Shows / A People's Guide to Publishing
A People's Guide to Publishing
Do you find that the traditional methods for book publishing aren't working for you? Are you a publisher or author who wants to innovate, succeed, and expand your audience through time-tested methods? We offer time-tested publishing methods that we know work because we have used them to sell millions of books in a changing industry. We have been inundated with requests for consulting so we created this show to share everything we know. We are the executives of Microcosm Publishing, a Publishers…
Episodes
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 144: What's involved in opening a warehouse?
A year ago, this week, we opened an additional book warehouse in Cleveland, OH (not so coincidentally, this is also where Microcosm was founded). Wow! What an…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 143: Will an isbn help me get into stores?
This question is remarkably common: someone publishes something and stores don't flock to put it on their shelves. What do you need? This week on the pod, we…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 142: How does a book publisher manage growth?
One of the most exciting aspects of being a publisher is watching it grow. A little at first but compared to two or five years ago, it can often be a lot. How…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 141: How Should a Publisher Experiment?
2021 was a year where the old tricks didn't work. But what are the new tricks? How do we find and choose the ones that are right for us? This week on the pod…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 140: Why Have I Never Heard of that Publisher?
One of the most confusing aspects of publishing is the branding. With hundreds of thousands of active publishing companies in the world, we constantly run into…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 139: What do you do if publisher pays you but doesn't release the book?
Here is a a funny reader question that happens sometimes: your publisher pays you an advance but then cancels your book. Why? What do you do? What can you do?…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 138: How Will Publishing Change in the Next Five Years?
Reader question this week is asking us to predict how the changes we've seen over the past year will take hold over the next five years and what that will mean…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 137: Why do publishers make shirts, buttons, stickers, and the like?
Why do publishers make stickers, magnets, shirts, patches, buttons, and the like? What is gained? Where does this get you? This week on the pod, we jabber on…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 136: How do I sell translations, foreign rights, and audio of my book?
For many publishers, the bulk of income can come from licensing deals: the same book translated to Japanese, as an audiobook, or even a videogame or…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 136: What forms your publishing point of view?
Generally unbeknownst to each us, we have a set of experiences that form how we see the world. These experiences form what we see as acceptable, unacceptable…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 135: How do publishers think about free speech?
Publishing news has been brewing over a story of a protest resignation from a board member from the American Booksellers Association (ABA) over "old" vs "new"…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 134: What does Follett selling Baker & Taylor mean?
The book industry was shocked in April of 2016 when Baker & Taylor was purchased by their primary competitor in the library sales market, Follett. So imagine…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 133: The Future of Publishing with Bookshop.org
For this week's episode of the People's Guide to Publishing podcast, Joe and Elly are interviewing (live!) Sarah High from Bookshop, the new online book…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 132: What does the Failed Penguin Random House/Simon & Schuster Merger Mean?
Last week, the U.S. Federal Government sued to prevent Penguin Random House from purchasing one of their biggest competitors, Simon & Schuster. This is a stark…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 131: Why is U.S. Printing in Style Again?
After decades of U.S. manufacturing disinvestment coinciding with decades of rapid production investment in China, book publishers have largely moved to…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 130: Why isn't cheap labor working anymore?
The past year has been plagued with U.S. labor shortages. Publishers can't get a break. But neither can workers. Conditions haven't markedly improved in…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 127: Should I work with a traditional publisher or self-publish?
Because of Amazon's relentless marketing campaign, one of the most common questions is "What can a publisher actually offer that self-publishing cannot?" so…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 129: What did we learn at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Show?
We just returned from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association show (PNBA), the first in-person trade show in nearly two years! So this week on the pod…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 128: How do you create contracts with multiple authors?
Most books have multiple contributors in varying capacities. Some have two authors. Many have an author and an illustrator. This week on the pod, we answer a…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 127: What is bootlegging?
Often, when you create something and the world likes it, they have a strong tendency to use it without asking. Or conversely, people have questions about when…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 126: What is Content Licensing?
When you create something, like writing a book or drawing an illustration, you have the power to decide who gets to use it and how. This week on the pod, we…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 125: What is Intellectual Property and how does it affect publishers?
We frequently hear concerns from authors about how their books are handled. They think that "signing" with a publisher is giving up their ability to handle and…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 124: What is an "Indie Author?"
The past five years have become a vigilant fight to claim the word "Indie" in publishing. Who is Indie? What are they independent of? What are they dependent…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 123: What Did We Learn at Las Vegas Market?
The gift segment of publishing is the both the largest potential and one of the fastest growing. While there are around 2,500 bookstores in the U.S., there are…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 122: What does Hachette Book Group buying Workman Publishing mean? (A People's Guide to Publishing)
It was announced last week that Workman Publishing had agreed with a buyout from Hachette Book Group for their entire company, including seven divisions and…
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Episode 121: Women on Wheels interview with April Streeter (A People's Guide to Publishing)
This week on the pod, we interview April Street, author of Women on Wheels, the fabulous story of how women shaped bicycling. Streeter had an incredible…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 120: How can publishers provide healthcare?
In 2006, our friend, Richard the Roadie, asked "Hey, did you ever figure out how to do health insurance?" I explained our convoluted system of stipends at…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 119: Should Publisher Price Against Amazon?
This week on the pod, we answer a reader question. Anyone in the bookstore or publishing industries are very concerned about being undercut on price so the…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 119: What new zines have we made recently?
This week on the pod, we review four new zines that fell into our laps as well as lots of tangents and nonsequitors. Autism, Tulsa, Racism, corking, bicycles…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 118: What does a publisher do when the first draft is bad?
There's a common belief among both writers and publishers that books are written by authors and editors are more like a delivery mechanism before the book…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 117: Did Audio Downloads Kill Ebooks?
In 2011, the publishing industry was poised for ebooks to kill print. This week on the pod, we talk about why the opposite happened and how an unexpected…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 116: What happened with audiobooks in 2020?
This week on the pod we review the Audio Publishers Association numbers about growing trends in audiobook listening. What do they tell us? What does it mean?…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 115: What is notable about Kathi Berens' and Rachel Noorda's Book Study?
Two PSU professors conducted extensive scientific surveying about people's book reading habits. This week on the pod, we walk you through some of what we find…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 114: How do I publish my graphic novel?
Last week we answered how to pitch your book and this week we received a similar, though different question. Graphic novels are a bit of a puzzle with lots of…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 113: How do I pitch my book?
One of the most common weekly questions that we receive, we take a different approach than most in answering the perilous journey towards showing someone the…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 112: How do i get started as a new publisher?
This week on the pod, we field another reader question. You've got your focus and passions crystal clear. Now what do you DO? We tackle this answer through…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 111: How do I get suitable manuscripts to publish?
Over a year ago we answered a question (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPHmueANjRQ) about how a new publisher finds manuscripts. At the end of the episode…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 110: What does the news from Ingram Publisher Services Mean?
Big news this week in publishing: Ingram announces that the experiment to have books from its client publishers available in all of its warehouses didn't work…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 109: How do I plan my book, tarot deck, board game, or creative project?
One of the Kickstarter backers for our Gold Lyre Tarot deck is planning their own deck, and as one of the reward levels for that project, we answered a bunch…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 108: Why did HarperCollins buy Houghton Mifflin and what does it mean?
Big news this week! HarperCollins Publishers bought Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's trade division! The giants gobble on each other some more as Penguin Random…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 107: What Have Been Our Biggest Mistakes?
At a book event in 2019, a reader asked why more publishers are not more upfront about their own mistakes. Quickly realizing the answer to his own question, he…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 106: What are the roles of being an author and a publisher?
For a lot of publishers, their own work as an author is their primary driver for what got them involved. While this wasn't either of our motivations, we are…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 105: How do borrow money for my publishing?
Question on the pod this week: Where can I find a banks that will help loan me money without having to put down your house and second child? So we take a look…
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Episode 104: How Does a Publisher Select Their Focus?
It can feel dizzying to muddle through the array of topics and genres that you could produce into the world. How does a publisher decide? After all, we are…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 103: Should I License My Books or Distribute Them?
This week on the pod, a reader got in touch. She's having trouble being accepted by distributors but received an offer to license her books from an established…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 102: How do you know what a distributor specializes in?
There is a far-fetched and wrong-headed idea that distributors are like ATM machines, marketing machines, and can just infinitely ship books to stores in…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 101: How do I attract a trade distributor?
Almost every time, new publishers that get in touch are asking for help with variations of how to be sold into various stores or simply to get the attention of…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 100: Episode 100: Our Favorite Memories!
Two years ago, this pod was just an idea: that two publishing nerds could answer reader questions for ten minutes each week since we no longer have time for…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 99: How will COVID forever change publishing?
Undeniably this has been a difficult and complicated year for publishers. But more interestingly, there are already long-term changes to the industry and…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 98: What is a fair royalty for a book's author?
Amazon has manufactured a faux rivalry, driving a wedge between authors and publishers. This week on the pod, we diagnose and explain the difference between…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 97: How does COVID continue to affect book publishing?
A year later, even as consumer habits resume and stores have reopened, account buying has changed their basic behaviors. This week, we look at how this affects…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 96: What Metrics Should a Publisher Keep Track of?
How does a publisher evaluate their success? What are the numbers and measurements to look at? This week on the pod we take a good, hard look at how to chart…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 95: 25 years—with a memory from each year!!
Tomorrow marks our 25th anniversary of Microcosm Publishing so we bring you one formative memory from each year that creates the amalgamated experience of our…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 94: What do publishers do with that data?
You've created a pile of data about your books. Where do you keep it? Who do you send it to? How does it get there? We've got the answers!
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 93: How Does Data Management Work?
Before long, publishers are juggling a lot of information. How many books do you have? What at their attributes? What is interesting about them? Who are they…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 92: How Do ISBNS Work?
What are International Standard Book Numbers? How and why do publishers use them? When do you need them? What information is contained? What is useful about…
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Episode 91: Financial Annual Analysis 2020
Every year—like a nonprofit—we publicly post our financials with some analysis and comparison to previous years. What's changed? What's exciting? What's…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 90: What new zines have we published recently?
With lightning precision and relentless candlelight editing, we publish a handful of new zines every month. So in our latest pod feature, we are going to add a…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 89: How do we rebuild kids self-image after sexual assault?
Harvey Pekar's American Splendor showed the world that comics didn't have to be restricted to superheroes in tights embroiled in epic battles. And in Joyce…
A People's Guide to PublishingEpisode 88: Will the new strategies of Barnes & Noble work?
Barnes & Noble was recently purchased by a new parent company invested in brick and mortar retail during a year of COVID closures. They cleverly used this time…