Normally I don't make a big deal about the birthday of this blog, in fact, on a number of years recently I have forgotten even to mention it. However, as it was ten years ago today that I first sat down to pen a few lines on this blog I thought it would be appropriate just to pause and say thank you.
I remember the first year and bit of this blog as being like whispering in a hurricane, there was this distinct feeling that I was saying nothing very much and no one was listening. There were never any comments on blog posts and I was writing what was effectively just a personal diary. It was only a couple of years in that I began to realise that most of the 'action' of this blog took place outside its long white pages. And if I was going to give anyone a single piece of advice about starting a blog it would be to remember that: for a long time it feel pointless and then, suddenly, you will count up all the people you have met as a result of it, all the things you have learnt, all the projects which it has been the catalyst for and realise what has been going on all this time. Nowadays I regularly meet people in the real life world of bookdealing and introduce myself and hear 'oh, I read your blog' which is both, of course, wonderfully stroking of the ego but also is a great reminder of just how many people can be reached by what one types on a page.
There are numbers of course. A few months ago this blog passed a million page views in its lifetime. As a visitor you are one of about 200 people who will come this way today. Most of the people who read this blog come from Germany(!), just pipping readers from The US, the UK and then Greece, France, Israel, Russia and the Ukraine! The top search request to Google that results in people being here, after my name, is predictable and rest assured those people go away disappointed. A number that doesn't come from Google's stats is that I think at least 20 books, probably more, wouldn't have been published if it wasn't for people making first contact with me through this blog.
Anyway, at this time, I would just like to say thank you to all of you who come and read these sometimes interesting, sometimes inane, sometimes simply an "excuse-for-the-pretty" posts. Thank you whether you are in touch with me, or are simply a regular reader I know nothing about. Writing the blog has been an enormously enriching part of life for me and that's largely down to the people, not the screen.
Thank you...
Here's to the next 10 years!