Tagged diy

Action!: An Illustrated, DIY Guide to Making Your Own Movies

The classic guide to movie-making fundamentals

Who says you need a film degree, fancy equipment, or studio backing to fulfill your filmmaking dreams? Pick up your phone or the video or film camera you found at an estate sale, and make your own movies, music videos, documentaries, vlogs, and more.

Charmingly hand-written and -illustrated, this revised and updated edition of the beloved classic fits in your pocket and provides all the essential information you need, free of jargon or elitist obstacles. You’ll learn why movies move us, how film and video cameras work, how to light and expose shots, how to create eye-catching compositions, how to record crystal-clear sound, and more.

Whether you’re a content creator, journalist, artist, director, fundraiser, or activist, movies are a more powerful storytelling tool than ever. This book will help you improve your technical expertise on any equipment and any budget so you can achieve your dreams and reach the world with your story. 

Want to know how you and your friends can make movies? Read on for an excerpt of this new and updated edition of Bill Brown‘s Action! Preorder your own copy from our site, shipping May 19, or find it at your preferred Microcosm peddler after its official release, August 25 🙂

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

Learn what it takes to publish books successfully

Drawing on 30 years of experience operating an independent publishing company, Microcosm founder and CEO 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.

Keep going to read an excerpt of Joe Biel’s A People’s Guide to Publishing! Available now through our site, or via your favorite independent Microcosm peddler 🙂

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Save Your Food: The Sustainable Joy of Storing, Canning, Drying, and Fermenting

Stretch your food budget farther

Whether you are overwhelmed by the bounty of your home garden or you want to get smarter about using what’s in your fridge, this friendly and informative guide will walk you through the steps to preserving and storing your own (delicious!) food. In her trademark welcoming style with charming illustrations, Raleigh Briggs offers up her knowledge on canning, brining, fermentation, drying, and storing everything from fresh vegetables to fish. With step by step instructions, recipes, and helpful tips, this guide will allow you to embrace a more sustainable, low-waste, and cost-saving relationship to food while empowering you with new skills. Eat healthy and cheap all year round!

Keep going to read an excerpt of Raleigh Briggs’s Save Your Food! Printing came through early, so it’s available NOW through our site, well in advance of the technical October 2026 pub date!

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How to Survive in the Woods: Camping, Fires, Trailing, Tramping, Getting Lost, and Finding Your Way Home

Connect to nature and live to tell the tale

Connect to nature and live to tell the tale with this camping guide packed with practical knowledge from a time before ultralight backpacking gadgets, synthetic rainwear, and cell phones. The emphasis is on preparation and survival, starting with how to plan your trip, pick your companions, how to get to your campsite, and what gear, food, and clothes to bring along. You’ll learn to choose a good campsite and set up your tarp or build a lean-to, and navigate on your backcountry trek. There’s an extensive section on wilderness first aid, plus guides to backwoods housekeeping and cooking, blazing a trail, starting a fire without a match, sending smoke signals, and choosing the best axe.

In the words of the author, “Camping calls for old clothes, lack of luxuries and conveniences, primitive life, and unfailing good temper and cheerfulness under all conditions, as well as plenty of hard work and a willingness to do one’s share of anything and everything without being asked.” If roughing it is more your style than glamping, this guide will spark your imagination and help you plan your next trip.

Keep reading for an excerpt of Elly Blue’s foreword to How to Survive in the Woods, our new edition of A. Hyatt Verrill’s Book of Camping, first published in 1917. Shipping direct from the Microcosm site starting December 8th, or available from your favorite local Microcosm purveyor in April 2026!

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From Solo to Supported: A Writer’s Guide to Finding Community

Writing doesn’t have to be lonely

Our culture treats the artist toiling in solitude like a romantic idea, but that’s rarely how it happens in the real world. Writing doesn’t have to be isolating—art flourishes in community. If you know where to look, there’s a whole world of writers out there, waiting to connect.

Jessie Kwak, author of From Chaos to Creativity, returns with a guide on networking and building your community, with clear and easy to follow advice. Learn how to form your own “writing constellation,” how to create an elevator pitch, tips on reaching out (without being a creep), and how to navigate things like events, classes, workshops, and more. A great read for writers new and old to shift their mindset away from the solo grind to enthusiastic collaboration and building an open, welcoming support network.

Keep reading for an excerpt of Jessie L. Kwak‘s From Solo to Supported, available now from our site or from an indie bookseller near you!

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The Frugal Vegan’s Happy Home: Crafts, Rituals, and Recipes for Every Season

Make sustainable housekeeping easy and fun!

Even when you’re broke, you can live a full, fun, compassionate life.

Are you plant-based, penniless, and keen on making things yourself? This cookbook and DIY compendium of vegan living starts with a focus on spring and summer, offering hot-weather tips and treats like recipes for popsicles, sorbet, and tofu burgers; budget vegan travel tips; craft ideas; yard sale delights; and guidance on environmentally friendly housecleaning.

The second half of the book is focused on harvest and holiday, offering cozy activities and recipes for cool-weather treats like pumpkin bread, cookies, hot cocoa, and more. You’ll find egg alternatives for baking, vegan survival tips for family occasions like Christmas, and Valentine’s Day gift ideas and guidance for doing it yourself and avoiding commercial holidays altogether. Save cash and learn new skills while staying socially and environmentally conscious all year round.

Read on for an excerpt of The Frugal Vegan’s Happy Home: Crafts, Rituals, and Recipes for Every Season by Lisa Van Den Boomen, shipping now from our site and available from your local bookseller or vegan retailer November 1st!

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Hot Pants: Do-It-Yourself Gynecology and Herbal Remedies

Get their laws off your reproductive health

Hot Pants, long an underground classic and now available in a gorgeous new edition, offers great basic sexual health information along with tried and true herbal treatments for common gynecological problems. “Patriarchy sucks,” the authors begin. “It’s robbed us of our autonomy and much of our history. We believe it’s integral for women to be aware and in control of our own bodies.”

In that spirit, diagrams and herbal remedies teach you how to diagnose and heal many basic problems, including bladder infections, inducing your period, easing cramps and PMS, aphrodisiacs, and dealing with pregnancy. You’ll learn herbal remedies to ease every stage of your menstrual cycle. This book deserves a place next to your copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

Read on for a peek at the new edition of MCP classic Hot Pants: Do-It-Yourself Gynecology and Herbal Remedies by  Isabelle Gauthier, Lisa Vinebaum, with JJ Pursell and Jennifer Baumgardner, available now from our site now or your local bookseller!

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Punk Women: 40 Years of Musicians Who Built Punk Rock

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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Spread the Zine Revolution

Unbannable. Unbeatable. Distributed out of a backpack!

In this Year of Zines, we’re exploring all kinds of ways to dig into our DIY roots in the ever-expanding underground, where art and ideas to flourish beyond the clutches of the mainstream—and the powers that enforce it.

In this spirit of kicking it old school and under the radar, we made this flyer that you can print and distribute yourself in and around your community. Print and copy, grab a stapler, and head out into your small world armed with resources to empower your kindred, comrades, and neighbors!

From library bulletin boards to lamps posts to the local infoshop, reclaim the commons while spreading the zinester spirit. This flyer features cool stuff we proudly publish, but we want to be just one piece of a thriving autonomous network of zine creators crafting passionate pocket publications about what they love and why. You can help make it happen. So pick up your tools, invite a friend, and join the cause—zines forever!

If you have a zine you think makes a good fit with Microcosm, give our submissions guidelines another look and get in touch!

March Zine Blast

When we said Year of Zines we meant it!

We publish new zines each and every month (you read that right!), and we want to make sure you don’t miss any that could help you change your life and the world around you. So every month this year, we are sharing a roundup of what’s been released, and maybe a few sneak peeks at what’s ahead in the zine pipeline. Let’s dive in for March!

A Pocket Guide to Natal Astrology: Birth Chart Basics by Maia Sky
This zine will empower you to navigate your astrological fundamentals while fostering a deeper appreciation for the intricacies of the ancient art and science of astrology. Whether you’re birth chart curious or an avid student of the stars, this expertly-organized and highly-detailed guide will build your knowledge and confidence in essential astrological information, from signs and houses to aspects and angles and lots more.

Public Speaking for the Awkward & Overwhelmed by Elly Blue and Joe Biel
Have you ever clammed up, lost your train of thought, or stumbled over a word during a presentation? Talking in front of people can be hard, but fear no more! Elly Blue and Joe Biel put their heads and their 40+ years of combined public speaking experience together to create this zine of helpful suggestions, strategies, and practices, ready to support you any time you have to yap in front of—and really connect with—an audience.

Bigenital Revolution: My (Very) Graphic Guide to Nonbinary Gender-Affirming Phalloplasty by Hyde Goltz and Jey Pawlik
Go on a journey with Hyde Goltz, one of the first people to ever have bigenital surgery—basically, they have two functional sets of genitals. Hyde shares the intimate details of their experience getting this revolutionary surgery as a nonbinary person. Graphic, humorous, and heartwarming, this comic is for anyone who wants guidance and encouragement for this process—or to understand the experience of a loved one who’s pursuing it.

Managing Neurodiverse Workplaces: Autistic and ADHD Teammates & How Good Management Strategies Simply Benefit Everyone by Joe Biel, Elly Blue, and Andrew Coltrin
Accommodations don’t need to mean sacrifice or lowered expectations—by shifting focus from individual diagnoses to playing to all workers’ strengths and abilities, this zine will help you to support employees with completing their tasks, getting past blocks, and avoiding burnout. To be a neurodiversity-friendly employer is to make it easier for every one of your staff to excel—neurodivergent and neurotypical alike.

Upside Down Punks: The Strange but True Story of That Fugazi Basketball Hoop Show by J. Hunter Bennett and Mickey Lynch
In the summer of 1988, a star-struck teenager with zero concert promotion experience booked a fledgling DC punk band called Fugazi to play a decrepit gymnasium in a forgotten section of Northeast Philadelphia. Attendance was sparse, conditions were sweltering, and the sound sucked. And it was legendary.

Sabotage & How to Master It by Office of Strategic Services and Joe Biel
Read along to see 1) how the state weaponizes individual actors to disrupt collective efforts, 2) tactics to watch out for in your groups and collaborations (and within yourself!), 3) ways regular people can hack back against destructive forces through simple, nonviolent means that require no tools, skills, or training. Why let the CIA have all the fun!

Baking with Baddies: How to Succeed in Business, from a Multidimensional Cookie Creative by Via Carpenter
For bakers, business owners, and budding entrepreneurs, this zine gives you a step-by-step guide to small business success. From refining your mission to networking, getting tax help to dealing with burnout and discrimination, this zine is full of sound advice that can be applied to all kinds of small business and start-up situations.

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