collaborate well, and what they wish the other party knew.

Prefer an audio experience? Listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app.
Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Queer Horror: Fun and Freaky Perspectives on Macabre Media

August 13, 2025

Fabulous vampires of screen and page

Don’t be scared straight! Curl up on the couch with Joe and Gina for a romp through their favorite horror movies, TV shows, and books from the 1930s to today, exploring their messages, meaning, and enduring appeal for queer audiences. From The Thing to vampire porn, The Exorcist to paranormal television, Goblin Market to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, these thoughtful, conversational essays will make you think, laugh, shiver, and see your favorite media in a new light (even if you have to cover your eyes for the scary parts).

Horror buffs and queer media mavens alike will enjoy this wide ranging journey through a genre often derided, dismissed, and misunderstood, but which offers rich opportunities to explore our culture’s ideas about gender, sexuality, and desire. Whether you relate to the monster or the final girl, enjoy sleuthing hidden queer themes, or just want recommendations for obscure, low-budget ghost movies, this book’ll be a scream.

Read on for an excerpt from Queer Horror: Fun and Freaky Perspectives on Macabre Media written by Gina Brandolino and Joe Carlough, available to order from our site or your local bookseller (shipping from us now, available everywhere 9/2/25).

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How do we think bookseller trade shows can improve? | A People’s Guide to Publishing

August 07, 2025

Continuing our ongoing series on trade shows, publishing, bookselling, and more, this week Joe and Elly talk education sessions, galley rooms, the decreased focus on placing orders and getting face time with publishers, and some of their thoughts for improving the shows.

Prefer an audio experience? Listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app.
Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Pittsburgh Tarot: A Gilded Age Deck & Guide

August 05, 2025

New deck and guidebook zine offer an oracular tour of the Steel City

Iron and stained glass, brick and stone, clouds and rain—Pittsburgh is arguably America’s most gothic city. Permeated with an old-world sensibility, this once perennially dark and smoggy metropolis that built its wealth through coke and steel is moody, atmospheric, melancholic, and beautiful.

Eschewing contemporary stereotypes that reduce the city to football or sandwiches with fries on them, The Pittsburgh Tarot expresses the complicated and conflicted period of the city’s greatest expansion and influence during the 19th century. This is the same era that inspired the iconic Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot illustrations, and each of the cards in this deck pays homage to those original designs. The Major Arcana features significant historical figures, while the Minor Arcana is divided into suits of Neighborhoods, Rivers, Nature, and Industry.

The Pittsburgh Tarot features people, events, and themes from the 19th century and through La Belle Epoque, with a special focus on the Gilded Age, the city’s period of greatest significance. With an aesthetic style that calls to mind the work of artist Edward Gorey, this is a beautiful and unique expression of a city that’s as much sentiment and disposition as it is location.

Read on for an excerpt from the guidebook by Ed Simon! The Pittsburgh Tarot Deck and The Pittsburgh Tarot Guide, written by Ed Simon and with art by Steve Teare, are available for preorder from our site or your local bookseller (deck ships 9/1/25, guide ships 8/12/25).

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Punk Women: 40 Years of Musicians Who Built Punk Rock

July 31, 2025

Girls to the front!

The new edition of this trailblazing classic includes 11 new interviews and over 30 new profiles of even more incredible musicians, including Blondie, Neko Case, The Urge, Gang of Four, Pogues, Submission Hold, Fastbacks, Teen Idols, and many more.

In this far-reaching anthology, David Ensminger delves underground to explore the oft-overlooked community of badass women who shaped the punk scene. There is a common thread of women being excluded and gatekept from hardcore music; this book shows that women have been able to overcome those barriers, kick ass, and shred with the best of them. Biographies, interviews, band anecdotes, and never-before-published photos showcase the talent and artistry of bands like Bikini Kill, the Guttersluts, Bratmobile, Spitboy, the Germs, the Slits, and dozens more. With its intimate aesthetic analysis and raw, zine-like presentation, this is an essential resource for anyone looking to discover, rediscover, and cherish punk history.

Read on for a sneak peek at the new foreword by Katy Otto of Trophy Wife and Exotic Fever Records! Punk Women: 40 Years of Musicians Who Built Punk Rock is available to order from our site or find with your local bookseller.

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What does it mean that Costco is cutting books? w/Jane Friedman | A People’s Guide to Publishing

July 31, 2025

Is Costco cutting books a big deal, or will it be a great chance for readers to go back to their local indies? What does it mean for publishers? Jane Friedman of The Hot Sheet is back this week to talk with Joe about bulk buying, waste, returns, and Costco’s target book customer.

Prefer an audio experience? Listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app.
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 can regional trade shows improve for bookselling? | A People’s Guide to Publishing

July 24, 2025

We’ve been talking trade shows the last few weeks, from how they benefit booksellers to what publishers need to make them work. We continue the conversation this week with some more folks from the PNBA show talk about how they can improve for booksellers and bookselling.

Prefer an audio experience? Listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app.
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 effective are regional trade shows for book publishers? | A People’s Guide to Publishing Podcast

July 17, 2025

After last week’s episode, where booksellers and publishers evaluate the effectiveness of trade shows, this week Elly and Joe give their own analysis! Learn what regions we’re a bit TOO known in, our thoughts on building relationships at shows, and what our thoughts are on going to shows going forward.

Prefer an audio experience? Listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app.
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!