Ten Million Pageviews

This blog has recently passed the ten million pageview milestone. I'd like to thank everyone who checks in - I really do appreciate it, and I thought I'd celebrate by reposting the above photo of the night when I presented Ann Cleeves - an early supporter of this blog - with the Diamond Dagger. As I've said before, it's thanks to this blog that I've got to know some wonderful people, quite a few of whom I've had the pleasure of meeting in person, which is invariably lovely. The comments you make on posts, and the emails you send me are always extremely welcome.

I feel very lucky, given my enthusiasm for finding out more about crime writers and their books and the genre's heritage, that many people get in touch with me to supply extra information, which is often truly fascinating. I receive plenty of questions, too, and I do my best to offer answers or suggestions.

I'm sure that AI is skewing the pageview figures, though. The increase in pageviews over the past year has been colossal, and while my 'postbag' of genuine messages has also increased, I'm convinced that blogs which contain plenty of information, whatever the subject, are being targeted by AI bots and scammers.

As I've mentioned before, this is one of the main reasons why I started my The Life of Crime Premium subscriber newsletter as well as the free monthly newsletter which I launched last year, and for which you can sign up here.    I've been very happy indeed with the response to these initiatives. 

So what about the future? The short answer is that I don't envisage any great changes in the short term. I keep finding fresh ideas for Premium and I'll mention them here from time to time. And I hope you will continue to keep in touch.

Thanks for all your support.