Seen on Facebook.

My apologies if this meme has been passed around too often already . . . .

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2019: Best Blog Year Yet.

This year exceeded the prior record by about twelve percent.

Are you game for yet another yearly recap? I hope so, because it’s all about YOU.

Blog views for 2019 broke 4,000 several days ago, leaving the 2014 record of 3,553 in the dust. Proportionally viewed on the bar graph, it may not look like much, but those roughly 500 additional views came from subscribers (I don’t like the social media term “followers”) who loyally checked Irish Firebrands blog at an average rate of about a dozen a day.

Not a high-performance blog, by any means; others who started blogging after I did regularly garner thousands of views per month, per week, and even per day. If those are all genuine readers, I’m happy for them. But unlike many other bloggers, I don’t do paid advertising at social media sites, which means that at least I know that those who visit Irish Firebrands blog are genuine readership, and not just click-farm produce.

The map shows the history of global readership over the whole seven years of the blog’s existence. Not a bad showing, for a blog that doesn’t offer flashy, trendy or sensationalist content. The top ten countries for that period (2012-2019) are mostly Anglophone, which can be regarded as predictable: I write in English, and I’m based in the USA, which has racked up the highest number of visitors. But every one of those viewers from all the countries on the map feel like valued friends, to me. I subscribe to roughly a hundred of their blog sites, and enjoy their content as much as I hope they enjoy mine.

What’s more, some of those blog-readership relationships have translated into material support for me as an Indie Author-Publisher, because Irish Firebrands blog is the only significant marketing outlet for my books. They are by no means bestsellers, but they are purchased at a steady rate of one or two per month, and do include some international sales.

All titles except the Bookplate Books are available at a discount from Lulu Press (www.lulu.com). Title availability is limited at Amazon, where all are at full retail price. Please shop at Lulu to enjoy the savings as a reward for your loyalty!

 

You’re Invited . . .

. . . to visit some of my other blog pages. I have about a dozen domains under development, and two of them may be of interest to you.

NOT a product endorsement, of this or any other brand. I never intended to inhabit one of these, and I stay out of it as much as possible.

This month marks the culmination of seven years of Irish Firebrands blogging. Those of you who have been with me from the first know that I’m disabled and have had cancer. I don’t talk much about my health here, preferring to focus this blog on the Indie Author-Publisher experience.

But I do blog about disability and chronic illness issues on my site Butterfly, Be Free! Topics include autoimmune disease, chronic pain, sleep apnea and CPAP, cancer, genetics, nutrition and recipes, and translational medicine, to name a few.

Another of my sites is dedicated to the research I’ve been doing for my work-in-progress, The Passions of Patriots. This is a history buff’s blog, focusing on the period 1906 to 1936, including the Great War, and (coming soon) the Irish wars of that time.

The bulk of my writing time for the coming year will be a return to active creative writing on the new book, which is a prelude to Irish Firebrands, covering the lives and times of Dillon Carroll’s grandparents.

This, my flagship blog, has explored the writing process in terms of how Irish Firebrands came to be, because it was a completely spontaneous work. I still strongly recommend being an organic writer (“pantser”), as the way creative writing is done best. If you’re fairly new to this blog, you may have missed some post series I wrote in support of that assertion:

• Use my search engine to find “The Daughters of Zeus,” and “The 7 Reasonable Rules of Writing.”
• Search for the keywords “senses,” “sensory,” “smell,” “olfactory,” “taste,” “touch,” “hearing,” “sight,” and “vision.”
• Be sure to see my “Downloads” page for fun stuff.
• Look also for the terms “art” and “craft,” to understand the true nature of writing.

Writing is supposed to be enjoyable, not a stressful occupation burdened by marketing regulations imposed by traditional publishing gurus and gatekeepers. It’s only if we’re not having fun doing it, that we’re not doing it right.

I hope to see you visit. As always, I’ll be lurking in the wings, reading and commenting on your blog posts, too.