Synergy!

One of the things I’ve loved best about starting Replacement Press has been the opportunity to partner with some really cool people–our dear friends at Books & Bars come to mind, and the dynamic trio of Paper Darts, of course.

Now, for our last big blowout of the summer, we’re harnessing some serious literary synergy to bring you The Quickies! It’s a 4-stop, midwestern, 100% FREE literary tour in which each of the readers has a mere 5 minutes to read a complete work of prose–no exceptions, no exerpts, no cheating, and no mercy! We’re especially excited about this one because we get to team up with some of the coolest literary outfits around, including Featherproof Books, Hobart, Dzanc Books, Books & Bars, and more.

The tour comes to the Twin Cities on August 28. We’ll be in the Clown Lounge (lower level of the Turf Club) starting at 7. No cover, just readers, drinks, and scary pictures of clowns. We’ll be featuring local favorites John Jodzio, Brian Judd, and Eric Vrooman, plus guests Aaron Burch, Jac Jemc, Amelia Gray, Lindsay Hunter, Mary Hamilton, and Blake Butler. Deets and RSVP here.

Other stops on the tour include Madison, Iowa City, and Chicago.

IYLHYABH T-Shirts for Sale!

Those of you who attended the If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home release party at Magers & Quinn probably remember the T-shirts that many of the attendees were wearing. Many of you asked us, “Where can I get one of those?” Back then, the answer was, unfortunately, nowhere, because we’d made them especially for the event and had only enough for ourselves, John, and a few of his family and friends.

Well, not anymore. Starting Thursday, If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home T-shirts featuring that creepy stomach with all the weird crap inside will be on sale. You can only get them at Storefront-in-a-Box, the multipart literary/artistic hoedown we’re having with our friends at Paper Darts and Books & Bars. So come out and visit us, have some fun and a few drinks, and buy a T-shirt!

Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Kevin Fenton, who won our drawing and will get a free copy of If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home!

Win a free copy of IF YOU LIVED HERE YOU’D ALREADY BE HOME!

Dan Wickett of the essential Emerging Writers Network blog has declared May Short Story Month 2010—all month, he’s featured reviews of fantastic indie collections—and we and the good folks at Fiction Writers Review have decided to get in on the fun. What better way to celebrate short stories than by giving away a free, signed copy of John Jodzio’s If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home? Metro Magazine recently put it at #1 on their May survival kit, calling it “a sad, weird, masterfully drawn short story collection.” See more reviews here, here, and here.

So, to get your chance to win a free copy of the book, simply comment on this post. What should this comment contain? Well, I’m always looking for good reading material, and it is Short Story Month, after all, so why don’t you tell us your favorite short story, collection, or short story writer. And write down your email before you post, so we’ll know how to contact you if you win. If you put it in the email field, we’ll be able to see it, but others won’t. At the end of the month, we’ll put all your names in a hat and draw a winner.

Look for the winner to be announced on May 31.

I want to embrace the future, but what if the future doesn’t want to embrace me?

What’s challenging for authors at this point is the iPad enables so many different types of expression that it’s literally overwhelming. Once you start thinking of your book as an app you run into all kinds of bizarre questions. Like, do I need to have all of my book accessible at any given time? Why not make it like a game so that in order to get to the next ‘chapter’ you need to pass a test? Does the content of the book even need to be created entirely by me? Can I leave some parts of it open to edit by those who buy it and read it? Do I need to charge $9.99, or can I charge $99.99? Start thinking about how each and everyone one of the iPad’s features can be a tool for an author to more lucidly express whatever it is they want to express and you’ll see that reading isn’t ‘dead’, it’s just getting more sophisticated.

The above quote was taken from a blog post by Cody Brown called “Dear Authors, Your Next Book Should Be an App, Not an iBook.”

To me, the main takeaway from Brown’s post and the above-quoted paragraph in particular is that the publishing industry isn’t even close to grasping the monumental paradigm shift occasioned by the iPad. It’s often said that digital content delivery is an innovation on par with Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press—but thus far there aren’t a whole lot of writers, readers, or publishers out there who are acting like that’s true.

If we’ve perceived a paradigm shift at all, it’s primarily a shift in distribution—devices like the iPad are generally viewed, in my opinion, as new delivery systems for objects that are old: that is, books. The Kindle and iBooks are judged on their ability to mimic the look and feel of a printed book, and behind all the arguments over pricing models is a concern about how the ebook market will affect the traditional book market. Meanwhile, there don’t seem to be a whole lot of people thinking about how devices like the iPad can change not just the delivery of books, but the form of the books being delivered themselves—or change our notion of what a book is entirely.

I’m not excited about this, exactly. I’m not that much older than Cody, but the possibilities he writes about scare me a little. See, I like novels. I’d be fine if they stayed just the way they are. I like the occasional literary experiment from time to time, but for the most part I do my reading—and writing—linearly, starting at the first page and reading every word, in order, until I get to the last page. If the changes Cody talks about are coming, and if I want to stay in this publishing game, I’m going to have to learn some new skills.

But if we are experiencing a paradigm shift akin to that occasioned by the Gutenberg press, then to a certain extent it’s inevitable. The printing press was not just a new way to deliver old content—rather, the technology of the press and of the book itself changed the nature of what was being communicated, and changed readers’ relationship with what they were reading. Old literary forms died off, and new ones, the novel in particular, were born. It’s going to happen again. There’s probably nothing we can do to stop it. And it will probably happen in a way that none of us expect.

One more thing: a few months ago, on On The Media’s annual book episode, a book historian was quoted as saying that it wasn’t until 50 years after the Gutenberg press that page numbers first began appearing in book pages. 50 years. Whatever’s coming, it’s probably going to take a while. It’s way too early to make predictions.

The Big Move

You haven’t heard from us in a while. There’s a reason for that.

I could tell you it’s because we were (pleasantly) exhausted after the release of If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home, that we thought you were sick of hearing about us and could use a break, that we were sick of hearing about ourselves and could use a break–and all of those things would be true.

But mostly, you haven’t heard from us because we’ve moved. Sarah and I have, that is, from St. Paul to Minneapolis. Not very far geographically, but as native Twin Citians will tell you, it’s still a big move, representing a fundamental shift in worldview and an existential crisis from which we have still not fully recovered (I’m being just a bit dramatic). And because Replacement Press has no offices but is rather run from wherever we happen to be living–well, I guess that means that Replacement Press is no longer a St. Paul publisher.

Thanks for your patience as we’ve relocated. And now we’re back at it. Today’s laundry day, but tomorrow, I swear, is all about submissions and getting back to the level of awesomeness you’ve come to expect from Replacement Press.

Upcoming Events

It’s the reason we got into publishing. No, not the love of literature: the sweet parties. And Friday’s launch was exactly that. Magers & Quinn Booksellers hosted a standing-room-only crowd to hear John Jodzio read a couple of stories from If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home. We laughed, we cried, we bought some books, and then we went over to Chiang Mai Thai and toasted the book’s success. Check out some pictures of the party over at the Magers & Quinn blog, plus this clip of John reading “Inventory,” video courtesy Lewis Mundt.

If you missed the party or if you were there and want another opportunity to rub shoulders with the Twin Cities literati, there are a few more opportunities coming up:

On Wednesday, March 31, Books and Bars’ Jeff Kamin will be hosting a night of literary and comedic awesomeness at the Brave New Workshop. It’s the If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home Cavalcade of Stars, a night featuring John Jodzio, of course, but also such talent as Dessa, Doomtree recording artist and author of Spiral Bound, Dennis Cass, author of Head Case, Stephanie Wilbur Ash, Molly Priesmeyer, Andy Sturdevant, and many, many more.

Then, on April 6, John Jodzio will be participating in Opium’s Literary Death Match, thus finally uniting my two enduring loves: literature and cage fighting. The event will be held at Club Jager, I think it’s 21-and-up (but don’t quote me), and tickets are available to pre-order now.

What people are saying…

As Oscar Wilde once famously said (was everything that man uttered quotable?), “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” Too true. And luckily for us, one day before the If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home Launch Party at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, people are talking. Even better: they’re saying nice things. If you’re a fan of Replacement Press on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, you’ve likely heard about the reviews as they’ve come in. But if you don’t or couldn’t keep up with all our updates over the last few days, here they are, all in one place.

First, some endorsements from other writers, and one writer/hip-hop artist:

John Jodzio has a spare, dark, funny style that manages to be sardonic without forfeiting sympathy. That’s really effing hard. –Dessa, Doomtree recording artist and author of Spiral Bound

John Jodzio’s wonderful collection, If You Lived Here You d Already Be Home, is a set of colorful and seemingly fractured tales, each shining brilliantly alone, but also growing more vibrant as one story lays over another. Together they form an intricately stained glass window that looks out onto a whole new world. –Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief

You may think you’ve read enough stories about penniless gay clowns who can’t get over the loss of a dog, but I assure you–you have not. John Jodzio is the best kind of modern fiction writer: a thematic traditionalist who feels totally new. –Chuck Klosterman, author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs

Reviews:

Jodzio presents 21 tales of woe, yet he never insults the reader by feeling sorry for his characters, nor do his characters ever feel especially sorry for themselves. They’re all dealing in good faith with a world that’s gone horribly awry, all playing the crappy cards they’ve been dealt and making the best of their bad situations.   —Marc Schuster, Small Press Reviews

Death, or the approach of it, abounds in If You Lived Here, yet the collection is far from morbid, and is, in fact, quite funny, as Jodzio’s dark wit and pithy humor offer a pitch-perfect balance to scenes that, in the hands of a lesser writer, would verge on the sentimental, the cliché or the plain mean. Jodzio’s reality is a cruel one, but he is not a writer who revels in this cruelty; rather he respects his characters, and manages to find beauty in even the most dire moments, to elicit empathy towards some of the most frigid beings imaginable.  –Adam Gallari, The Millions

Perhaps what I liked the most about If You Lived Here You’d Already be Home…is that unlike most first-time collections it never feels like you’re reading the same story over and over again…Here, each story is wholly unique and that makes it exciting to read because you never know what you’re going to get when you turn the page.  –Jodi Chromey, Minnesota Reads

The story collection sits well with most reading appetites; it’s the all-purpose vintage. You have the sweet with the bittersweet, spicy humor with a dash of salty reality, Raymond Carver’s meat and potatoes with George Saunders’s surreal confections. But given the shifting tastes and flavors, Jodzio somehow manages to create a singular voice that is all his own — never parody, but not quite straight talk either.  –Britt Aamodt, MNArtists

Comprised of 21 short stories, If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home is a wonderful look into a strange new world, one explored through the offbeat and bizarre lives of its characters. Though the stories vary greatly in length and subject, they share a combined sense of hopeful melancholia and bleak humor.  –Ben Paulson, Magers & Quinn Citizen Review

Other stuff:

The excellent music/lit blog Largehearted Boy invited John Jodzio to participate in Book Notes, a series in which writers create a music playlist to accompany their book. See what he came up with here.

John also answered Minnesota Reads’ 6 Questions We Always Ask.

An If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home book trailer at YouTube.

And finally, a couple profiles of Replacement Press and the big launch at the Pioneer Press and Star Tribune–the latter includes yet another free excerpt, this one from “The Deadsitter.”

The Fun Part

When you think about doing something big you imagine yourself doing the fun, rewarding stuff. Not the boring stuff, or the unpleasant stuff. If we imagined those things, none of us would ever try anything big.

It’s like that with Replacement Press. When we thought about doing this, it was the fun parts we imagined. And I think that we imagined this day the most.

Is there anything better for a bibliophile than to open a heavy cardboard box, catch a smell of freshly-cut paper as the flaps push open, and then reach in to pull out a book that you had a hand in creating? I can think of no better high for an editor, designer, publisher—and especially author.

All this to say that the first print run of If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home came today. As the delivery truck pulled up outside our apartment, I felt like a father seeing his first child go off to kindergarten. In fact, I even pulled out the camera for the occasion.

Delivery guy pulling in, and looking a little puzzled that he was dropping a load of books off at an apartment rather than an office building or warehouse.

Not quite as many boxes as I thought there’d be, but since I was the only one home to lug them, I’m not complaining. They were heavy enough, and the stack still takes up quite a bit of space in the corner of our little living room.

Beauty. Here’s hoping you love the book as much as we do! Find out by pre-ordering If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home today.

IYLHYABH available to pre-order!

If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home is now available to pre-order! If you buy now from Magers & Quinn, the fantastic Minneapolis bookstore that also happens to be hosting our book launch party on March 19, not only will you get the book at a reduced price, you’ll get it signed by the author. It’s sure to be a collector’s item when John Jodzio inevitably becomes super-famous. Depending upon your preference, Magers & Quinn can ship the book right to your front door or keep it in the store for you to pick up at the launch party.

If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home is also available for pre-order on Amazon.