Feature & Giveaway: 2020 Blogging Accomplishments

What even are accomplishments in the year 2020? We are going to take allllll the small wins (and some maybe bigger ones, too!). 2020 was quite a year and we are proud to be in our 8th year of doing this dang thing. Check out how the blog is doing and how we did on our goals!

Check out our giveaway below and enter the rafflecopter for a chance to win any 2020 release open internationally as long as book depository or bookshop ship to your country!

Blog Stats & Accomplishments

• 280 posts in 2020. Almost a 100 less than 2019 – it’s quality, not quantity because we actually had more site visitors & views this year than last!
• We still post on average at least 5 days a week!
• Our most viewed days are still Tuesdays, clearly y’all like the New Release Tuesday posts!
• Most popular post was our exclusive cover reveal for Tom Ryan’s I Hope You Get this Message
• The most visited post has been #SignedBooksSundays presents Buying Signed Books during Covid which makes sense since we continually updated and promoted buying signed books from indie bookstores since the post went live back in April of 2020. It was so popular that this year we are making it a cornerstone content page on the home screen!
• Kelly made it to one of the few in person book events to exist in 2020 – ALA Midwinter in Philadelphia
• Fourth anniversary of #SignedBookSundays challenge on Instagram!
• Christy moderated an online book launch and an online panel!
• #TeamBookCrushin donated a large amount of money to The Trevor Project in honor of our Pride month giveaways and our coordinated efforts with Edged in Starlight!
• We were one of two hosts for the Fierce Reads The Merciful Crow Readalong!
• We created a Bookshop page!
  

See our 2020 goals here before we talk about what we did and didn’t tackle!

Kelly’s 2020 Goal Check In

• Read 135 books: My reading sucked. I did not have the attention span for books most of the fall nor for most fantasy. I did however watch a lot more tv than usual. I really worked hard to reach my goal but it wasn’t in the cards. Blaming COVID19 that I ended up at 120 books – which I know is still a great reading accomplishment! But after 9 years of completing or exceeding my goodreads reading challenge this feels crappy. I could have adjusted my goal, but y’all would have remembered.
• Backlist Books: My goal was to read 35% of total books read be backlist to help that TBR, which would be about 42 books of 120 books in 2020 and I hit 43! So yay congrats me! I did something right! The other 77 were all 2020 releases so there will be what like 100 more 2020 books I didn’t get a chance to read this year…it’s a never ending cycle.
• Finish Series: Not sure if I actually accomplished this one…did any series even end this year…shhhh I didn’t read any of those books -yet! I know I completed a few duologies but those are never the problem, it’s the 3+ book series that I have trouble tackling. Oooh got one – Capturing the Devil so I definitely finished one series finale that I hadn’t read yet!
• Varied Genres: I definitely read more adult books – I even made a favorite adult reads of 2020! I also read more non-fiction than usual too! I am proud of my very varied reading but I know I read way way more YA than anything else and I am A-OK with that.
• Review Books: I wanted to at least try and prioritize my favorite books and review those and well I did a bunch of queer book reviews so I am feeling proud this year…(reality is I still fail at this and I reviewed about 10 books this year on the blog).
• Bookstagram: Well…I did do some advance photo shoots and I was doing a lot in ahead of time which was the main goal, but then full 2020 pandemic brain/stress took over and I slacked off a whole lot. I also was asked to promote queer books for all ages on a really big motherhood account – which meant a lot to me! I actually made quite a few partner posts this year where I was approached for product usage and some paid partnerships too so that is definitely a cool accomplishment! Did I grow as much as I expected…nope. It seems only new accounts grow and I don’t want to start over.
• Twitter: I wanted to be more active on twitter again and I definitely was on there a whole lot more this year…does it matter, is it helpful, who knows?!
• Tracking My Bookish Life: NOPE, DID NOT ACCOMPLISH. I started the year off well, but seriously since I got sick in early March I literally barely did crap after.
  
  
  

Christy’s 2020 Goal Check In

• Read 200 books: I landed at over 300 books for the year, which is the most I’ve read. Last year I was 4 books shy of 300 so I’m happy to have made it this year!
• Monthly backlist read + Book Rewind post: Well, I read a lot of backlist books and did some Book Rewind posts. I did write a lot of reviews this year!
• Monthly adult thrillers: I read…3. I did read quite a few adult books, though. This will remain a goal because I always have regrets!
• Read all my existing graphic novels: I didn’t read them all but I did read a significant amount. I keep saying I won’t buy more and yet. My manga shelves keep growing.
• Post on bookstagram 3-5x a week: I did this! I was actually posting DAILY but have backed down to 3x a week. I want to actually stay on the lower plan, especially with grad school.
  
  
  

Giveaway

Enter for a chance to win any 2020 release (up to $25usd) open internationally as long as Book Depository or Bookshop ships to you – enter in the rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway