Thumbsucker
A new poetry collection from Kat Giordano
We decided to publish Thumbsucker in April to cash in on National Poetry Month (I think the cash in part is probably a joke; there’s not a ton of money in poetry collections, although you know what you, collectively, have the power to change that!), but Kat also said it would be funny to publish the book on April Fool’s Day. It is kind of funny.
Let’s look at some blurbs. These writers weren’t fooling:
“Kat Giordano's Thumbsucker is one of those bruised, bloody-knuckled, cut-lipped books that has flung itself into life and all its suffering and is here to tell you, dripping in manna and umbra, how it survived. But behind this, cast like a shadow at dusk, is an argument that says despite its pain, its ugliness, life is beauty, is splendor, laughter and love. Read these poems for the iron in them, for Giordano's ability to rock you with a line like a surprise left hook. Return for the way these poems part the dark to show you something bright. ‘it felt wrong of me / to eulogize something I killed, / to miss it, even, / and still not be sorry.’”
—Todd Dillard, author of Ways We Vanish
“In Thumbsucker, the dingy dive bars, ex loves, and junior high bullies of Kat Giordano’s life are portals to unexpected worlds. These poems are emotional snapshots of despair; no matter how blinding a light once was, the images always fade.”
—Graham Irvin, author of I Have A Gun
“While reading Thumbsucker I thought of my grandfather, who cut off the tip of his ring finger with a circular saw. These poems are instruments so perfectly sharp, spinning at such a merciless speed, that when they cleanly separate you from yourself, all you can do is smile manically and wait for the pain to come.”
—William Duryea, Editor in Chief of Misery Tourism
“Kat Giordano has written a collection so real and so specific it might as well be your own memories. These poems puked all over my heart. These poems put their fingers in my mouth and I liked it.”
—Axel B. Kolcow, Deputy Editor of Taco Bell Quarterly
Thumbsucker was reviewed in The Opiate, with Charles Holdefer writing of the I-centered poems, “the speaker’s voice is uncompromising but at the same time unpretentious, even vulnerable. It tests limits but does not pretend to master consequences.” I’m glad Charles Holdefer liked the book. I like him, and I like the book and I like Kat, so that worked out!
Tidy segue way: You may have heard about the sudden closure of Small Press Distribution, which has created havoc for hundreds of small presses. Fortunately for us, we did not work with SPD, so while their closure doesn’t affect us, it is a reminder of the endless precarity of indie publishing. Not that we really need one. We are reminded of it every day. My point being the SPD shutdown has a lot of people singing the praises of direct sales, meaning when you order a book directly from its publisher. Let’s say you order Thumbsucker from Amazon. Not gonna judge you. I personally hate Amazon. I also order books from there sometimes. It’s life. Eventually, from that sale, we end up with $3.92 out of the $15 you spent. Half of that $3.92 is for Kat. The other half is ours to spend on shipping, printing, covers, ISBNs, envelopes, website fees, et cetera ad infinitum. ($3.92, by the way, is a big sum. Most of our titles don’t net that much at all.) But, buy Thumbsucker from our website, and our cut grows significantly. At 100 pages, this book doesn’t cost a lot to print, just $3.50 per copy. So even if we cut the retail price in half, which we’re doing for one day only, April 1 (plus a few hours since we’re releasing this newsletter the night before), 2024, with code FOOL at checkout, we’re still making more than we do on an Amazon sale. That’s incredible. I had to recheck the math multiple times and I still don’t really believe myself. Maybe it’s greedy for us to try and charge $15 for direct orders of this book on our website. Maybe. On the other hand we have a ton of costs we’re trying to make up and no trust fund or secret shadow organization or $125,000-a-year email job to back us up. So yes, direct sales can be a drag when we’ve got a shit ton of orders to mail, but they also keep us going!
Anyway, I hope you’re sold. I hope you want to buy the book, not just because of the blurbs or because of the review or because it’s just a thing you can do to support a small press, but because you know it’s good. I’m a volunteer. We’re still in the doing-all-this-for-free stage of our publishing empire. I wouldn’t give my time to a book if I didn’t think it was good and worth your time and money. And yet, don’t take my word for it: Read this poem, “Submission Guidelines.” It’s one of the only poems Charles Holdefer criticizes in his review, and it also got so much love on twitter when we published it!
Anyway it’s late and I’m tired and I’m not even remotely prepared for class tomorrow so let me leave you with these wise words:
Thumbsucker is available directly from us (while supplies last anyway). These are signed copies by the way; as of this writing there are 34 copies still available. Next best option is to order from our friends at Asterism.
It’s also available through Bookshop, B&N, and Amazon. Probably other places too. Try Walmart. Try Target. Thank you! We love you!