It's been almost six months since the book,
Tall Corn State, was published. I can say that in most ways it was a success. It's true that I didn't make a lot of money, but I don't think anyone who is totally indie can expect to, and for my purposes, the fact that it was widely read and is still being read is pretty good.
I like the things people say about it, and I like the reviews overall. It gives me confidence overall in going forward with my second novel, which I believe will be about Texas, unless I get a little sidetracked. I am getting a clearer idea of what I want with all novels.
One way I've failed miserably is in developing this site. I'll explain why below - it's basically because I've been busy - but I had intended to make this site a spot which is adequately linked to the book, and shows a number of promotional pictures of
Tall Corn State and pictures of Iowa in general. What happened? I just got busy. This site I will develop better as the first phase of promotion winds down.
The first phase was, in short, getting everyone I could to read the book once. The most successful way I found was to find authors who wanted others to read
their work, in exchange for reading others'. I could do that, I figured, and to that end I set about reading all kinds of stuff and guaranteeing that
Tall Corn State was read and reviewed.
You begin approaching the big leagues if you have five, ten, fifteen, even twenty reviews. The truth is, I'm not in a position to decide what "big leagues" are - it seems a lot to me to know that I have what I have. It's also important that poeple by and large liked my book.
You will, too, if you got this far and still haven't read it. It's just a novel about Iowa, and the experience of a guy, me, who arrived there one day. One day in the middle of a flaming youth. The book does have a sense of humor, I promise. Find it
here.
