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Lived Places Publishing: An Overview

Michael Boezi

About this new venture, our business model, and how/why I am involved.

I am part owner and managing director of a new publishing venture called Lived Places Publishing. The goals and mission of this project align well with the work I’m doing in other aspects of my life:

Lived Places Publishing is producing short (100- to 150-page) curriculum-ready course readings around urgent and necessary topics. They are organized into interdisciplinary collections, each led by a Collection Editor. Our books range from the autobiographical to the ethnographic, but they always center on the experience of social identity/identities and place/location. Each book is written with the advanced undergraduate student in mind, though many of our books are fit for a wider audience. 

Our books cover a wide range of topics, with the aim of delivering myriad human perspectives to bolster the contemporary curriculum. Never has this need been more pressing as authoritarian voices and narratives of power are working hard to crowd out the variety of perspectives that build a tolerant and vibrant society. 

For the reader, our intent is that these volumes exist in the “in-between” spaces: Not monographs/research that are too hard for students to parse. But also not popular/academic articles that are too short to go in-depth. Plugged into a course, these books should take up about a week or so. A guided view of an important issue or theme, a human-level view of stories that might be neglected (or misrepresented) in media coverage. In other words, not “just” history and big picture trends, but to show someone’s actual lived experience. 

We are privately owned, so there are no outside interests influencing our decisions or governing our content. We welcome and encourage full expression, not watered down or sanitized stories. 

We have launched 20 collections to date, including Black Studies, Disability Studies, Forced Migration Studies, Queer and LGBT+ Studies, Carceral Studies, and more. As of , we have over 100 books signed, with new titles launching monthly – and I expect us to sign 70 more over the next 12 months. Our authors and editors cover the globe, from UKI, New Zealand, India, Canada, Nigeria, Germany, United States, and beyond. Most of our authors are academics, though we are seeking the voices of activists, organizers, journalists, and other practitioners as well. 

We have 40+ universities so far who have purchased our library collection(s), including Princeton, Georgetown, Northwestern, University of Texas, NYU, University of Toronto, McMaster, and Cambridge University.

Books with a Purpose

To understand the character of these books, here are some featured forthcoming titles: 

  1. The Reparations Project: Repair Work by Linked Descendants of Enslavement by Sarah Eisner & Randy Quarterman (Black Studies)
  2. Trans(formations) and Tenderness: Rhetorics and Resources to Support Transgender Youth by Prathim-Maya Dora-Laskey (Queer and LGBT+ Studies)
  3. Advocating for Queer and BIPOC Survivors of Rape at Public Universities: The #ChangeRapeCulture Movement by Taylor Waits, Kimiya Factory, & Coreen Hale (OPEN ACCESS in Queer and LGBT+ Studies)
  4. No Place for Autism? Exploring the Solitary Forager Hypothesis of Autism by Jaime Hoerricks (Disability Studies)
  5. The Resilient Teacher: Creating Positive Change through Inclusive Classrooms by Sarah Schlessinger (Education Studies)
  6. A Congolese Refugee’s Quest for a Purpose and Better Life: More to Life than a Refugee Camp by Gentille Dusenge with Janine de Nysschen (Forced Migration Studies)
  7. The Darkest Parts of My Blackness: A Journey of Remorse, Reform, Reconciliation, and (R)evolution by Maurice Tyree & Katie Singer (Carceral Studies)
  8. Soil and Solidarity: Art, Ecology, Community and Sustainability in Northeast India by Amrita Pritam Gogoi & Deepankar Gohain (Cultural Anthropology)
  9. Latinidad, Identity Formation, and the Mass Media Landscape: Constructing Pocho Villa by Gabriel A. Cruz (Latinx Studies)
  10. Indigenous Women’s Reproductive Traditions: Reclaiming Bodily Agency After Five Hundred Years of European Colonization by Stephanie Sellers (Gender Studies)
  11. The Syrian Refugees Whose Entrepreneurial Spirit Created an Award-Winning British Cheese Factory by Razan Al Sous & Raghid Sandouk (The Emergent Entrepreneur Collection)
  12. Stories of Solidarity and Struggle: A Life in the Worldwide Movement for Human Rights by David Hinkley (Activism and Social Movement Studies)
  13. Social Spaces for Older Queer Adults: A Guide for Social Work Practitioners by David Betts (Queer and LGBT+ Studies)
  14. (Re)constructing Memory, Place, and Identity: Sangre Mexicano, Corazon Chicano by Louis Mendoza (Latinx Studies)
  15. Improving the Experience of Health Care for People Living with Sensory Disability by Dr. Annmaree Watharow MD, PhD (Disability Studies)

See the complete list of published and forthcoming titles, or our searchable live catalog page.

Publishing Process & Distribution

Most authors so far are working within a 4-6 month deadline, though we try to be flexible and allow it to fit it into real life. I’m doing the same thing, as are all of our Collection Editors – it has to fit in and around the other stuff in our lives. The production process is like any other publisher – professional copyediting and proofreading. Final product is traditional print books, with digital versions available like any other book. 

These are not monographs or academic research, so we deploy peer review only when the topic matter needs it. There have certainly been instances so far, but probably fewer than 20% of our books in development require it. That being said, each Collection Editor works with their authors in a very hands-on way – so our authors aren’t alone in the process.  

Once the book is published, we return an equitable share of each book sale to the authors, collection editors, and to supporting open access publishing:

Another key part of our model is offering affordable access to institutions through the university library. We expect 50%+ of our sales to be through academic library subscriptions. This should translate into more stable annual revenue (theoretically) for authors, collection editors, and partners. We have an API interface (launching in January) to make access plug-and-play from the university’s side, just like any other academic publisher. 

We are also employing traditional sales staff to call on college administrators and department chairs in U.S., U.K. and Australia, and of course we have trade distribution channels (Amazon and all the majors) just like any independent publisher would handle it (print-on-demand, outsourced to distributors). We expect to enroll 200+ libraries in FY24, stretch goal = 400.

Links for more explication:

Mission | Model | Collections | Catalog

If you are interested in writing a book that fits our model – or you know someone who should write a book, please reach out directly. For more context, see our call for authors and download our proposal guidelines.

What About My Other Jobs?

I’m trying to find balance, but still need to work on that. Because in effect, I simply added this to the list of things I already do:

My goal is to have everything that I’m doing be mission-aligned. I see what’s happening in the world and I want to help – using the tools I have. My energy, my creativity, my experience, and my privilege.

You can keep up with everything I’m doing at https://michaelboezi.com/now (I update this page regularly). Or subscribe and I’ll email you infrequent personal updates (along with new releases).

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