A People’s Guide to Publishing: Building a Successful, Sustainable, Meaningful Book Business From the Ground Up

February 10, 2026 — by Abby Rice

So, you want to publish books.

Drawing on 30 years of experience operating an independent publishing company, Joe Biel has written the most accessible and comprehensive guide to running a successful publishing business. You’ll learn all the skills of the trade, including how to:

Develop your individual books to connect with readers on a practical and emotional level
Choose between offset printed, digitally printed, and ebook formats and work effectively with printers
Build an authentic niche so you can reach your audience and sell books directly
Understand if and when you’re ready to work with a distributor or large online retailer
Create a budget and predict the cost and income of each book so your company stays in the black
Decide what work you need to do yourself and what can be done by others
Plan for sustainable growth

Featuring interviews with other upstart independent publishers and funny anecdotes from publishing’s long history as well as detailed charts and visuals, this book is intended both for beginners looking for a realistic overview of the publishing or self-publishing process and for experienced publishers seeking a deeper understanding of accounting principles, ways to bring their books to new audiences, and how to advance their mission in a changing industry. All readers will come away with the confidence to move forward wisely and a strong sense of why publishing matters today more than ever.

How to Defend Books and Why: Book Bans and How We Fight Them

February 10, 2026 — by Abby Rice

You’re invited to the book revolution!

Fight back against censorship and empower your community with this close look at the book banning movement.

In a moving, compulsively readable call to arms for readers everywhere, Danny Caine, bestselling author of How to Resist Amazon and Why and How to Protect Bookstores and Why, offers an expertly-crafted confrontation of far-right, Christian nationalist attempts to reshape American culture through ban campaigns targeting schools, libraries, bookstores, and prisons, with the aim to silence marginalized identities in life and in literature.

From the first-ever banned books display at San Francisco’s City Lights in the 1950s to the rapid rise of so-called Moms For Liberty during the COVID-19 pandemic to attempts to silence Palestinian authors, Caine charts the course of repressive censorship campaigns, along with the creative and sometimes unlikely activists who’ve stood up against them. Each chapter is based on a particular book banning episode, bolstered by research and legal precedent, and concludes with helpful takeaways for further reading or resistance. Throughout, Caine approaches these heated issues with gentle openness harkening back to his work as a public school teacher and a bookseller. He emphasizes our collective responsibility towards art, free speech, and each other.

Self Care Won’t Save Us: How to Fight Burnout with Solidarity and Social Change

February 06, 2026

Get off the hamster wheel and into the streets!

Is the daily grind getting you down? You’re not alone! More than half of working adults in the U.S. say they’re experiencing at least some degree of that dreaded late-stage-capitalism affliction: burnout. But workplace well-being needn’t remain out of reach. With a focus on actionable alternatives, Self Care Won’t Save Us examines the mash-up of money and morality that got us into this mess alongside practical ways we can get ourselves out of it.

Author Caroline Moore digs into hustle culture’s takeover of the way we do business, how its rise has allowed work to creep into every aspect of our daily lives, and how we can re-envision what work is and what it should mean to us. Exploring possibilities like co-op models, shorter working weeks, policy changes in the workplace, and other simple adaptations to help you to thrive, this book offers real tools to battle burnout, rather than burning you out with more burnout facts. Whether you’re a business owner, a union steward, a new employee, or a freelancer, this is the working person’s guide to making positive change for ourselves and each other.

Read an exclusive excerpt of Self-Care Won’t Save Us, shipping now from our site or from a shop near you!:

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Organizing Inclusive Events & Conferences w/ Dr. Alex Ketchum | People’s Guide to Publishing Podcast

February 06, 2026 — by Abby Rice

A LOT goes into the planning of conferences, signings, and basically every event. How do you make sure it’s accessible to everyone who wants to come? It goes beyond just making sure your space is ADA accessible!

Dr. Alex D. Ketchum’s new book, “How to Organize Inclusive Events & Conferences,” is full of practical tips, templates, and guidance for organizing accessible, inclusivity-oriented events. This week on the pod, Alex joins Joe and Elly to talk about accessibility, favorite feminist restaurants, and, of course, planning inclusive events and conferences.

Get the book!

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!

What is marketing? | A People’s Guide to Publishing Podcast

January 29, 2026

Marketing is made up many things. Direct outreach, broad social media posts, newsletters, and so much more all play a part, depending on what you do. But in the constant chase for analytics and making the numbers go up, it’s important to remember that first and foremost, marketing is about building relationships.

Today on the pod, check out a recent staff education session where we put some of our big brains together to learn the ins and outs of marketing, how it works for Microcosm, and more.

Rad Bugs: Brain Worms, Ticks that Cure Cancer, and Other Tiny Marvels

January 28, 2026

Fun bug information to delight and inspire

Get acquainted with the little creepy crawlies who make our world go ’round in this enthusiastic and informative love letter to the beauty of bugs by Karyn Light-Gibson, the author of Bug Life. This time around, Light-Gibson introduces us to under-appreciated insects like fleas, lice, silverfish, and earwigs. And then she opens up the wide world of non-insect invertebrates, taking us on a rollercoaster ride through the world of scorpions, spiders, ticks, millipedes, and even crayfish and snails. She offers fascinating, fun, and sometimes gross facts about how each of these bugs has shaped our world, from ancient times to today. She debunks common myths (no, you probably do not actually eat eight spiders per year). And she gives guidance on how humans can co-exist more peaceably with these creatures we often fear or see as pests—but who we also rely on for a viable ecosystem.

Read for the trivia night facts, to help cure your arachnophobia, or if you just want to gain a new appreciation for more of the tiny creatures that we share the planet with but rarely stop to get to know.

Can publishing fewer books mean more sales? | A People’s Guide to Publishing Podcast

January 22, 2026

Will publishing fewer books make more money? It feels counterintuitive, but when you look closer, it frees up the ability to market more specifically, edit more thoroughly, and generally give more care in attention to what you’ve got going on.

Find out how Joe & Elly made the decision to find Microcosm’s “optimal number” of titles per season, and how they’ve discovered that more isn’t always better.

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!

The Sober Travel Handbook w/Teresa Bergen | A People’s Guide to Publishing Podcast

January 15, 2026 — by Abby Rice

This week on the pod, Teresa Bergen, author of the zine (and now paperback book!) “Sober Travel Handbook” joins Joe, Elly, and Bernie talk traveling without drinking, the rise in mocktail culture, sobriety and recovery, and everything that went into developing the zine into a full book.

Get “Sober Travel Handbook”: https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/47854

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!

Announcing: The Microcosm Deal of the Day!

January 09, 2026

We know these things to be true:

Reading is good
Everything costs a million dollars these days
There are so many books
We all want to spend less time online

And hi, we have a solution!: Microcosm’s brand-new, unbeatable, unstoppable Deal of the Day!

How it works:

Every working day, we will offer a different book, super cheap, until it’s sold out.
Most deals will be in the ballpark of either $5 or 75% off the cover price.
And we’ll keep doing this every working day until we run out of books or you stop wanting them.

Sign up here to get an email every morning that gives you the first shot at the day’s deal.

Or just go to our Deal of the Day page, which will always be updated with the day’s deal.

Okay, but what are the books?

We’ve spent 30 years developing a vast catalog and several warehouses full of books and zines to help you rise to any occasion. Recession? Disaster? Grief? Boredom? Rage? Broke-assedness? Hunger? An inarticulate yearning for profound change? We’ve got something to meet every need. If today’s book isn’t your preferred flavor, wait for tomorrow!

How can we afford to offer these deals?

These books have so many origin stories. Some of them we found a great deal on and overbought during the heady pandemic book boom-times. Others got a little scuffed along their journey. Yet others are cool books we misjudged the interest in. Some of these stores don’t want to touch. Others just slipped through the cracks. Our deal price is pretty close to our cost, so we’re essentially passing these along to a good home with you.

Can I buy other things along with the deal book?

Absolutely! You can add anything else that’s in stock on our website to your cart along with the deal. May we recommend taking a gander at our newest zines, our stickers, or our last-chance titles with only one copy left?

I went to the deal page and it’s out of stock, what gives?

Sorry, friend, that means we sold out of this one before the day was through. You can search the title in our catalog to see if a full-price (or sometimes lesser-sale-price) copy is available. If you want to be among the first to be notified, sign up for our daily Deal of the Day newsletter.

Can I put a deal in my cart and buy it later?

Yes, but… if you buy it on a different working day, you won’t get the book you expected, as it will be a different book on that new day, assuming we even still have copies when you check out.

Can I buy deal of the day books for my store?

You sure can, so long as you add it to your cart on our website and check out same day with a $100 minimum order! There’s no additional discount and please be mindful of condition, but if you think your customers would dig a deal, go ahead and grab a few.

Wishing you a very analog 2026,

Everyone at Microcosm

AI, Closures, Tariffs, and More: 2025 in Publishing | A People’s Guide to Publishing Podcast

January 08, 2026

We are far from the only ones saying it, but 2025 was an ass-kicker of a year. From tariffs to Baker and Taylor closing to AI, publishing felt like a roller coaster for much of the year.

How did it impact Microcosm, and publishing culture? This week on the pod, Joe, Elly, and special guest Bernie the Office Dog recap 2025 in the book industry.

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!