My Year in Review: Publishing Highs and Lows, and How Much I owe to the Booby Jar

2010 in Review and by the numbers

Number of separate hits on my blog: 23,928



From: 120 Countries

Most hits: USA

Most surprising hits: Yemen (?) (My goal to target Yemeni readers: check!)



Strangest search entries that actually led to serious time on my blog:

"Brodi Ashton Walmart Marshmallow Peeps""Brodi Ashton Booby Jar""Jacob's Abs""Bodyguards in Pakistan""Naked Mondays""Saggy Bladder"

Some of these make total sense. I did spend a fair amount of time blogging about Jacob's abs. (Specifically the left one, third from the top. It was beautiful.)

And I did blog once about a saggy bladder. And Naked Mondays. And I blogged extensively about my bodyguard in Pakistan.

Okay, sadly each of these makes sense. 

Number of times I posted on a Tuesday: 1 (Today!)

Publishing highs:Signing with my new agent. (Hi Michael!) (Michael "You Could Sell his Smile on the Internet for Money" Bourret and me)



Selling my book. (Hi Kristin!)

Number of Book Launches I attended: a plethora

Authors at those book launches:Bree Despain (The Lost Saint- party tonight!)Ally Condie (Matched)James Dashner (The Scorch Trials)Matt Kirby (The Clockwork Three)Kiersten White (Paranormalcy)Sarah Williams (Palace Beautiful)Kami Garcia and Margie Stohl (Beautiful Darkness)

Number of quarters I owe to the booby jar (as a penalty for using the word "booby"): 486

Number of posts about my secret lover Rafa: 10 He's not impressed.

Number of conferences I attended:3 (Emily, Bree, Brodi and Sydney Salter at the SCBWI conference in L.A.)

Number of times I danced the Love Shack with M.T. Anderson: once (I'm sure he'll be blogging about it too, in his own "year in review")

Number of rejections I received throughout the year: 486 (at least, it felt like that)

Number of times I thought getting published was just a pipe dream: loads

Number of times I wondered what, exactly, is a pipe dream: once (like right now. What does that mean? anyone? Does it mean my dream was stuck in a pipe, right next to a hairball?)

Number of days my book was on submission to editors before it we got an offer: 2 

Number of times I was pretending to take notes in church, when really I was writing my book: 52.  (There are 52 Sundays in a year, right?)

Number of Thursdays spent writing at Borders with Bree Despain and Emily Wing Smith: 40

Number of times in any given day Sam and I just look at each other and say, "I can't believe the book is going to be an actual book.": at least 3

Number of times in any given day I declare my undying love for my agent: at least 3

Number of times Sam rolls his eyes at me: countless

Number of times I'm grateful for blog readers who've stuck with me for another year: let me count the ways.

I'm taking the rest of the week off. See you next year!!