Mondays suck. Especially if you hate your job. But the day doesn’t have to be a total waste. You can now look forward to reading about ReadyMakers who have worked their way into f*&%ing awesome jobs—and maybe find a little inspiration to jumpstart your own career in the process—right here, every Monday.
Sparky Taylor, above left, in the Microcosm hoodie, is one of the seven people who run Microcosm Publishing, a seven-person collective that publishes and distributes books and zines. Below, her thoughts on working in a collective, getting BoingBoing’d, and doing what she loves—getting ethically-produced reading material out to the world.
VITAL STATS
Occupation: Book-slinger
Location: Bloomington, IN
Age: 26
First Job: Ugh. Telephone surveys!
Best Job: It’s an even tie between the 3 jobs I currently have
Greatest Professional Challenge: My name is Sparky Taylor
Salary During 20s: I get paid hourly. I’d say it’s mostly a labor of love.
1. Hi, Sparky Taylor. How did you get that f*&%ing awesome job?
A combination of a deep passion for books, and luck, I’m pretty sure.
2. Tell us a little bit about Microcosm.
Microcosm is a collective of 7 people who publish and distribute books and zines. We have a general focus on DIY, and that includes veganism, comics, bikes, and a whole lot of other things. Our goals are to ethically produce reading material that is affordable and educational. We do mail-order, primarily through our website.
3. Did you always want to work in independent publishing, or did it just kind of happen?
I definitely always wanted to do something with books. It was my life goal to work in a bookstore. I got the chance to volunteer at Boxcar Books here in Bloomington for 3 years, which was an amazing opportunity. It’s how I met Joe who founded Microcosm, and it ultimately lead to my job here.
4. Did you have any role models along the way?
The founders of Boxcar, Ali Haimson and Matt Turissini, definitely helped me. Ali especially gave me a chance to sell books which was a dream come true. Also, growing up in Florida, we had Subterranean
Books, run by Paul Williams and staffed by my friend Scotty Satterwhite. They let me loiter and soak up indie book-selling culture for hours every day. All of these people were examples of loving books so much you wanted to be surrounded by them all day long. And they all found a way to make that happen! Oh, and so she can cut this out and take it to work, my mom, for giving me endless books to read and being the coolest.
5. The idea of Microcosm seems rooted in the world of print ‘zines, which I associate with the ’80s and early ’90s. How does independent printed matter fit in in the post-internet world?
I don’t know, we get this a lot, this idea about print media dying, or being superseded by this behemoth internet culture. I think people are just finding new ways to communicate with each other, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
When it comes to distribution, we’re getting more zine submissions than ever now. Most zines come with a web address on them, and sometimes that’s the only contact listed. Writers are using Facebook
or personal websites as a promotional tools. Zine culture seems even more intertwined with craft culture lately, so we’re seeing a lot more zines being promoted through Etsy. Many people make webcomics and selectively publish collections of their favorites.
On the publishing end, we get rushes of sales from being blogged about. Amy Karol did a post on one of our books, BoingBoing mentioned one of our stickers. It was a huge, unexpected, and very appreciated boost. So I think print media and internet culture can be helpful to one-another in a way people might not initially consider. It’s not a sworn enemies thing, not an us against them mentality.
6. For that matter, has the recession hit you hard?
Of course we’ve been hit by the recession. Sheesh, who hasn’t been you know? But at a time when it’s hard for people to justify spending money, our desire to keep our published titles inexpensive has been a big asset. We try hard to make affordable books all of the time, and right now, that’s an especially big boon. Really, it’s just nice to know people are still willing to spend their money on books, even when times are tough.
7. Microcosm is in Portland, Oregon and in Bloomington, Indiana. Where are you? What goes on in each location?
I’m in Bloomington with Chris and Steven, doing daily operations. We spend the first part of our day doing very non-mystical office work. We pack orders, answer emails and check phone messages. After that we split off. Steven does shipping and tabling coordination, Chris does a lot of the pre-production book layout, and I do the ordering of everything we carry.
Portland has been Joe, Jessie, Adam, and Matt for a while now. Joe does the finances, Jessie does promotional work, Adam helps with promotions, and Matt is our resident shift-worker and adventurer. We have a little storefront there so they take turns running that.
And Nate Beaty is our genius web guy.
8. What is your typical day like?
A typical day here involves first figuring out who’s making the coffee. Then we get to work. We pack and ship orders for at least an hour a day, but some days it can take longer. After everything is packed up, we migrate to our desks. We listen to Democracy Now every single day while we work. Our tasks pretty much fall as I listed for question 7. We independently work on things for most of the day.
This sounds boring, but it’s actually a really engaging. We don’t have a boss directing us. Our work tasks and our time-management are our responsibility. The policies we follow are determined by us as a group, and the overall result is that we care about our workplace, and are invested. That investment is something that I had never felt at a job until I started working here.
9. What are the biggest pleasures of the job? What could you do without?
One of the biggest pleasures is checking the mail. Every day here there’s another box of something exciting! A new book, or latest issue of a long-running zine. It’s like your birthday every day! And then getting a chance to pass all those books and zines on to other people, passing on ideas and information, that’s the best.
As a close second, I’d say meeting people at events. We table at bookfairs and zinefairs, and that’s so fun! It’s cool because you meet new people, and finally really meet people you’ve been emailing with. It’s like, “Oh you’re taller than I thought you’d be!”
What could I do without?
Some days I think that working as a collective is so hard! You have to constantly communicate and work as a team, which can be exhausting! Again, it’s about being invested. Investment is stressful, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s always worth it, and I’d never want to do without it!
Also, sometimes I wish my email could magically check itself. There’s just always so much of it!
10. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to do something similar to what you do now?
Just do everything you can to pursue what your passionate about! Do it every chance you get! Volunteer and do it for free! And above all else, stay posi!!!
[Books photo by BikePortland, on Flickr; Tabling photo from daveanddraina, on Flickr]
Awesome article – congrats Sparky on a great interview! <3 Michelle