Katie Haegele has been passionate about cats for decades. They have been some of the most meaningful relationships in her life. This time around she’s organizing other people to share the most touching, heartwarming, wacky, and unbelievable stories about the behavior and emotional range of cats in her eighth book, Cat Party!
Get the People’s Guide to Publishinghere, and the workbook here! Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!
In the dawn of a young publishers’ life, they focus on their own tastes. Gradually, they see which books are well-received and branch outward. Some publishers quickly find that the most popular books are things that aren’t exactly the reason that they got into publishing! So this week on the pod, we talk about the limits of a press’ curation and why that’s important.
Get the People’s Guide to Publishinghere, and the workbook here! Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!
Publishing a book is both the end, and the start, of a long process of bringing your writing into the world and getting your book into the hands of readers. Promoting your book starts long before publication day, or even before the manuscript is finished, and continues long after your book comes out. As a writer, marketer, and community builder, I know that promoting your book can feel intimidating, burdensome, overwhelming, nerve-wracking, and exhilarating all at once. The exercises in this workbook break down the process into manageable, understandable pieces and make it fun along the way.
The fact of the matter is that whether your book is self-published, published by an independent press, or put out by a major publisher, you as the author are the one who needs to work the hardest to get it out into the world. Whether you are still in the process of writing your book or eagerly waiting for its publication day, working through these exercises will enable you to confidently create a sustainable promotion plan that makes sense for your book, audience, and life.
No one is born knowing how to promote themselves or their work. Marketing and promotion are skills that are learned. As you practice, you will feel more comfortable putting yourself and your work out into the world and will learn what works for you, your writing, and your community of readers. The exercises in this workbook are ones I’ve used myself to promote my books and honed for over a decade through helping creative people develop the business side of their practice and build support for their projects. I’m excited to share them with you so that you can use them to take concrete steps to create a supportive environment for your book to thrive and succeed.
How to use this workbook
This workbook is intended to complement my book Promote Your Book. For deeper context, insight, and advice from a wide variety of authors as well as literary, marketing, and community-building professionals, I suggest you read the book alongside this workbook and do the exercises in order. For those doing these exercises in conjunction with reading the book, I’ve noted the chapter that each exercise corresponds to. But whether you are using this workbook as a companion to the book or as a standalone, it is designed to take you step-by-step through the book promotion process so that you gain a holistic understanding of how to reach your readers. If possible, I recommend working through these exercises before your book comes out and using them to create a full book promotion plan, which is outlined in the last section of this workbook.
While there is no one pathway to success for a book and no proven formula to make your book a smash hit, there are concrete actions you can take to support your book and its trajectory in the world. Consider this workbook your starting place.
Chapter One: Building literary community
While the act of writing is often an isolating one, publishing a book means connecting with the wider world. Being a writer of any kind, whether you are writing in a specific genre or about a specific subject, connects you with a community. The sooner you can start building and deepening connections with communities who can support you as a writer or who would be interested in the subject of your book, the broader the basis of support you will have during and after publication. Community is not a one-way street, but rather an exchange between people with shared interests and values. This is important to keep in mind as you complete the exercises in this section, which will enable you to make a plan to connect with and engage your community.
Reflect and brainstorm. Write down three communities you are already part of:
1.
2.
3.
Now, write down three specific communities your book might speak to:
1.
2.
3.
Reflect: Where is there overlap? If there isn’t overlap, why?
If there’s no overlap between the communities that you are a part of and the communities that your book speaks to, that indicates space to grow and a potential place to prioritize. You may find that you need to focus your energies on building community in places that are interested in what you are writing about. The next set of exercises can help you focus on how to engage, and as you do so, you may find more overlap.
Welcome to the next installment of the Bookstore Solidarity Project! Every month, we’ll be highlighting indie bookstore owners and booksellers across the country(and beyond!)
For May, we’re featuring Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA!
Avid is an iconic indie store who have been up to all kinds of cool things lately, including calling for the University of Georgia to collaborate with local bookstores and businesses for their events, and suing Gwinnett County Jail over their mail policy that prevents Avid and other bookstores from mailing books to incarcerated people.
We spoke to owner and founder Janet Geddis. Check it out below!
Your name and pronouns? Janet Geddis, she/her
Tell us a little bit about the store and your community. In 2004, I moved to Athens, Georgia for what was supposed to be a two-year stint during my graduate program. I had grown up in nearby Atlanta but hadn’t lived in Georgia since I was in high school. Because most Athenians I knew back then were students, I figured there wasn’t much going on if you weren’t affiliated with the university; if I wanted to live in Athens, this was my one chance. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Athens is my forever-town, somewhere I can’t imagine leaving for long. I fell in love with this creative enclave, a little blue dot amid the mostly-red state. Even before announcing my plans to open a bookstore, I felt a strong sense of community. Once I started Avid Bookshop, my connection to the community grew ever stronger.
In 2007, a friend and I decided to begin researching the possibility of opening a bookstore in Athens. In 2008, we announced our plans and immediately garnered lots of encouragement and support from the Athens community, our friends, our family (even if they were trepidatious!), and the then-unfamiliar book world. Those of you who weren’t adults in 2008 (or those of you who’ve blocked out that period) might have forgotten that that was the year of a recession that was devastating for millions. Not the ideal time to ask banks and private lenders for capital to help open an independent bookstore, especially as folks [whose feedback I wasn’t actually asking for] openly said what a bad idea it was to open a bookstore, especially with Amazon’s continued dominance and the growing buzz about these “ebooks” that were going to make paper books totally irrelevant.
Because we’re still open now, in the year 2024, you know that I did manage to open a bookstore. In 2011, I finally opened a small shop on Prince Avenue, an 800 sq ft historic space less than half a mile from where I was living at the time. In 2016, we opened a second location in a different neighborhood of town. And, on the last day of 2019, we voluntarily closed our original store. (Within a few months, the decision to pivot back to a one-store business model proved to be an inadvertently genius move, as keeping one store going amidst a pandemic was hard enough.)
I am so proud of my store and of my staff past and present. My current crew is especially tight, and I love how we share with each other, support each other, ask for help when needed, and hold each other accountable. And yes, the “we” includes me even though I’m ostensibly the one who’s in charge of it all. It’s not always easy to hear, but getting my colleagues’ feedback on is instrumental and I am grateful for how well we communicate with respect and appreciation, no matter if we’re praising one another or asking folks to step up.
We look to our mission statement to guide our decision-making, our buying, our decision to speak out (or not), our relationships with customers, and more. Check it out here.
What got you into bookselling? A lifelong obsession with reading; a BA in English; understanding that, while I was a good teacher, I didn’t feel truly inspired or alive while teaching; my deep love for Athens; the fact that this college town didn’t have the kind of community-focused bookstore it so richly deserved.
How did you choose your store’s name? My friend Amy, who was my original business partner in the early planning stages, thought of it. While I liked the name, I was vying for “Word.” We had thought of tons of options (crowdsourcing from friends during happy hour was always fun), but Avid and Word were the top two contenders. Then, in 2009 or so, I was visiting a dear friend who lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. We emerged from the subway and I stopped in my tracks: there, right in front of me, was an eye-catching neighborhood bookstore called WORD. Someone already had the name! “Oh,” my friend said, “This is the bookstore I wanted to show you. Isn’t it cute?” Reader, it was cute. It is cute. And it is the reason I told my friend that we should go with Avid. My one sticking point was that we call it Avid Bookshop, not Avid Bookstore. The emphasis on “shop” conjures a cozier, friendlier, and decidedly indie vibe. (Side note: not long after seeing WORD for the first time, I became buddies with the then-manager and the owner. Fast forward to now, and the founding owner of WORD, Christine Onorati, is one of my dearest friends and confidantes!)
What’s something about your store that you think will surprise people? Depends on which people you mean.
Those in and outside of the book world might be surprised to know that—despite Avid’s being in a state where employees are not legally entitled to as many rights as they should be—I voluntarily and eagerly offer paid time off, sick leave, and a generous family leave policy. In spring 2022, we redefined “full-time” as working 35 hours per week instead of 40 (without a corresponding decrease in pay).
Those not in the publishing-bookselling ecosystem might not realize that a bookstore can do as well we do yet still struggle mightily to pay our bills each month. In spite of our high sales, accolades, community support, and excellent hand selling skills, it’s profoundly difficult to stay in the black (outside of the holiday season, at least). This industry is a notoriously tough one in which to turn a profit, and it’s getting harder. But we’re still here and I have zero plans to give up trying to find a better way.
What are some of you favorite ways your community supports your store? I could write a book-length response to this, but I’ll stick with this: I am deeply honored that many in our community share their hearts with us. They come here knowing that this is one place where they will be seen and appreciated by us and by each other.
Amid personal and worldwide crises (post-Election-Day 2016), people feel safe at Avid. In moments of boundless joy (a pregnancy was just confirmed! a marriage proposal went off without a hitch!), they celebrate with us. During hours or months of staggering bewilderment and grief (a life-changing diagnosis; a friend’s death), they know we will welcome them exactly as they are. When significant things happen in their lives, or when they’re dealing with big feelings, Avid is among their first destinations, a place where booksellers and patrons can bear witness to whatever they want to share.
What are two books you can’t wait for people to read, or your current favorite handsells? Briefly Perfectly Human by Alua Arthur; Liars by Sarah Manguso.
How can customers who aren’t local shop your shelves and support you? Buy yourself one of our famous subscriptions (a twice-named best gift idea from Wirecutter!), or virtually order just about any book that’s still in print from our website. Check out our staff pages, where you can see what our different booksellers are into. Find a bookseller whose taste jives with yours? Buy a staff pick from their list, or ask if they can be your personal bookseller choosing titles if you do buy one of those subscriptions. You can find us on X & Instagram: @avidbookshop. We’re most active on IG!
Anything else you’d like to share? We <3 Microcosm!
What is a regional trade association? What can they do for you as a bookseller or a publisher? This week on the pod, we feature Larry Law, executive director of the Great Lakes Bookseller Association, to learn more about this ecosystem and how it can work even better.
Corporate publishing has the distinct advantage of scale: they command more sales dollars, so they can push customers and vendors around more. This week, we take a look at options and opportunities for small publishers to band together and share resources, learn from each other, and be stronger together. Andrea Fleck-Nisbet, CEO of the Independent Book Publishers Association, unpacks it all for us and more!
You may know King’s Coop Bookstore as the winner of our How to Resist Amazondisplay contest a few years back, but they are so much cooler than just that! This week on our continuing Bookstore Solidarity Project, we bring you a deeper dive into the realities of bookselling. From attempting to rip a book in half to walking around campus and seeing everyone reading the same thing, it’s all in here!
For more on King’s Coop Bookstore, check out their Bookstore Solidarity Project interview on the blog.
It’s almost one of our favorite days of the year— Independent Bookstore Day! To celebrate, here’s a roundup of some of the stores we’ll be visiting, why we love indies, and a big ol’ giveaway we’re doing to help share the love.
Independent Bookstore Day is held the last Saturday in April every year as a way for stores to celebrate their communities (and vice versa!). Some stores do special edition releases, merch, signings, and other fun shenanigans, and we’re really hyped to be celebrating the celebration this year!
We’re going to try and visit some of our local (and not-so-local) stores this Saturday! Kalen, Elly, and Joe are hanging out at IBPA in Denver, but they’re hoping to swing by Shop at MATTER and Munity Information Cafe. Terry and Anna-Lisa are going to try and stop by Spoke & Word and Annie Bloom’s. Abby (me!) is pumped to finally visit Possible Futures on our way to the Connecticut Fiber Festival. Other staff are going to their indies, too! We hope to see you there.
We wish we could check out EVERY STORE because they’re all kickass, but alas, we haven’t invented time travel or perfected our cloning techniques, so you’ll have to go in our stead. Click here to see if an indie near you is joining the party this weekend.
To enter, simply purchase or special order a Microcosm-published title at a US indie on Saturday the 27th. Online orders count, but due to shipping costs the giveaway is only open to folks with an address in the United States.
Then you just upload your receipt or proof of purchase to this Google Form by April 30th to be entered to win. Other details, terms, and conditions about the giveaway can be found on the entry form. Winners will be contacted within the week.
Thanks again for supporting indie publishing and bookstores. We genuinely can’t do any of this without you.
The Funk Brothers, the legendary bestselling band (possibly of all time) and house band of Motown Records, wrote and performed on more tracks than you could possibly guess. This week on the pod, we take a look at how their approach informed our approach to book editing: taking an author’s expert views on a topic and expanding them into servicing the reader’s interest and needs.
Get the People’s Guide to Publishinghere, and the workbook here! Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!
Welcome to the next installment of the Bookstore Solidarity Project! Every month, we’ll be highlighting indie bookstore owners and booksellers across the country(and beyond!)
For April, we’re featuring King’s Co-op Bookstore, in Halifax!
King’s is a kickass store, which they cheekily claim is “Canada’s hardest to find indie bookstore.” It’s Halifax’s only co-op bookshop, and they’re definitely good friends to the Microcosm community.
Check out our interview with Paul below!
Your name and pronouns? Paul MacKay, he/him
Tell us a little bit about the store and your community! Our store was primarily created in 2006 by students who needed an easy and affordable place to buy their coursebook texts. The Foundation Year Programme at the University of King’s College is about 45 books in very specific editions and translations and it could be incredibly hard to find exactly what you needed. A group of students got together and found a free spot on campus which is quite small but special shelves were created that allowed the bookshelves to open and close and lock up so that common areas could still be usable for the bookstore. (This shows an old video showing how it works, I’ve since updated the fixtures and it looks a lot better)
We’re pretty hard to find at first, being in the basement of a building on campus, so I leaned into it and describe us as Canada’s Hardest to Find Bookstore since even google maps will only put you on campus but not right at the store. Since we’re owned by the students we’re not like usual university bookstores and we’re also a regular indie bookstore with fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, etc. We’re also totally open to the public and do special orders all the time either in store or on our website where we promote ourselves as a friendly and easy amazon alternative. We like to engage with things we think are important in the community and we like to champion books and reading, and work hard to bring authors to town who people might not usually have the chance to see.
Our standing in the community grew a lot as word of mouth got out of what we were doing during covid. Since the university closed we had to stay closed too, but I would run books outside for people and also delivered books on my bike. People really liked that idea and also were looking for ways to support local since so many businesses were struggling. Between that and a more personal approach to social media we’ve really become more of a community bookstore which was always my goal when I took over this place (about 6 years ago)
How did you choose your store’s name? The store name was already chosen by the time I took over the store. I do appreciate it’s specificity, King’s co-op bookstore, a co-op bookstore at King’s. Does what it says on the tin.
What got you into bookselling? This was never something I ever really intended to do. I’ve always loved books and would often cut classes in school to go hang out at the bookstore and learn things I cared about, but my real career plan was to be a musician and music professor. I picked up the guitar when I was around 18 and really took to it, earning a double major degree in music and psychology shortly after, and then went for more schooling in jazz guitar performance. That was my sole reason for being for years and it was all I cared about but eventually the strain and overuse of my arm caused repetitive strain injury that meant I had to quit playing. When I take to something I get kind of obsessive, so I was practising from about 8am to 10pm every day which my body just kind of revolted against.
I moved back home and needed to get a job quickly so I applied at the same chain bookstore i used to hang out at when I cut classes. I got hired there and would shelve books with my one good arm. I got promoted to being one of the managers of that store after a few years and during that time I met a lot of great people who introduced me to amazing books that really changed my life and that I developed a real passion for books that has only grown over the years
What’s something about your store that you think will surprise people? I think the most surprising thing about our store is how we fold up and close down every day like we’re a pop-up shop every day. As far as I know we’re the only bookstore in the world like it, and it’s always something I show people when authors come to visit. I wasn’t around at the time the bookstore was started but I do love that it was a very DIY project with a sort of “whatever, we’ll do it ourselves” punk attitude. Bookselling is getting harder and hard nowadays and there’s a huge financial barrier to opening a bookstore or even buying one that’s for sale, so I take pride in what we’ve been able to accomplish in such a weird space without much in the way of money
What are some of you favorite ways your community supports your store? We recently started a program with Books Beyond Bars which is a local group that works to get books to inmates in the women’s prisons here. I asked them to share their book requests with me and I put them on our website with a promo code so people can buy the books to support the program at a 20% discount.
So far we’ve managed to get them close to 100 books and we’re all really happy about it. The people supporting the program get to pay less, we help give the prisoners books they actually want to read, and the money stays the community instead of going you know where. You never know how a certain initiative will land with people and I’ve been really happy with the response this has gotten.
Outside of that, I manage all the social media for the store and people taking the time to make posts about how much they like the store or recommending us to others is always nice. They absolutely don’t need to do anything like that so if they feel the desire to do something like that you know they mean it 🙂
What are two books you can’t wait for people to read, or your current favorite handsells? I’m really stoked for the new Hanif Abdurraqib book There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension. I read an advanced copy of it and like everything he does it’s just amazing. I’m not a big sports fan at all and even I was taking breaks from reading it to watch slam dunk contents from like 30 years ago because the way he writes about them is so incredible.
Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is easily one of my favourite fiction books in the last year too. It’s his first novel after some poetry collections, and his writing is just beautiful. Another one that I just devoured and want everybody to read.
How can customers who aren’t local shop your shelves? Our website kingsbookstore.ca has everything on it that we have in store and we offer a flat $5 fee for shipping whether it’s 1 book or 20 books. we can also order in anything we don’t currently have also, so instead of going to the evil A they can just go to our website instead 🙂
(Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance. – James Baldwin)
Anything else you want to share? I won the contest for Danny Caine’s How to Resist Amazon and Why a while back which was great. I sold tons of them and also left copies at busy places in the city for people to find. Danny mentions us in the book which was a nice surprise when I was first reading it 🙂
Be sure to follow King’s Co-Op on their socials, and check back in a few weeks for their podcast episode!
