Reprise, one year on.
Tomorrow 3rd January 2006; well goodness gracious me, this blog will be officially ONE YEAR OLD! It is one year to the day after reading about other blogs on line that I began to pour out my scurrilous drivel in public.
In that time the blog has had two design & colour scheme changes, crashed once and been mentioned in the Mainstream Media three times. First in the Guardian (3rd June 2005), Second in The Sun (3rd November 2005), Third in the Independent (19th December 2005). Also got included in ‘Blogged 2005’, ISBN 0 95483183 7 (November 2005). Somewhere in the region of 60,000 visitors. All in all, quite a year for a newbie blogger like me.
My wife often finds me staring at my webstats shaking my head in happy disbelief at the broad scope of my ‘market’, for want of a better term. I’ve made new friends in Europe and the USA, corresponded with them, even met one on his way through my patch. All this at a time when continual rejection was all I received from traditional sources of publication. Which all goes to show how subjective the whole business of publication is. It’s not how good your stuff is, it’s more how much money a potential sponsor thinks they will make out of your work and they are not infallible. Take this item culled from today’s news here and here.
Not really surprising, but take the ‘Harry Potter’ books by J K Rowling. Reputedly twenty publishers rejected her work before one took a chance on a new genre. Her work is not exactly my cup of tea, and I think the writing could be better, but look at how that has taken off in the past few years. Movie deals, the whole cult thing. J K herself has gone from bottom of the pile on benefits to La-la land and good luck to her say I. Now her publishers have got to the enviable stage where they can afford to hire a fork lift truck to carry their wallets around. Good luck to them too.
Now, who else would I like to see get lucky like that? Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the most…. In your dreams Sticker, in your dreams.
In that time the blog has had two design & colour scheme changes, crashed once and been mentioned in the Mainstream Media three times. First in the Guardian (3rd June 2005), Second in The Sun (3rd November 2005), Third in the Independent (19th December 2005). Also got included in ‘Blogged 2005’, ISBN 0 95483183 7 (November 2005). Somewhere in the region of 60,000 visitors. All in all, quite a year for a newbie blogger like me.
My wife often finds me staring at my webstats shaking my head in happy disbelief at the broad scope of my ‘market’, for want of a better term. I’ve made new friends in Europe and the USA, corresponded with them, even met one on his way through my patch. All this at a time when continual rejection was all I received from traditional sources of publication. Which all goes to show how subjective the whole business of publication is. It’s not how good your stuff is, it’s more how much money a potential sponsor thinks they will make out of your work and they are not infallible. Take this item culled from today’s news here and here.
Not really surprising, but take the ‘Harry Potter’ books by J K Rowling. Reputedly twenty publishers rejected her work before one took a chance on a new genre. Her work is not exactly my cup of tea, and I think the writing could be better, but look at how that has taken off in the past few years. Movie deals, the whole cult thing. J K herself has gone from bottom of the pile on benefits to La-la land and good luck to her say I. Now her publishers have got to the enviable stage where they can afford to hire a fork lift truck to carry their wallets around. Good luck to them too.
Now, who else would I like to see get lucky like that? Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the most…. In your dreams Sticker, in your dreams.
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