One thing I’ve been working on over the past two years is to summarize the purpose and goal of the site in as few words as possible, which I think I’ve done: we connect romance fans with one another, and with the books they want to read. Encompassing the goal of the site was a lot easier than trying to sum up 10 years.
I wanted to try to explain why you and your presence in the Bitchery community is so valuable, and how much I appreciate that you’re here. The site wouldn’t be what it is today without your being here. I also wanted to ask RedHeadedGirl, Elyse, Carrie and Amanda to talk about the site, too, so forgive us while we get a little schmoopy up in here.
RedHeadedGirl:
I have to thank Cleolinda, who is basically my Internet Fairy Godmother for all of this- I found Smart Bitches when she linked to the Cassie Edwards mishigas. I started reading romance again because of Smart Bitches, and in a very real way, writing for Smart Bitches kept me sane as I went through law school. (Note how many early reviews include something along the lines of “I should be writing a paper but instead I’m writing this!”) I honestly don’t think I would have made it through without this community, and you have all kept me grounded in a very real way in the years since, which I have sorely needed. Finding my (extremely short) sisters in Sarah, Amanda, Elyse, and Carrie has been something I couldn’t have imagined would result when I clicked that link about black-footed ferrets.
What I think is most important is how we value women’s stories- most other genres are very sausage heavy, and romance isn’t valued in the wider world because it’s focused on the things we are taught aren’t important and because it’s created and consumed by women. We can have the “is romance feminist” discussion until we are blue in the face (and we have), but what I think it comes down is that this is primarily women creating, and primarily women consuming. We are making our own stories and discussing them and critiquing them and analysing them and giving those stories the attention they deserve, rather than just saying “lol bodice ripper” and that’s the best part.
Amanda:
Oh, buddy.
I was almost done with high school. That’s when my romance reading really hit its stride. I devoured books from the library. I was a nonstop reading machine! I came across SBTB when I was in dire need of reading recs and I wasn’t disappointed. I religiously followed the site until I realized an internship was required for my BA degree in Editing, Writing, & Media. The program was new, so they didn’t really help with placement. Taking a shot in the dark, I emailed Sarah. I still have her response. The term “crazy train” was used. I became Sarah’s lackey and food taster (she’s a dangerous woman) for the next year and half. I relocated to Boston and Sarah offered me a permanent position at SBTB. But that’s enough of the boring history stuff.
Being a part of the SBTB family/team/posse/insert your own collective noun here, is something that I count myself lucky for every single day. These women are sisters, therapists, cheerleaders, and everything in between, and my mornings would be so sad without waking up to some ridiculous email from one of them.
RHG: Like, for example: “THERE’S VIDEO OF GRONK READING A GRONKING”
Amanda: I googled that so hard that I think I sprained my wrist. And it’s a Vine at a press conference. He says “butt cheeks” and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look so happy.
On a professional note, the SBTB community and Sarah in particular have opened so many doors for me. I (gasp!) might actually wind up having a career I actually enjoy doing. I’m still amazed at the smiles and cheers of recognition I get when I tell people that I’m part of Smart Bitches.
Ten years is a long time for a blog, I feel. And I couldn’t be happier that Sarah hasn’t suffered a lapse in her insanity just yet, as the fearless conductor on this crazy train. The discussions that have been spawned in the comments, the engagement with readers to make the site bigger and better, the support from my fellow SBTB-ers, it’s all a great ecosystem to be a part of and I sincerely couldn’t be more grateful for the Bitchery.
Carrie:
I honestly can’t remember how I found the website, but it opened up so many new doors for me in terms of reading. Then I won a raffle. The prize was a copy of Maybe This Time, by Jennifer Crusie, and the winner was supposed to submit a review of the book. That was five years ago, and I’ve turned from a random lucky reviewer, to a frequent guest, to a regular reviewer. That first review changed my life in ways I would never have anticipated. Regardless of what I write and where I write it, my home will always be here at SBTB, where I was given my first chance and where I feel inspired and excited every day.
This community, not just the reviewers but also the commenters, is so nurturing and supportive that it was given me the confidence I needed to move on to the next stage of my life. This site has given me, in many ways, the safe base I need in order to go on scary adventures. I feel supported when I want to try to new things – if I make a proposal to Sarah, sometimes she says yes and sometimes no, but she gives every response in a way that encourages me to try another proposal down the line. When I submit a review, I know that the comments may not be in my favor, but they won’t be insulting either.
The books that I have found here have encouraged me to “be the heroine of my own story.” Sarah has taught me that it’s a good thing to ask for what I want. My reviewing sisters have taught me that people who are very different can be best friends. As cheesy as it sounds, this site has truly made me who I am today.
Elyse:
I’m not sure how I found Smart Bitches, but I remember being on vacation in Costa Rica and sitting in the lobby at night (for the Wifi), reading the F+ reviews out loud to my husband and cry-laughing. I think about a year later I emailed Sarah and asked if I could do a test review for her.
I’ve always loved romance novels and I’ve been made to feel ashamed of it, a lot. I started reading them in middle school and getting caught with a book about–whispers–sex would have been mortifying. When I went to college, I studied literature and romance novels were routinely maligned and snorted at. My deep dark secret was that as much I loved reading “serious literature,” I loved reading romance novels more. I actually remember a professor telling us once that someone had the emotional maturity of a Harlequin romance character.
I also worked at a bookstore and the people there were snooty and shitty about romance novels. Again, you were supposed to read “serious” fiction and we stocked romance novels for “those people.”
At some point I lost all my fucks. I realized the sexism inherent in calling a genre written primarily for women, by women, “trash.” But I didn’t have anyone to really talk to romance novels about. I had some friends who read them, but they didn’t love them the way I do. I needed someone who understood the glory and magic in orca-time-travel-penis crazysauce. When I found Smart Bitches I remember having this feeling like “Oh my God, there are people out there just like me,” and that’s so important and profound. At first it was just a validation that yes, there was this great hot pink palace where I could go and meet a community of like-minded people who were so much fun to talk with.
I get what Carrie says when she says the Bitchery made who she is. When you really, really love something and that thing is constantly denigrated, it eats away at a piece of you. When you find a community of people who also love and understand that thing, it’s truly powerful. It’s a validation of you as a person. No one should be ashamed of loving something (unless it’s setting puppies on fire or something, in which case you should be deeply ashamed), and Smart Bitches has given the internet community a resource to point out that, yeah, romance novels are smart and funny and sometimes weird and totally feminist, and they have important things to say, and I’m grateful for it.
Sarah:
I’ve been putting off writing this because it’s too big to encompass with 26 letters in various order. There wouldn’t be a 10th anniversary of Smart Bitches without you. (Yes, you. You look marvelous today, too!)
Because you’re here, hanging out and talking about romances, debating the issues within and about the genre, and being silly and smart (often at the same time), Smart Bitches exists. I have said many times that I don’t take myself seriously at all, but I take the community of SBTB very seriously, because I value, respect and treasure your presence here so much.
In the past ten years, I’ve learned so much about…everything. For example, the publishing process. I’ve met many of the people who work within publishing and the people who wish to change the way it works. I’ve watched the spotlight of attention on the accomplishments and strengths of the romance genre show up almost annually and then disappear (and it’s usually around Valentine’s Day, so get ready). I started as a reader who knew very little about writing reviews or about the publishing industry and became someone who has learned a lot about the intricacies of the industry and became a traditionally published and self-published author, too. I never expected any of that. I am enormously thankful.
I joke that I vastly underestimated two things when Smart Bitches began, one being the number of readers who love romance and feel isolated and alone because they have no one to talk to about the books they love. But it’s not actually a joke – it’s very true. I still receive email about once or twice a month from new readers who say, “Where have you been all my life? I have no one to talk about romance novels with, and here you all are!” That feeling is true for me every day. I am grateful beyond measure that I get to hang out with with people like you who understand and love the things I love. I’m not alone and isolated in my love of stories about people who get caught in the snow, and my frustration with fruitbasket descriptions of nipples.
Thank you for sharing your opinions of books, your recommendations and your rage, and your time and energy with us. Having a safe and welcoming space in which to discuss honestly how the books we read make us feel is vitally important, and it wouldn’t exist without you.
Thank you for being here, and for making ten years possible. May we all live happily ever after.
My daughter just sent me this link. I am so glad to see this exists. I have been reading romance if all genres for forty-five years and always been teased about it. I have never cared. I love the feeling of hopefulness that true love and happiness really exists.
I’ve been visiting SBTB daily for maybe nine years, for the combination of snark, smarts, and enlightening conversation. Happy Anniversary!
happy anniversary! i love this site.
Just found your site and am looking for the excitement y’all generate. I’m hooked on Lorelei James right now, MC clubs and tattoo stuff. Think I need to branch out a bit ;). As far as those who want to comment on my reading material, well, they can “Kiss mine”!
Happy Anniversary to tbe smartest and bestest bitches on the planet. I’m including you dear fellow readers. I think it was an NPR interview that initially introduced the hot pink palace of the bitchery to me, but it was definitely the F+ reviews that hooked me, and finally the community that convinced me to stay. Knowing that there is a strong community of people who enjoy the same things I do, unabashedly, is empowering. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Here is to many more years of bitchery.
Happy Anniversary and thanks for all your hard work on this site.
Happy 10th Anniversary. Thank you so very, very much for everything you do. This is such a great community and the work that you put into this site every single day is amazing. I re-discovered my love of romance novels as a result of this site. I think that what you have helped create with this site (along with your fellow romance bloggers) is a movement that has changed the way romance is viewed in the world. In particular, you have showed the Powers That Be that smart, funny, erudite women (and men) read and love romance novels. Yes, there are still the insecure, pretentious nitwits who denigrate romance, but when they do, there are now lots of us who aren’t afraid to come forward to proclaim proudly that we read romance novels, that they aren’t per se “trash” (sure there are some books that are, but there is a lot of crap in “Serious Literature” as well), and to tell the nay-sayers exactly what we think about their particular view of the world. That is truly empowering!
Here’s to the next 10 years!
Happy anniversary! Thank you for your dedication to your readers, your commitment to quality and integrity in romance writing/publishing, and your humor! You make me laugh almost every day of the week, and I’m so glad to have this space.
Happy anniversary, o smartest of bitches! Some of your reviews have made me laugh until I cried, and some of them have made me go buy the book just to glory in the awesome (puppy cannons FTW!), and all of them have been worth reading. Here’s to another ten years!
Happy birthday Smart Bitches! Thanks for all the laughs, snorts and book recommendations over the years 🙂
Happy Anniversary!! I found this wonderful site when a friend forwarded one of the cover snark pages. I hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time and I was hooked. Love the snark, the reviews, and the camaraderie! May you have many, many more years.
Happy anniversary! I started reading romance back in 2008/2009, largely due to SBTB. I have always loved to read, but I didn’t realise just how much until I discoved the romance genre. When
I used to browse in book shops, I would always pass the (usually) pitifully small section with the (usually) horrid covers not realising that I was walking away from a lot of wonderful stories. Stories written by very talented authors. However, with sites like SBTB and the ebook movement (do we dare call it a revolution?) I discovered my reading home; the romance genre. Like in any genre, there is the good, the bad and the ugly. Sometimes you don’t know what you will get when embarking on a new book, but with the help of the online romance community I have discovered some beloved books and continue to discover them. Granted, you can’t always rely on reviews (overly enthuastic 5* star Amazon/good reads reviews, I am looking at you!) and I don’t always agree with the reviews/recomendations on this site or on other romance blogs, but I awalys find them extremely helpful in some way. Thank you for all the hard work SB, here is to ten more good years (at least!).
Wishing SBTB a very happy 10th anniversary! Thank you, Sarah for leading the way and setting such a high standard. Here’s to many more years of sharing our love of romance!
Thank you for being awesome and for facilitating so much awesomeness over the past ten years. Happy anniversary!
Happy anniversary – thank you for informing and entertaining us
Happy anniversary! I’m so thankful I found SBTB. Not only did it introduce me to the romance genre which I now love so much, but it has also been a wonderful community that I’ve enjoyed for over six years now. It’s great to be able to find trustworthy reviews and smart commentary on books that are frequently mocked or overlooked in conversations about literature. Thank you, Sarah and everyone else, for all the work and love you pour into the site. I appreciate you all.
I came across STBT via a great and funny panel discussion Sarah did with RadioNational during Australian Writers Festival. Then I got hooked on the podcasts, my favourites of these being the Jane and Sarah shows discussing books they have read. Check out the early podcasts, love them! Re listen to them at times when I can’t sleep. Do you all remember the Hymen episode? What a cracker!
Thanks Sarah for introducing new words like the term “squee” which shockingly has not been approved by scrabble.
Good work, well done. Remember the haters gonna hate hate but I am just gonna shake shake shake. Keep going
Thank you for all the smiles and laughs you have provided me. Happy Anniversary!
Happy anniversary!
Happy Anniversary! Thanks for all the crazysauce!
This is the nicest, warmest, fuzziest comment thread. Thank you so much for being here, for celebrating with us, and for being as happy and excited as we are to reach 10 years. You’re all just terrific. Thank you.
Happy 10th anniversary! Here’s to another ten years.
Happy anniversary, Sarah. Thanks for being such a great advocate of the romance industry!
Happy 10th! Thanks for the reviews, snark, WTFery, knitting patterns and general all-around awesomeness.
You all are awesome and wonderful. Thank you for all the work. Thank you for this community space, and thank you to the community: you all are awesome too.
It’s been quite a decade, and I hope there are many more to come.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!
I started reading SBTB less than one year ago, when I decided that I would start being a regular romance reader. Now I check it at least once a day. The SBTB podcast is still my favourite podcast ever and it kept me so much company during work hours. My amazon account thanks you as well.
When I was growing up and in high school, the only thing I had going for me was my IQ, and romances were for people who thought getting married solved all their problems, and I sneered at them and read science fiction to show I was smarter than them.
When I went to my very feminist college, some friends introduced me to Heyer and other Regencies, and it was nice to read something that wasn’t depressing but was still clever; but we couldn’t let anyone else in our very feminist college know we read them.
After my breakdown, romances became my antidepressant of choice, but it was still hard to pick out the ones that weren’t ridiculous, and I still couldn’t let anyone know I read them, because it would undermine my image as a smart, capable, feminist woman.
And then I discovered Smart Bitches, where I found wonderful people who would pick out all the best ones for me and make fun of the same ones I did for the same reasons, and a wonderful community that proves every day that smart, capable, feminist and romance are not mutually exclusive, but can and should be and often are one and the same.
Happy 10th Birthday, Smart Bitches, and here’s to many more!
Happy Anniversary! Congrats! It’s huge.
Congratulations on 10 years of SBTB! I love coming to the site and have been introduced to so many wonderful books here. But most especially, I love the tone and cordiality of this place. It’s like nothing else that I’ve seen. Well done, and long may you wave!
Happy Anniversary indeed! Thank you for always steering me in the direction of books that I will love. It may not be fun to be the ones to read the “F” books but because you have taken one for the team, I haven’t had to. Your sacrifice hasn’t gone unnoticed or unappreciated. I am proud to be part of the Bitchery! You are simply the best!!
Thanks. I connect with your site almost every day and am particularly grateful for the many laughs, as well as the insights/recs gained from the wonderful, broad mix of the voices of your readers who share our fixation with/love of romance. Mostly, I enjoy the read. But, sometimes, it makes me uncomfortable. From time to time, you seem to speak another language to me. I can become discombobulated by the level of bitchery and/or chumminess, by your language and point of view. But, there you go, I’m indoubtedly four decades older than most of you and of another time – and we all need to be jolted by differing life views.
Congratulations on your successes and your staying power. I hope you make it for another ten years.
Happy tenth anniversary! I’ve been a daily reader for almost seven years, and during that time you have given me many, many laughs and pointed me to many good books. Thank you!
Happy 10th anniversary! SBTB is not the first site I read in the morning but the last, right before I begin to deal with my day. Its warmth and wittiness, the camaraderie and the irreverence are like a tonic and pep talk in one, and I go out into my day feeling centered and fortified. I began my lurkdom shortly before Candy Tan was no longer a regular presence, and expect to continue sneaking into the back row to enjoy and learn from the show until somebody notices and kicks me out or the lights go down for the last time. For now, thank you, thank you, thank you!
As a constant lurker who never posts i want to thank Sarah, contributors and fearless commenters for the intelligent, entertaining content of SBTB. Smart Bitches is one of my favourite things and has given me many happy moments. Not only do I enjoy reading SBTB content and listening to the podcasts (make more, make them every day, make them all the time, I need more!!!), the book recommendations are invaluable in helping me to sort through books and authors. Sarah’s depth of knowledge about the romance genre has helped me to understand and find more of what I love. I feel that I am part of this thoughtful, respectful, knowledgeable community although (cough) I’ve contributed nothing to it!! 🙂
Congratulations on ten years!!!!!!
Congrats SBTB, for a wonderful 10 years! Thanks for all the insights and laughs!
My sister the librarian turned me on to romance novels with my first Patricia Veryan. I was going through an nasty divorce and it was a blessing. I have been hooked ever since and read every day. She also turned me on to SBTB a few years ago and my life took another turn for the better! I love this site. It not only brightens my day, but has opened the door to many wonderful new authors I may never have tried. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Happy anniversary, ladies. Thank you for all that you do, everyone – from you ladies who run things to everyone who comments. This is an awesome community that i have had the pleasure to lurk in and out of for the past nine years. I found this place researching a romance novel based research paper in the spring of 2006. Yes, I still have the paper. I got an A.
I love this place and how it has evolved from something so small into something as massive as it is.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY!! (Yeah, I’m sort of shouting but it’s something that’s worth shouting about.) I’ve been visiting forever (okay, I wasn’t here at the very, very beginning but it’s at least 7 years and maybe as many as 9. And, when I did discover you, I went back to the beginning of the blog to read all the entries I had missed so I feel like a veteran.) and my day isn’t complete until I check out the site after work every evening. I love the reviews and HABO and definitely the snark. I hope we get to celebrate your 20th anniversary together (unless you get too tired with having to juggle work, matrimony, and motherhood, in which case I’ll thank you for all the good times I’ve had with SBTB.). And thank you for Courtney Milan and Nalini Singh and Grace Burrowes even though it means my TBR pile is never going to be empty (but maybe that’s actually the plus).
Happy anniversary! Thank you for all the joy you’ve brought this community of readers. Here’s to celebrating many more milestones in the future!
Happy Anniversary! I found SBTB in 2008, and you were a godsend. I was searching for *good* romance novels and getting frustrated by too many books with unrealistic behavior and bad dialogue. You opened up a whole new world for this hardcore fantasy reader, and the stories you led me to kept me company in some dark times. So thank you for all your work, passion and humor!