For most publishers, profit and loss statements are either an afterthought, something they “don’t have time for,” or a ritualistic capitalistic enterprise that they want nothing to do with. This week on the pod, we feature an extra-long episode about how to learn from them, what they can be best utilized for, and how to sort out the information from success or failure to do it better next time.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Much ink has been spilt over the illusion that big publishers have different economic models. The reality is that larger publishers benefit from scale but the economic models are the same. What does that mean? More books gets more access and streamlines costs and departments, but when it comes down to each book, well…check out this week’s episode!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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You can read many academic articles about the need to get more people reading and how wonderful this would be for critical thinking and education. But most publishers focus on fighting over the exact same shelf space at the exact same stores. So this week on the pod, we talk about how to reach new people with your books and turn them into readers!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Last week we presented to you the biggest problem in publishing. So this week, we present the solution. Yes, the industry is very crowded but people are reading more and buying more books than ever and willing to spend more on those books. It’s downright a fantastic time to be a book publisher. This week we look at how to excel!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Most people imagine us with our noses in a book or having charmed candlelight talks over a manuscript in development. The reality, as always, is very different. This week on the pod, we talk about what we actually do every day—or at least on one specific day!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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The year was 1999. Seth Tobocman’s landmark graphic novel, War in the Neighborhood, was published by Autonomedia. We ordered some copies. Quickly, we noticed a strange problem: the pages kept falling out of the cover. Turns out that this problem affected at least a third of the print run. Suddenly, all of the good copies were gone and we were making trips to New York to pick up the bad copies, dealing with the problem that few others wanted to and selling the book back into the trade. This is a cornerstone tale of Microcosm that made us so successful, because we think differently than the rest of our industry.

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