This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly lift the hood on the Microcosm engine to investigate why 2021 was such an unexpectedly successful year, and share some of the lessons learned. From external factors like the booming gift trade to internal factors like our amazing staff’s teamwork and management restructuring, we discuss what we did and why it worked.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast / vlog, Joe and Elly answer a reader question—how many books should a publisher put out every season?
For those new to the game, the traditional publishing industry has two or three seasons—Spring, Fall, and Winter (with Fall and Winter sometimes being combined). In today’s episode, we talk about when those seasons run, why they are important, what it means for your workflow, and, of course, how many books it makes sense to fit into each one—and what kind of books do best in each season.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly tackle a reader question. They noticed that a major publishing house had announced a book that they were interested in… but then years passed, and that book never came out. What happened? We talk about some of the many reasons a book’s publication might be delayed or canceled.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly tackle the question that stymies many a newly-minted publisher – how do I make a great book cover?
Today on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly talk about some of the books that inspired and motivate our work.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly talk about the various steps involved in opening our new warehouse. (This episode was recorded a year ago, when we were in the midst of doing all these things.)
Check out more episodes in your preferred video or audio format, as well as articles for book publishers on our podcast page.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly reveal the mysteries of the ISBN, aka the 13-digit International Standard Book Number you see on most books sold to the general public. ISBNs can be costly and a lot of new publishers aren’t sure when they should start using them. We offer some advice about when an ISBN is essential and when it isn’t.
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly talk about one of the scariest topics in publishing: growth and how to manage it. How do you know you’re growing? How fast should you grow? How do you pay for it? What do you do if it stops?
Hi all, things got a little wild over the holiday season. We kept posting new episodes of the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, but we stopped posting them to our blog. So here’s a big post to catch up with what you up on what you missed!
We talked about how book publishers can experiment in order to keep their business limber and growing (but without losing tens of thousands of dollars when those experiments don’t pan out):
We answered one of the questions Microcosm is most frequently asked: “Why have I never heard of you?”:
We tackled a reader question about a pretty weird scenario that happens more often than you’d think: What do you do when a publisher pays you for your book and then never publishes it?
We gazed into our crystal ball and made some predictions about how the publishing industry will change in the next five years:
We talked about sidelines! Stickers, buttons, patches, etc. Not very many publishers make this kind of merch to sell alongside their books (unless they’re heavily influenced by punk music culture… ahem) but it’s often a good idea:
And finally, we talked about how publishers can sell translations, foreign rights, and other licensing deals:
This week on the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly answer a reader question about the heart and soul of every publisher’s operation: what goes into your secret sauce? We all have a point of view, and a big part of your path to success is understanding what yours is, how it affects your publishing, and how to let it be your north star. They also talk about how your POV is different from your taste in books.