Hits on My Reading Blog

So last week, I discussed how the hits on this blog are pretty much the same after a full year of posts. My most successful blog, however, is a far different matter. As one can see in the chart below, hits pretty quickly (within four months--I didn't track the first three months) hit one hundred per month, and over the course of that first year tripled to three hundred.

The story continues. Since 2008, the number of hits on Short Story Reader has continued to grow, though the rate of growth has slowed significantly. Also, it's evident that the hits go up and down--especially during the summer--but the overall trajectory has been up, now usually topping nine hundred a month.

My Life in Charts Hits per Month

My Life in Charts is one year old. From what I can tell, though, it hasn't caught on with readers. I average about the same number of hits a year later per month as I did when I started--in fact, lately the projectory is down. In a few weeks I'll compare that to another blog of mine whose audience has grown steadily over the years it's been up, including just its first year.

State of My Underwear

In spring, I usually purge clothing, getting rid of clothes that have gotten to ragged to continue wearing. I did, this spring, for example, purge four out of twenty-eight button-down shirts. The worn-out shirts had severely frayed collars. It was a shame to see them go.

Apparently, I purged a lot more underwear last year than I realized, because I was under the impression I had more underwear needing to be purged than I thought. What is interesting, however, is the reason for the purging. It used to be mostly holes; this year, it's mostly worn elastic, as shown in the following chart:

Attempts to Get an Agent

So I have this novel I brought to a finish some time ago, and as of spring 2011, I've finally gotten around to sending it to a few literary agents. But until winter 2012, I never got beyond a form letter back. Finally, in February, an agent actually asked to see a bit more.

Really, when I think about it, I shouldn't be surprised. I have had to select people to hire at times in my life, and sometimes, you're pulling one person out of fifty--and there might be several who are qualified--and I'm sure it's like that for agents as well, only to a greater extreme.

So here it is, a pie chart showing the percentage of agents who sent me form rejections versus the percent who never even answered my query, and the lone agent who showed even some initial interest.