Tagged Contests & Giveaways

For Bookstores: Enter the #ResistAmazon Display Contest

Bookseller friends! Want to join the resistance? When Danny Caine’s book How to Resist Amazon and Why in March, we’re having a display contest for bookstores.

an orange book cover with a fist holding money

The #ResistAmazon display contest is open through 5/31/21 and the grand prize winner will receive really cool prizes from us including a free case (80 copies!) of the book, a virtual event with author Danny Caine, $150 in specially-curated Microcosm bestsellers, and more. Second and third place winners will also be named. The contest is open to independent bookstores that place an order for How to Resist Amazon (9781621067061) through their sales rep at Book Travelers West, Fujii Associates, Como Sales, and Manda Group, or direct to Microcosm Publishing

To enter, post at least one picture of your store’s How to Resist Amazon display on Twitter tagging @microcosmmm or on Instagram tagging @microcosm_pub, and using the hashtag #ResistAmazon. It’s that simple.

Contact kalen@microcosmpublishing.com with any questions. Have fun! We’re excited to see your displays! (And keep reading below for the fine print.) 

The Fine Print

Microcosm’s #ResistAmazon display contest is open to independent bookstores in the United States and Canada. Orders must be placed through a sales representative at Book Travelers West, Fujii Associates, Como Sales, Manda Group, or Microcosm Publishing directly. Orders placed through wholesalers or distributors are not eligible. Eligible edition is the first paperback edition (not the zine) of How to Resist Amazon / 9781621067061. Entries must be posted to Twitter or Instagram by 5/31/21, tagging Microcosm and using the hashtag #ResistAmazon. If a bookstore does not have access to social media, contact kalen@microcosmpublishing.com to enter. First, Second, and Third Place winners will be notified in June 2021 and announced on Twitter and Instagram. Microcosm Publishing reserves the right to use all photos on social media, in newsletters, and with the media. 

**New Giveaway** EAT LIKE A UNICORN!

If you haven’t seen Amy Subach’s colorful cookbook, Paleo For Unicorns: Eat the Patriarchy, we’re sorry to say you’re missing out. This creative guide to cooking healthy food quick and easy that tastes good and doesn’t drive your body crazy.

After a successful kickstarter campaign and so much support from everyone, Paleo for Unicorns is here and ready to go out to bookstores around the world. We love this feminist, humorous paleo cookbook, written for even the most beginnery of beginners to help you:

♥ Learn basic cooking skills!

♥ Figure out how to make a bunch of food with not too much cooking, even if you have a lot of restrictions!

♥ Dismantle the body shaming diet industrial complex!

♥ Make food that even little kids will love!

 

 

If you’re still unsure, here’s a quote from the book that I think illustrates why we made it in the first place and why we love it so much:

Paleo, as I’ve come to define it, is a way of eating that that includes meat, organ meats, vegetables (but not legumes), fruits, nuts (not peanuts because they are technically legumes), fermented foods, natural sweeteners, and sometimes dairy (raw, organic, goat, etc, if you tolerate it). It does not include grains (wheat, corn, quinoa (not really a grain actually), rice, etc), white potatoes (except sometimes it does), french fries (bummer, those are so good), processed junk foods, industrial seed oils, sugar, or alcohol. Easy paleo (and mostly paleo) recipes make up the meat and sweet potatoes of this book. The recipes are easy, because while I love cooking and have since I was making mud biscuits in the backyard (not a euphemism for pooping outside, this time), I have two small kids and I have no patience for any recipe that is finicky, requires a lot of special ingredients, or takes a lot of time.

One more thing: books about diet and health often make the reader feel less- than, like they need to change. I know that change is hard. I know it is a perpetual challenge for me to love and accept myself in the capitalist patriarchal racist imperialist society we live in, and as a cisgender white woman I have it pretty damn good. As the badass Audre Lorde has said, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Please accept this book as a guideline for how you can better love and care for yourself. Let me say this: You are ALREADY worthy of love. YOU ARE A DAMN UNICORN.

Check out preview pages below, and, as usual, you have several different ways to enter via the Rafflecopter box below: following us on social media, tweeting about the giveaway, sharing the link, or signing up for our newsletter. Choose one, a few, or all of em, and may the odds be in your favor!

Check out all the book details (available in bookstores next month) at Microcosm.Pub/paleoforunicorns.
You can follow Amy and the cool stuff she does at AmySubach.com or on twitter @amysue.

 

 

Enter to win with the options below…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

fine print details:
We’ll be giving away 10 free copies of Paleo for Unicorns, with a board game catalog and stickers, to 10 random winners selected via Rafflecopter. if you’re outside the US or Canada, you’re still welcome to enter, but we will request help paying for the very large shipping costs.

Win the Classic Bicycle Coloring Book

Taliah Lempert’s coloring zine was one of our bestselling and favorites, and now she’s releasing a full sized adult coloring book of her amazing classic bicycle artwork with us, and we absolutely adore it.

This month this family friendly coloring book is officially in stores, meaning you can get it at major and indie bookstores around the country (or ask your local art and gift shops to pick some up!).

You can also get one on our site, of course.

Or!

Win one!

 

You can enter just by signing in (using an email address or facebook) and get extra entries by doing things like visiting us on social media or tweeting about the contest.
(Please note that we can’t add your name into the contest outside of the rafflecopter platform. The good news is that it’s really easy!)

Giveaway runs til April 27th, so enter, share, and good luck!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make Your Place 2E in stores now; Or win one HERE

The brand new, hardcover, 10th anniversary, 2nd edition of Make Your Place is officially in stores and everywhere tomorrow– so how do we celebrate?Make Your Place cover

GIVING SOME AWAY!

If you’ve never gotten to check out this charming DIY tome, you’re missing out.
It’s full of simple skills that anyone can and should learn, from creating tinctures and salves, to concocting all-natural cleaners, to gardening basics, and more. 

It’s  great for anyone looking to live more simply and truly do it themselves. And this new hardcover format has a smooth, durable weight to it that doesn’t disrupt the book’s hand-made feel.

I’m giving away 5 copies of the snazzy new hot-off-the-press hardback, do-it-yourself must-have. You’ve got until midnight on March 27th to throw your name into the hat. If you’ve haven’t entered one of our new giveaways this year, we now use Rafflecopter as a contest platform, which is weird but handy. So check out the strange form below and the different ways to enter.

May the odds be in your favor ;-D

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Books to Beat the Winter Blues (+ a giveaway)

It’s the edge of winter here in the pacific northwest, and in Portland that means wet, gray days that are chilly but not frigid, damp but not stormy. On these many gray days, I know how easily sadness can sneak up and creep in, so we’re giving away books, of course!

This time of year makes me think a lot about Seasonal Affective Disorder, and the careful line a person suffering from mental illness often has to tread to stay above it. SAD can mean a lot of different things to different people, but so often this time of year makes people feel extra blue, extra down, extra shitty; with depression, fear, anxiety, loneliness, and sadness all more likely to pile up on your shoulders like a miserable coat of fuck-it-alls. This is a line I often have to gently tread and have grown quite familiar with.

Wherever you are, we want to help you get through that shit. One way is with our March mental health books:

This is Your Brain on Anxiety shows you exactly what’s going on in your head when anxiety comes barrelling through, with down-to-earth breakdowns of the science behind it and practical tips to getting through it. Written in her signature style of swears, wit, and pop culture references, Dr. Faith gives you the tools to deal with, and perhaps even get over, your anxiety on your own terms.

How Not To Kill Yourself wants to keep you away from the spiraling hole of suicidal thoughts and get you back into the world, with tips, tricks, and pep talks to remind you that it’s worth it to keep getting up in the morning. With an introduction by Dr Faith, this survival guide is for anyone dealing with intense depression or suicidal ideation.

If you haven’t heard about these yet, here’s a few clips:

“The interesting thing here about anxiety as a stress response? The good thing? Anxiety means the body is still fighting back. This is fundamentally different from depression, which is essentially a wired response of learned helplessness.

Anxiety symptoms are active coping skills in the face of threat. The problem is only when the brain has decided that most everything is a threat.”

“Name That Bastard. Give your anxiety an actual persona to inhabit. Name it after a heinous ex, a shitty grade school teacher, or Kim Jong-un. Create a whole character for your anxiety. Anxiety feels so nebulous that giving yourself someone to battle really helps. Then you can have convos with Donald Trump’s Epic Hair Swirl (or whomever, but personally I think all panic attacks should be named after that hair) whenever it comes calling. You can focus on that entity the way you would an actual person that was threatening you in a real-world situation. You can negotiate, you can yell back, you can lock it in a box. Whatever works.”

This Is Your Brain on Anxiety: What Happens and What Helps, by Dr. Faith G. Harper, PhD…

 

Depression is a swamp because it subtly evolves, it changes. It’s a delicately balanced ecosystem, where every little thing affects something else. Crowding trees and vines and darkness obscure what else might be out there. It seems endless, but it’s not. It seems abjectly awful, but it isn’t. There’s life in a swamp. There’s hope. It’s small and it’s wild, and it’s as apt to run away from you as it is to approach you, but it’s there. It’s real.

Don’t let the world win.
Don’t let it keep robbing great people and dumping them in the bin of history.
We can put a stop to it. We can be the first to say NO!—or better yet, FUCK OFF!
Stand tall, stand straight, and tell the world where to go. This is one soul it’s not going to crush. You are stronger than that. You can FIGHT BACK.

How Not To Kill Yourself: A Survival Guide for Imaginative Pessimists, by Set Sytes & Dr. Faith Harper

 

To celebrate these rad books being officially released next month, I’m giving away 10 packs of How Now To Kill Yourself and This is Your Brain on Anxiety: two books that take common problems and gives you as much advice as possible to kick that shit to the curb!

AND (because it’s our fricking 22nd birthday, y’all!) I’ll be adding one random Microcosm backlist title on health, wellness, DIY or taking care of yourself to each bundle (possibilities listed below). I’m calling these Anti-SAD Packs, because we hope they help get you through the heavy winter season. Enter below, or check out the books webpages by clicking any images in this post.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Alive with Vigor!

Grow!

Punk Rock Entrepreneur

Contest Alert! : The Velocipede Races

If you like YA novels, bicycle fiction, strong characters, or just empowering books, you should check out The Velocipede Races by the rad Emily June Street. Published around this time a year ago, Velo Races is Microcosm’s first young adult novel… first steampunk novel… first feminist YA steampunk bicycle racing novel—a lot of firsts, but featuring our good old fashioned theme of self-empowerment.

This is what I am. I’m a jockey. I ride velos. I ride velos as well as a man. If I stay quiet, if I keep it a secret, I’m just being a coward. Don’t you see how it is? Someone has to break the box. If I don’t show them what I can do, if I pretend to be a man forever, the box isn’t broken. But if I say, yes, I’m a woman, and I did this thing that no one believed I could do, then I’ve made room for someone else to do it, too. I have to make space where there is none, just like in a velocipede race. 

Praise for Velo Races has applauded the style and writing, and the bad-ass hero, Emmeline, including the cover blurb by steampunk queen Cherie Priest. Here’s some of its love:

“Street also does not glorify or fetishize Victorian women’s fashion, as many steampunk stories do…I enjoyed getting to see a young woman using the development of her physical skills as her jumping off point to grow in her emotional life as an adult, and not solely the love of a good man.” http://www.paperdroids.com/2016/07/05/velocipede-versus-corset/

“This book weaves in the history of women and cycling into a fictional story about one girls journey into her emancipation. Not only is this the first novel that I’ve read that weaves in these themes, it also comes with many firsts: first steampunk novel, first YA steampunk feminist/bicycle racing novel, and my first love into the work of Emily June Street.” http://citygirlrides.blogspot.fr/2016/02/book-review-velocipede-races.html

“Tense, thoughtful, and truly thrilling – The Velocipede Races is a marvelous fantasy of manners and machinery.” Cherie Priest, bestselling author of the Clockwork Century novels

 

If you haven’t gotten to pick one up yet, you can get always get a copy from us or wherever books are sold, OR enter to win ONE of FIFTY copies over on Goodreads from now till the end of the month. Happy reading!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Velocipede Races by Emily June Street

The Velocipede Races

by Emily June Street

Giveaway ends May 01, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Good Trouble Giveaway

Greetings!

One thing I love about my new position at Microcosm is that now I get to give away books — free! I mean, not all the time… but a lot, and it is becoming one of my favorite things to do.

Here’s the deal: This year I’d like to spend time telling the story of not Microcosm but the people who work here, make us what we are, and helped build this business along the way. But for each month I’d like to host a great big book giveaway of past books! Each giveaway (hosted on Goodreads) will offer up 50 copies of one back-list title.

For the first, though, we start at the beginning:

Good Trouble: Building a Successful Life & Business with Asperger’s is the memoir of Joe Biel, Microcosm’s founder, and the story of Microcosm itself; how it came into existence, the troubles it (and its members) faced along the way, and how it became what it is now [a thriving indie publishing house with books and zines all over the world, of course]. The history involved is deepened by Biel’s rocky childhood and (at first un-diagnosed) place on the autism spectrum. Published one year ago to mark Microcosm’s 20th anniversary, Good Trouble dives into all the shit and splendor that’s gone into making us who we are, from the very beginning.

Check out this book trailer from a kickstarter project launched for the book’s release:

So, starting today and ending March 31st, just before the start of Autism Awareness Month, enter to win one of 50 copies of Good Trouble, and get a nitty-gritty glimpse behind the Microcosm curtain.

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Good Trouble by Joe Biel

Good Trouble

by Joe Biel

Giveaway ends March 31, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Stay awesome and good luck!

Cyn