May has arrived, and with it the anniversary month of my blog!
In every book series or movie franchise there is bound to be at least one dud, and May Madness 4 could be subtitled The Bad One.
Blog views, visitors, likes and comments are all down over the last twelve months compared to May 2020 – April 2021. I’m not sure why.
Books read, buddy reads and book tour participation has also decreased, but I’m thrilled to have hosted so many amazing blog takeovers.
Thanks to Janine Pipe, David Rae, Hayley Reese Chow, WB Welch, Johann Thorsson, Lindsay J Sedgwick, Valinora Troy, Dan Soule and Joseph Sale for all taking part.
However, follower numbers have risen considerably on my blog, newsletter, Goodreads and BookBub.
I saw a slight decrease in book sales this year, but a huge increase in KU page reads and free downloads.
I was delighted to take part in Rhonda Parrish’s Giftmas story train to raise money for Edmonton’s food bank at Christmas. S K Gregory kindly published one of my stories on her blog to promote women in horror this February, and I had great fun writing a collaborative story with The Writers’ Mastermind.
Last Halloween a national newspaper, The Irish Independent, published a featured article on me, which led to a radio interview with Damien Tiernan.
I published two novellas. The Mountains of Sorrow, an earth elemental dragon fantasy adventure, and All of Me, a stand alone horror fairytale.
I also released new cover editions of Zoo of the Dead & Other Horrific Tales and Return to Hades & Other Adventures, and 7 Days in Hell won a Speak Up Talk Radio Firebird Book Award.
My goals for May 2021 – April 2022 were
- Write all the books.
- Improve my marketing game.
- Work on illustrations and book covers.
- Continue to read and review like a machine.
I think I pretty much hit all those goals!
In Memorium
Iseult Murphy 
Sounds like a busy and productive year! Congratulations on hitting all your goals too. Not many of us manage that!
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Thank you, Lindsay! 😊
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Congratulations on the two novellas you published this year (loved them both!), and all the increases in newsletter signups and blog followers as well as KU reads, the interviews and the award for 7 Days in Hell (well deserved, loved that book too!). Thanks for allowing me take over your blog, I really enjoyed it! Congratulations on meeting all your goals too!
So sorry to see the friends you lost this past year, beautiful photos, but heart-breaking, especially to lose them so close together.
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Thank you, you are too kind. It’s been a hard year, but lots of good things happened too, and I enjoyed the blog takeovers. 😊
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Beautiful animals, may they rest in peace.
Visits and comments are down? Hmm. Maybe with all the bloggers out there and new blogs constantly popping up it takes more to capture someone’s attention. Or are people flocking to IG or TikTok? It’s a puzzle! But visitors or not, I enjoy your blog.
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Thank you, Priscilla. It’s been a hard year.
The decreased visits and comments could be any or all of those reasons. I posted slightly less this year, and that has an impact. I hope this year will be more productive, and thank you for your continued support. I look forward to your comments every time I post. 😊
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Congrats with the anniversary and all of your achievements! I think many bloggers see lower interaction activity since COVID restrictions were lifted, I guess we are are all busy with life in the “real world”. So maybe we should see it as a positive thing? Personally, I definitely spend less time online than I did previous years.
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Thank you! 😊
I think that’s true. A lot of people are limiting screen time or busy doing other things. My numbers for 2020-2021 were probably inflated because so many were on lock down.
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Those were pretty ambitious goals. Well done.
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Thank you, Joe.
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No problem, Joe.
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