A People's Guide to Publishing

Branding tells the consumer who you are, what your vibe is, and (probably most importantly) that you publish books. Past wisdom has focused on authors in the branding and marketing, but the market has since shifted to focus even more on publishers and imprints as the communication point.

This week on the podcast, Joe and Elly offer their thoughts and insights on how to get started with your publisher branding.

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Thank you for listening to the People's Guide to Publishing!  We post new episodes every Thursday about publishing, authors, and the book industry. You can also listen via your preferred podcast app, or by visiting linktree.com/microcosm

If you hang in certain circles, you'll frequently hear that "Publishers have all the money," which is funny because bookstores get the largest percentage of each sale. But everyone has to pay their staff and operating expenses, and often it's bewildering to watch even the revenues from your bestsellers dwindle into nothingness. 

So this week on the pod, we look at that illustrious pie chart and talk about how it all disappears so quickly! Please feel free to eat pie during this episode.

The publishing industry invests heavily in the logic that a new book hits hard out of the gate, has a third of its total sales before it's published, a third of its sales in the following year, and the final third gradually across the lifetime of the book, until it gradually saturates and dead stalls. 

The good news? It doesn't have to be this way! So this week on the pod, we look at how to make books sell forever.

You published a few books! Congrats! That's one of the most important parts of being a publisher.

But... now what? How do you get your book in stores and libraries? Smoke signals? Pigeons? The answer is, as always, more simple and more complex than you would think. 

Craig Rosebraugh, author of "Burning Rage of a Dying Planet: The FBI vs. the Earth Liberation Front" sits down with us to talk about how he became the spokesperson for the ELF, the FBI faking a book deal to gain intel, and publishing controversial materials.

Check out Craig's book on our website.

If you have a New York Times sub, here's a link to an article about Craig's experience with the FBI.

This month for the #BookstoreSolidarityProject, we hung out with Cierra, owner of Portland-local bookstore Spoke & Word! 

We talked about bookselling, strategic romance and genre placement, and how much of a fan Joe's doctor is of them.

Check out Spoke & Word's site: https://www.spokeandwordbooks.com/

Boxes— they make the book world go round. Why do we have such strong opinions on boxes (and where we get them from? Why is there a cat on ours now? Let us deliver the good word and show off our new boxes.

What is hybrid publishing? What is it a hybrid between? Halfway between traditional publishing and service providing, hybrid publishers have come to mean a lot of things from a rebranded vanity publishing to a co-investment model with superior royalties and it's often difficult to tell the difference until you are familiar with the players involved. So this week Jane Friedman tackles these difficult questions.

Ten years later, the greatest love story every told is back. Featuring an extensive interview with Tom Neely and Justin Hall, we take a deep look at "punk rock Bert and Ernie" where our anti-heroes celebrate toxic masculinity in full color for the first time. Is that Stephen King performing a pet funeral? Is that a joke about Lemmy? How many comic sight gags can you spot in 32 pages? Justin takes a deep look at how his comic students don't know who Henry Rollins or Glenn Danzig are but can appreciate the book's queer themes and social commentary. 

Particularly when one comes from a conservative family and has many conversations where their beliefs are challenged, they tend to assume that the publishing landscape works the same way. This week, we answer a reader question about how to publish safely and sustainably despite one's political opinions. 
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