Bookstore Solidarity! Josh Christie of Print: A Bookstore (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

February 15, 2024

Print: A Bookstore has been a triumphant, bright light in envisioning what a bookstore could be. Both as a brick and mortar that is a champion for information and reading, but also holding up its staff and creating entertaining skit videos with its staff! This week on the pod, we feature co-owner Josh Christie about the store in our ongoing Bookstore Solidarity project!

Check out Josh’s interview on the blog here.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Which Publishers Grew 12% Over The Past Three Years? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

February 08, 2024

The pandemic was an unexpectedly magical time for the publishing industry. Sales went up when they were expected to go down. Printing slowed to a crawl due to the paper shortage. But four years later, we have some clear, emergent publishers who seemed to have permanently claimed an additional piece of the market share. This week we take a closer look at them!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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What is ONIX and do small publishers need to use it? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

February 01, 2024

How does the entire world get information about what you are publishing? It’s from a feed called ONIX, that propagates every detail about your titles. This week on the pod, we take a deep dive into ONIX and its role for small publishers.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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How Should Publishers Create Budgets and Predict Finances? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

January 25, 2024

Many publishers find money to be very unpredictable and scary. So this week we take a look at how to create budgets and predict cash flow as well as how to plan a financial future. It’s not as difficult as it seems!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Can Book Publishers Vertically Integrate? w/Blackstone’s Anthony Goff (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

January 18, 2024

So much of book publishing is about distributing tasks, so how can publishers take more of these operational aspects in-house? This week on the pod, guest Anthony Goff, President of Blackstone Publishing, walks us through many of their aspects that are vertically integrated, from recording studios to rights sales to printing and distribution—to performing these services for other publishers.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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2023: A Publishing Year in Review (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

January 11, 2024

What happened in 2023? A lot! We were on Publisher’s Weekly’s list of fastest-growing publishers (again), we bought a new warehouse building, improved staff leveling and pay transparency, and a lot of other stuff. In this week’s episode, we look back at 2023.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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What Did We Learn at Frankfurt Book Fair? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

January 04, 2024

Frankfurt Book Fair is now the world’s largest publishing industry show. It’s open to the public, but it’s primarily for industry veterans to pen big business deals. It’s largely to sell foreign rights translations of your books (or buy the same!). And we did! Check out our report from what happened there in 2023 and how it might be useful for you!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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How Should Publishers Talk About Current Events? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

December 28, 2023

We live in an era where Hershey posts perspectives on trans rights and Heinz offers opinions on foreign wars. Naturally, book publishers feel pressure to talk about what’s going on in the world around them. This week on the pod we look at best practices for expressing yourself.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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What is the Value Chain? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

December 21, 2023

Peter Workman referred to it as “The Three Legged Stool,” meaning that if one stakeholder wasn’t benefiting in some way, a book would fail. And that’s a catchier way to explain the concept that publishing a book has to add value to everyone who touches it at every stage. This week on the pod, we unpack the idea of what makes any organization successful.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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How did we become the distributor for the new Lydia Davis book? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

December 14, 2023

Popular author Lydia Davis decided that she no longer wanted her books sold on Amazon. So she tasked her agent with finding a publisher who could do this for her. Everyone said that it was impossible. But through a unique partnership between Microcosm and Bookshop.org, we found a way. And it wasn’t even hard. This is how it turned out. Over 10,000 books sold in the first month and growing!

Check out our interview with Sarah High here.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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