Gathering of Midwest Authors at Bishop Hill, Illinois

Hello folks. Thought I better check in. It's been a long week, and I've fallen short on my blogging duties. Spring is here, and with it comes spring soccer for my daughter, fishing with my son, gardening with my wife, and generally I just get a lot busier. So, I apologize for not getting here sooner.

I was over in Bishop Hill, Illinois today, working on some details for an event that I have been putting on now for three years. Since I follow the Joe Konrath style of self promotion, I will tell you all about it. When I first book, Ghosts of Interstate 80 came out in 2007, I set out to promote and sell as many copies as I could. Never mind that my publisher is a small regional press. My goal was to see out the first run of 500 books in less than a year. I accomplished that. I sold those books in the first six months.

One thing that I heard regularly at signings, besides "How much?" was: It's so nice to have another Midwestern author out here getting published. One of the signings was in Bishop Hill during thier newly established "Clay and Fiber Festival." I sold 14 books in three hours tucked in the corner of a pottery and weaving celebration. Now I realize everyone likes a good ghost story, but two ideas came together at once. First, if I could sell 14 books here in three hours at a pottery fest, how many could I sell if we got a bunch of writers together? The second idea was that since there was a number of writers in the Midwest, from little guys like me to big boys, it shouldn't be to hard to get a number of them together in one spot.

Our first event kicked off in '07, at the VagnHall Galleri in Bishop Hill, and drew in about 300 people in one day. I managed to get 20 authors from Illinois, Iowa, and Kentucky together for the day. We did okay, most people sold a few books, and I realized that this was going to be a pretty good sized annual event.

Another reason that I started this gathering, was that as a writer, I get tired of the coastal attitued: "Aw, isn't it cute that you farmers are trying to write something." We have a lot of talent in the Midwest, and I wanted a venue to allow that talent shine.

In 2008, my second book, a truely regional piece called Ghosts of the Illinois Canal System was released by Quixote Press. I knew I had a following, and wanted to promote this book as well. In '08 we did it again. We had a better group of writers. People such as Sylvia Shults, Larry Santoro, Kim Gordon, Dr. Owen Muelder came and shared their books and thier experiances in the publishing world. We made a few changes last year. The biggest was that went to two days, from noon to five each day. We drew more than 250 people each day that weekend, and everyone sold a lot of books. We met some great people, and had a good gathering.

This year, we have really grown. Not only will a number of people return from last year, but our featured author is going to be none other than Joe Konrath himself. His current book, Afraid, written under the pen name Jack Kilborn, is rocketing up the best seller's list, for good reason. It is an awsome, horrible, greasy, piece of work that will grab you by the throat and not let go until you reach the last page. Konrath will be there both days, from noon to five in the evening.

The event itself will be on the weekend of October 24-25 at the VagnHall Galleri in Bishop Hill, Illinois (www.bishophill.com for more information about the village and their calander of events.) We are also debating about having a couple of workshops for those struggling writers out there, as well as those of you wanting to learn how to research non fiction work.

So, if you are a writer, or just a lover of books, get in touch with me here and I can let you know how you can participate or just come down for the weekend. I will update you on what's going on as time progresses.