Another milestone

One million visitors. . .

Shit man, that's like a LOT of people. More than I ever thought possible, to tell the truth. More than I probably deserve. But for some reason, more SFF fans stop by the Hotlist than any other fantasy and science fiction book-reviewing blog out there.

A million visitors is a hell of a lot of people, to be sure. Yet numbers are just numbers. Of course, Neil Gaiman gets that many hits on any given week. Then again, my friend John gets more hits than Gaiman and Scalzy combined and most of you have never heard of him. So what the heck, right?

I'd be remiss if I didn't use this opportunity to thank you all for hanging around these parts the way you do. One can only hope that you have discovered new authors and new books along the way. That's what I'm here for, after all. I've never taken myself too seriously, yet it's undeniably nice to have such a vast audience.

I must also thank the four authors who gave me a chance at the very beginning, and whose interviews helped me get noticed. So thank you to David B. Coe, Tad Williams, L. E. Modesitt, jr., and Robin Hobb for accepting to do a Q&A with me way back when.

Many thanks to all the editors, publicists, marketing folks, and agents on both sides of the Atlantic who helped me make this as fun and interesting as I possibly could. They are too numerous to name in this post, but they're the ones responsible for most of what's going on around here. Pat's Fantasy Hotlist wouldn't be half as good without them.

Many thanks to my fellow bloggers (Jay, Rob, Larry, William, Ken, Adam, Robert, Aidan, Chris, Graeme, and many, many others) and the denizens of various SFF message boards like asoiaf.westeros.org, sffworld.com, wotmania.com, malazanempire.com, and all my other usual hang out spots for being such a lively online community. We seldom all agree on things, but it wouldn't be fun otherwise.

Thanks to the kudos from people such as George R. R. Martin and Joe Abercrombie. Though I've never considered myself a particularly good reviewer, it's always nice to receive compliments and realize that you are appreciated.

Most of all, thanks to all the SFF authors, past, present, and future. In genres supposedly filled with 90% crap, these men and women have filled my head with wonders for more than two decades. And for that I'll be eternally grateful.

Finally, let me close the show by quoting Glen Cook: "Stop taking it so damned seriously." At the end of the day, being part of the SFF online community is supposed to be fun. In this house at least. . .

All the best,

Patrick St-Denis

P. S. One million visitors! Fuck me. . .

29 commentaires:

Anonymous said...

Congrats Pat -

But remember, even I check your blog 20 times a day...

MatsVS said...

You sold out, dude!

Haha, just kidding, congrats, man. ;)

Donna said...

I just discovered your reviews and love reading them. Keep the reviews coming! Congrats on your million mile marker!

Just for the record, how can something filled with 90% crap be so delectable? Whoever said that must have a pretty stale palate.

Chris said...

Congrats! Um, re: the last line in your blog post - I'm not sure that'd be possible with one million visitors. ;)

Aidan Moher said...

Congrats!

~Aidan
A Dribble of Ink

ediFanoB said...

One million visitors AND I'm one of them!

Three cheers and a tiger!
Your blog rocks the house.

Keep on blogging Pat!!

Bob Lock said...

Congrats Pat on both the millionth visitor and on a great review blog
Best
Bob

Unknown said...

Well done.

Your sight is entertaining as well as informative - a must every day.

Larry Nolen said...

Congratulations...although I must point out that you probably passed that several months ago if you have RSS feeds enabled. From what I understand, it could make for double the actual visits, depending on the number of subscribers (I know mine, according to Feedburner, is around 360/day) you have. So you might actually be celebrating your two millonth visit and not even know it!

Adele said...

Congrats Pat, that's an awesome figure to hit! It's a great blog.

Anonymous said...

Bravo mister Pat!

Excellent blog qui m'a fait découvir nombres d'auteurs...

(Et en plus ça fait bosser l'anglais).

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Pat, Just a few more and world domination could be yours. Start practicing that evil laugh.

Anonymous said...

Grats

Mishel (P.S. I Love Books) said...

haha congratulations!

Chris, The Book Swede said...

Well done! :)

I was reading your blog several years before I actually started mine -- yours was one of the first blogs on the Internet I ever read, in fact, being a simple country bumpkin -- and I still think it's as good as it was then. ~Chris

Neth said...

Congrats of course.

And thanks for mentioning me - though I thoroughly belive I owe you many more thanks.

Keep it up (and that may or may not be a reference to the last line of your post)

Anonymous said...

Your "Aw, shucks" attitude is getting tiresome.

Anonymous said...

And thank you for running the blog.........Congratulations!!

Adam Whitehead said...

Congratulations Pat :-)

Anonymous said...

and thanks to you for all the energy you put into it!
it's way cool to have a place that keeps track and collects all the news.. something we ourselves otherwise wouldn't find enough time to do.
cheers!

Anonymous said...

Congrat Pat! :D

Anonymous said...

Congrats Pat!!! Only about 500,000 visitors more before I reach that same milestone ;)

Todd said...

Congrats Patrick!

You really do run a great show here. I enjoy and admire the casual feel of the site and the dedication you put into it. You always keep things interesting and entertaining.

Thanks a million for the reviews, giveaways, and pictures of hot European chicks.

Here's to 2 million visitors next. :)

Dream Girlzzz said...

RSS feeds notwithstanding, sitemeter.com misses about 30% of a site's actual traffic, or so people say.

That means that you are probably celebrating 2 million visitors or close enough...

Congrats!

Anonymous said...

Congrats! You deserve it... :)

Best wishes and keep up that good work! :cheers:

Graeme Flory said...

Like Neth said, thanks for the thanks but I owe you far more ;o)

Congratulations on the milestone! :o)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Pat, I'll be mentioning this in my blog - all best, Deborah Beale

OnigiriFB said...

Congrats!

I do have one question though. Is the offer at the bottom truly available? ;P

Tia Nevitt said...

Heaps of congrats! Back when I first started blogging, I believe you hit a milestone of something like 300,000 visitors. That means you must have had a considerable upward slope since then.

It also means that the 2 million visit milestone will come a lot sooner!

And many, many thanks for keeping my blog linked for so long.