Welcome to the Smart Bitches Business Update, our monthly feature wherein I talk about the site, the community within it, and what’s going on in the business side of things.
It’s October, which means it’s a short hop from all pumpkin spice everything to all tinsel holiday everything. It also means that I’m looking at fourth quarter here, and planning for 2017, too.
I’ve half-joked that the mission of the site is to connect romance readers with one another and with the books we want to read – and to enable everyone’s poor impulse control when it comes to buying books. It’s not really a joke, now that I write it out. That pretty much is why the site exists. I want this to be a safe and welcoming space to learn about books you might want to read, to discuss the romance genre and what it means for you as a reader and for us as a community, and to be overly silly when the situation warrants. So my plans for the next quarter and the next year: more of that, all the good stuff, plus more silliness and more discussion.
Most immediate of said plans: I’m putting together the 2016 Holiday Gift Guide posts, so if you’ve got an Etsy store or small artisan you love, or you have found The Most Useful Product For Readers Ever in the history of Everything, please, please email me! The Holiday Gift Guides are so much fun – I basically try to go shopping for gift suggestions for all of you. It’s terrific. We have a whole Slack channel devoted to the gift guide, and it’s already teeming with links to things we think you’ll love.
I’ve also released the 2017 Advertising Schedule and am now booking ads for fourth quarter and first quarter next year. We have upcoming releases and books on sale, and we have ads for cover designers, copy editors, artists, content and development editors, tea shops, crafts, and more. (If you’re interested in the 2017 Advertising Schedule, please contact me for details. I can work within any budget and draft a proposal.)
Some of you emailed me to ask about how you can personally support the site if you’re not running an ad. As I’ve said, your being here is deeply important, so thank you for that. You can, if you wish, shop through our affiliate links if you’d like the site to receive a percentage of your purchases (and we won’t tell anyone if you book shop daily. We do, too!) (Sometimes twice daily, which is also how often we floss!) (Not really.) (About the flossing.) (The book shopping, oh, yeah.)
And now, my favorite part: looking at the stat reports for the site and sharing what I’ve learned about our community!
I’ve been working on learning French and brushing up on my Spanish each day, so I’ve been thinking about languages a lot. Google Analytics records the language settings in users’ browsers, which I find fascinating, especially because I have corresponded with many readers in different countries who learned to read in English because that’s the language in which they get their fine, fine romance novels.
After English-US, English-GB, English-CA, English-AU, and Caribbean English, the most frequent languages in the browser settings of our site community are:
- German (de) (Hallo!)
- French (fr) (Salut!)
- Swedish (sv-se) (Hallå!)
- Spanish (es) (Hola!)
- Finnish (fi-fi) (Hei!)
- Portuguese – Brasil (pt-br) (Olá!)
- Norwegian – Bokmål (nb-no)(Hallo!)
And the country that spent the most time on the site this past month? Grenada, at over 18 minutes.
If there’s something you’d like to know about regarding the site, please let me know. I’ll be back next month, trying to keep my site nerdery under control (barely). As always, thank you for being here, and thank you for being part of Smart Bitches. I’m so, so glad you’re here.
This seems like the place to mention that I saw one of the ladies on a billboard in Nairobi, Kenya a month and a half ago. I was ridiculously excited about it. I did not get a photo but I did exclaim about it to my Kenyan colleagues and our taxi driver.
It was the stock photo the newest lady is based on, advertising a high-end mall – I think advertising a glasses store in said mall, but I wasn’t paying that much attention.
KnobCreekMetalArts on Etsy have AMAZING metal book ends. Wizard School (Hogwarts), Jack and the Beanstalk, Frankenstein and Bride… which are book-related, plus a bunch more with more generic themes.
There are also some great subscription boxes out there like Uppercase, Book of the Month, and the great variety at My Subscription Addiction.
One of the recent posts on the blog about self-care also got me thinking about Christmas presents. As someone with health issues, one of the items on my Christmas “wish list” was a cute, old-fashioned ice pack, as well as a fancy tea steeper… things that I can use while laying down/reclining when I’m not feeling my best. A Christmas list with specialized ideas like that would be really neat. Sometimes we don’t buy things for ourselves that we could really use and enjoy when we’re just feeling plain awful, but I know I would probably burst into tears and give someone a hug (and I do not like hugs) if someone were to get me a pair of fuzzy socks, a distracting romance novel, and a heating pad along with a card that said “For the bad days” or something. Just to know that someone cares.
ALSO! I don’t know what your usual list topics include (I did go back in the archives and found a few for example), but a suggestion list for books to buy for certain types of people would also be really great. I love to encourage reading through presents, but don’t always know what to get/who to ask for good advice.
Sorry for the monologue. Take everything or nothing. Either way, I am super excited to even see the word CHRISTMAS in writing because it just makes me smile to think the holidays are getting closer.
SB Sarah, I would like to see bookstore links on your homepage if that doesn’t mess up your design. I try to support SBTB by making all of my Amazon purchases through SBTB.
If readers don’t already know, all Amazon purchases linked through SBTB generate a percentage for SBTB — it is not limited to books. And through Amazon’s Smile program, my purchases simultaneously contribute to an animal rescue program, both without directly increasing the cost of what I purchase.
@LML (or anyone at SBTB for that matter),
I try to support SBTB by making all of my Amazon purchases through SBTB.
Ooh, I’ve been wondering about this for a while! When I click the Amazon link on any book, it takes me to Amazon.com … but being in Canada (= “Hi, eh?”), I prefer to order from Amazon.ca. If I change the link to Amazon.ca, will SBTB still get their percentage? And will this work for any other Amazon country affiliate?
I love Madison’s suggested for small gifts for friends that include “comfort items”. Shawls, laprugs, thermal mugs with a selection of teas or Kcups, gloves without finger tips, etc. Picking out books based of types of people is kind of hard, though. Some of us seem like conventional little old ladies but might have racy tastes in fiction or even like military science fiction. (That’s probably why some people keep book stashes under their bed). You’d have more luck with the kind “if you liked XYZ Book you might like QRS Book” list.
I find your Google Analytics info most fascinating. It looks like Scandinavia is in desperate need of some romance to go alongside the Nordic Noir. As a Finn I can say that I’m not getting any in my own language, so it does make sense that we’re on your list even though we are few.
Thank you so much for this blog and all the great books I’ve found because of it.
Even better, Joy! I love “if you like this then you may like…” lists. They are SO helpful!
This seems like a good time to say:
Thank you, so much, for running and maintaining this website. I’ve been a daily reader since about 2011(except for when I’m deployed and only have access to government computers. Having to explain to an officer why I’m weeping with laughter over Man-Titty would be really awkward). I think almost all of my favorite romance authors were discovered through this site!
More than that, though, it means a lot to have a place to talk with other women. Some of the posts on this site have helped me deal with doubts and guilt. Others have reassured me that no, there’s nothing wrong with me. It’s okay to want love and affection; it’s okay to be human; and it’s okay to laugh, even about something as scary and stressful as sex and relationships!
This website has been a gift that has made me laugh, cry, cry with laughter, and double-stack my bookshelves. Long live the Bitchery!
Hi Other Kate!
I’m so glad you’re here. Your comment completely made my day. Thank you so much – I’m so happy you’re part of Smart Bitches!
I’ve been pondering chemekke’s comment for a few days now. First:
To my knowledge, Canada requires a separate account, but I’m not sure if I can add it to the individual links for each book. I’ll look into that. But for a short term solution, if you would like to bookmark this link:
http://bit.ly/SBTBCAN
That generates affiliate percentages for us for Amazon.ca. I have to look into the other countries. But thank you!!
@LML:
I will research adding bookstore links to the homepage! I’m not sure if it’s possible. I’m 99.9% sure adding links to Smile.Amazon would be easy as things that are simpler than pie, since their building apparatus is very simple.
Thank you for the suggestion!
OK! Update! I have added bookstore links to the Welcome box on the top left – thank you for the idea, LML. And thank you to everyone who uses them – the affiliate percentage helps a LOT, and I’m very grateful for any support you share. You’re the most awesomest!
For the gift guide:
I was at a craft fair recently an purchased a Scarf Curl. It is awesome! The woman who created it showed me so many different ways to used it (of course I can’t remember how to do any of them). But she does have a website and Facebook page with demonstration videos. It’s one of the most useful things I’ve ever seen and I can’t wait to start using it for my scarfs.
Here’s the link for the website: http://www.bdazzlescarfcurl.com/