A Cool Million

When I first unveiled this blog, roughly a year ago, I would never have dreamed of ever reaching this milestone. According to the statistics kept by Blogspot, Books and Pals passed one million page views on Monday. I’m sure it won’t be a surprise to many of our readers to know that the train wreck that got a lot of attention last March accounts for a large part of this traffic. That review, a post it inspired, and one about the fallout have accounted for three-quarters of those page views and continue to draw lots of traffic. Of the more than 3,500 who follow the blog, almost half started in the immediate aftermath of that incident.

It seems apropos at a time like this to thank those who have made it possible and to take stock. Where are we and where should we go?

For what started as a small, one-man gig, there are an awful lot of people who have helped make it a success. I’m not even going to try naming names, not only because I’d miss someone, but the list would be too long. I’m sure those I’m talking about will recognize where they fit, some multiple times.

First, I’d like to thank the readers and authors who encouraged me to do this. I fought it for a long time, but they eventually wore me down. Next are those who follow us and read what we have to say. If a review fell onto the internet and no one read it, there would be no point. An additional thanks to those who comment on posts, retweet, share Facebook posts, and otherwise actively engage with us and our content. If not for you, we’d have to wonder if anyone was really out there.

I’d also like to thank the authors who have submitted their books for review, especially those who continue to wait in anticipation of a review. Some of you have been waiting a long time and still have a long wait ahead of you. I’d like to thank those who have written guest posts. (As an aside, I’m always willing to consider a guest post on a subject likely to be of interest to our readership. If you’re interested and have an idea you think might fit, contact me and we’ll discuss it. Clicking on ‘Guest Post’ in the list of labels on the right hand side of any page will display previous guest posts for examples of the kind of things we’d be interested in.)

Last, a special thank you for those reviewers who have joined me. While I expect I’ll always write most of the reviews, having others willing to pitch in is a big help. Several of these reviewers, one I’ve especially come to rely on, have also been a great help in putting the final polish on my sometimes convoluted thoughts.

Another post immediately prior to this one has a survey. We’re hoping you’ll take the time to fill this out to let us know how we’re doing - what you like and where you’d like to see something different, as well as helping us understand who our readers are.