Microcosm’s 20th Anniversary: Our Year of Independence

Microcosm hqMicrocosm turns 20 this year! February 12, 2016 is our birthday. Not only are we almost old enough to drink, we’re really proud to have made it this far. There have been some rocky years back there, but things have been going well lately and it feels good to celebrate a milestone. So we’ll be celebrating properly: All year long.

We’re especially proud that we’ve made it as far as we have as an independent—no corporate buyout, no silent partners, no family money. By making books we believe in, and reaching out directly to readers who believe in them too, we’ve shown that traditional print publishing still works. We want to celebrate that fact, and the other independent booksellers and publishers who we do business with every day. So we’re calling it: 2016 is our Year of Independence. We’ll be doing promotions all year to help shore up our operations while supporting our fellow indies… and getting the word out that, despite all the doom and gloom about publishing in the media, we’re still kicking and stronger than ever.

Buy books!

Back Good Trouble on Kickstarter through January 28th and get 25 of our old-but-good books for $50 whoa! Update: We made it!!! Thanks so much, you all. The permanent home for Good Trouble is right here on our website.

• Buy our books from independent bookstores! Send us a photo of two Microcosm books and a receipt showing that you bought them at an indie bookstore any time in the month of February 2016, and we’ll send you one of our logo t-shirts. We’ll have more indie campaigns to come!

• You could win a golden ticket! On the 12th of each month of 2016, we’ll pick a random order placed that day on our website and include a $10 Microcosm gift certificate in with your stuff.

Events for introverts!

• We’ve always got a rotating roster of events that we participate in, and this year we’ll be organizing a few as well. Like our readership, our staff is largely (though not exclusively!) composed of introverts and teetotalers, and we’re not much for the exhausting “talking and drinking” type parties.

• We’ve got a Good Trouble reading lined up at Powell’s on Hawthorne on February 11th at 7:30pm. 

• We’ll be celebrating our anniversary itself on the day of on February 12th from 5-9 or 10pm at Velo Cult in Portland.

• And we’ll be organizing a couple other “read-ins” — you know, where you come and read! Bring your own book or buy one of ours. One will be at the cat cafe because Portland, and another’ll be at a bike bar also because Portland… more details coming soon!

Deals for independent booksellers!

• If you’re a buyer for an indie bookstore, you can order our books from your PGW rep. When you buy 20+ of our backlist titles, you’ll get an extra 5% off your regular discount. And they’ll send you a Microcosm display case if you’d like to show our books off all together.

• Send us a photo of Microcosm books on the shelves at your indie bookstore and we’ll share with our networks!

• We’re looking for indie booksellers to cross-promote with in more ways in 2016! We want to send people to buy our books from you! Get in touch with elly at microcosmpublishing dot com and we’ll make a plan.