A whole new year is ahead of us – a whole new decade, in fact – and so it’s time for me to write my usual roundup of the year just gone. Roundups, in fact, as this year I’m going to break things down into a few shorter posts rather than the usual HUGE roundup I tend to end up with. In this article I’ll take my usual look back at the year just gone via some numbers pulled from my Track of Words stats, and talk a little bit about which reviews, interviews and blog posts were the most popular in 2019. Keep an eye out for future articles looking at some of my personal highlights from the last twelve months, and then thinking ahead to what I’m hoping for in 2020.
Track of Words is now six years old, if you can believe it, and from humble beginnings in 2014 it’s turned into an endeavour which occupies a considerable amount of my free time (i.e. outside of my actual, paying day job!). While in 2018 I really went for it and published a new article almost every day, in 2019 I decided to slow things down just a little in order to try and find a bit of balance…and still ended up posting an average of almost five articles per week! Here are a couple of top-level stats to illustrate how, while I did slow down a bit, it was still a pretty productive year:
- Total number of articles: 251
- Total number of words: 248,247
So that’s an average of almost 1,000 words per article – considering how many 200-ish word short story reviews I wrote, that means I must have written some LONG interviews and blog posts. No surprise there, though, and while I wrote nearly 30% fewer articles than in 2018, my word count was only 20% down on last year…so I maybe didn’t slow down quite as much as I thought!
Let’s break things down a little further, splitting articles out by type:
- 165 reviews, of which:
- 63 book reviews
- 86 short story reviews
- 15 audio drama reviews
- 1 digital magazine review
- 52 interviews, of which:
- 37 Rapid Fire
- 6 Author Spotlight
- 5 Writing for Black Library
- 3 based on Advent audios
- 1 epic Peter Fehervari interview
- 34 blog posts, of which:
- 6 Black Library Monthly
- 5 Monthly Highlights
- 5 Best of 2019 articles
- 18 assorted blog posts
I’m pretty happy with those numbers, I think. Deciding to stop writing my Black Library Weekly articles was a good call, as they took a lot of work and so taking them off my plate them gave me a good amount of extra bandwidth. I’ll talk more about interviews in the next article, but I’m particularly pleased to have released a slightly wider range of interviews this year, covering different subjects and topics.
With all this talk of slowing down, you might wonder what impact that’s had on viewing figures. I’m pleased to say that while growth was a little slower than in 2018 (which was a BUMPER year, to be fair), it was still taking place – which was really heartening to see:
- Visitors increased by 25%
- Page views increased by 27%
- Posts viewed: 1,270 of 1,339 (95%)
I’m constantly grateful to know that people are coming to Track of Words and enjoying the articles I write, so I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who’s visited over the last few years, whether just the once or repeatedly!
Top posts
It’s always interesting to look back at the end of the year to see which articles have proved the most popular. I’ll split these out into different article types, and pick out the top three (mostly) for each one:
Book reviews:
- Scions of the Emperor – a Horus Heresy Primarchs Anthology
- Anarch by Dan Abnett
- Spear of the Emperor by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
- Requiem Infernal by Peter Fehervari
I’ve included Requiem on that list because it was viewed just 30 times fewer than Spear, which for a pretty low-key release is amazing! I’m also just hugely pleased, as it’s a book I adored and a review I worked particularly hard to get right. Requiem aside, no real surprises here – a Primarchs anthology which isn’t yet widely available, and novels by Dan and Aaron! Both of those guys are fantastic writers, and easily two of Black Library’s most popular novelists.
Short story reviews:
- The Abyssal Edge by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
- The Walker in Fire by Peter Fehervari
- Shadow of the Past by Gav Thorpe
Once again I think this shows how interested Black Library fans are in the event-only Heresy anthologies, as two of these short stories were originally included in Sons of the Emperor, the first Primarchs anthology. I’ve no idea why The Walker in Fire review (from 2016!) was so popular, but that’s fantastic to see – it’s a great story, and I’m always pleased to see fans take an interest in Peter’s writing.
Audio drama reviews:
- Realmslayer by David Guymer
- Our Martyred Lady by Gav Thorpe
- The Binary Succession by David Annandale
No real surprise to see reviews of Black Library’s first two big 4-part audio drama box sets on this list, although I’m pleased to see David’s excellent Heresy audio on there as well! This does remind me, as well, that I really must get round to listening to Realmslayer: Blood of the Old World – I’ve been meaning to do that for ages!
Interviews:
- RAPID FIRE: Dan Abnett Talks Anarch
- RAPID FIRE: Dan Abnett Talks The Magos
- RAPID FIRE: Chris Wraight Talks Valdor Birth of the Imperium
Dan’s quick interview about The Magos was the most popular interview in 2018, and the fact that it’s still the second most popular in 2019, while Dan talking about Anarch tops the list, just goes to show the enduring appeal of Abnett’s 40k writing! Would you believe it, Dan’s Anarch interview was actually the second most popular article of all in 2019!
Blog posts:
- Getting Started With Black Library – Age of Sigmar
- Getting Started With Black Library – Warhammer 40,000
- Writing for Black Library – Summer of Writing 2019
I’m quite surprised, but very pleased, that not only was my 2018 Age of Sigmar ‘Getting Started’ article the most popular blog post last year, it was in fact the most popular article of all! The next two blog posts – my 40k ‘Getting Started’ article from 2016 and my recent ‘Writing for BL’ article (which I had a BLAST putting together) came in at 3 and 4 for the year overall, too.
As a quick note, the popularity of those two ‘Getting Started’ articles does point to the problem that exists with Black Library in that if you’ve not been following things for years like I have, it’s very hard to know where to start! I’ve had some comments asking for more Track of Words content designed to help with this question, so I’ll think about how I can deliver that. Do let me know if you’ve got any ideas!
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So there you go, a relatively (for me) quick rundown of how 2019 went on Track of Words, in numbers and lists. Keep an eye out for the next Yearly Roundup article, in which I’m going to be picking out some of my highlights – both in terms of personal achievements and what I’ve enjoyed reading the most – from the year just gone.
I’d love to know if there was a particular Track of Words article – whether a review, interview or blog post – that you enjoyed the most in 2019. If there was, drop me a line to say so! You can get in touch in the comments below, or come find me on Twitter. Whatever you enjoyed the most though, thank you once again for checking out Track of Words – here’s to a fantastic 2020!