{"id":6818,"date":"2026-02-10T13:47:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T13:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/?p=6818"},"modified":"2026-02-10T13:47:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T13:47:28","slug":"a-peoples-guide-to-publishing-building-a-successful-sustainable-meaningful-book-business-from-the-ground-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/a-peoples-guide-to-publishing-building-a-successful-sustainable-meaningful-book-business-from-the-ground-up\/","title":{"rendered":"A People&#8217;s Guide to Publishing: Building a Successful, Sustainable, Meaningful Book Business From the Ground Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>So, you want to publish books.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drawing on 30&nbsp;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&#8217;ll learn all the skills of the trade, including how to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Develop your individual books to connect with readers on a practical and emotional level<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Choose between offset printed, digitally printed, and ebook formats and work effectively with printers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Build an authentic niche so you can reach your audience and sell books directly<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Understand if and when you&#8217;re ready to work with a distributor or large online retailer<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Create a budget and predict the cost and income of each book so your company stays in the black<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Decide what work you need to do yourself and what can be done by others<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Plan for sustainable growth<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Featuring interviews with other upstart independent publishers and funny anecdotes from publishing&#8217;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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, you want to publish books.&nbsp; Drawing on 30&nbsp;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&#8217;ll learn all the skills of the trade, including how to: Featuring interviews with other upstart independent publishers and funny anecdotes from publishing&#8217;s&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/a-peoples-guide-to-publishing-building-a-successful-sustainable-meaningful-book-business-from-the-ground-up\/\" title=\"Read A People&#8217;s Guide to Publishing: Building a Successful, Sustainable, Meaningful Book Business From the Ground Up\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14,12],"class_list":["post-6818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-out-now","tag-books","tag-business-of-publishing"],"my_excerpt":"<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>So, you want to publish books.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Drawing on 30&nbsp;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:<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:list -->\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Develop your individual books to connect with readers on a practical and emotional level<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Choose between offset printed, digitally printed, and ebook formats and work effectively with printers<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Build an authentic niche so you can reach your audience and sell books directly<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Understand if and when you're ready to work with a distributor or large online retailer<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Create a budget and predict the cost and income of each book so your company stays in the black<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Decide what work you need to do yourself and what can be done by others<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Plan for sustainable growth<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><\/ul>\n<!-- \/wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","my_excerpt_rendered":"\n<p>So, you want to publish books.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drawing on 30&nbsp;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&#8217;ll learn all the skills of the trade, including how to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Develop your individual books to connect with readers on a practical and emotional level<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Choose between offset printed, digitally printed, and ebook formats and work effectively with printers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Build an authentic niche so you can reach your audience and sell books directly<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Understand if and when you&#8217;re ready to work with a distributor or large online retailer<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Create a budget and predict the cost and income of each book so your company stays in the black<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Decide what work you need to do yourself and what can be done by others<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Plan for sustainable growth<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Featuring interviews with other upstart independent publishers and funny anecdotes from publishing&#8217;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.<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6819,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6818\/revisions\/6819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}