Just over a month ago I posted an Open Thread for readers to introduce themselves, as part of my covert campaign to monetize your eyeballs. As of this writing, about 50 people have replied, which is totally cool. Those few, those happy few, that band of brothers (and sisters — like I told Shakespeare at the time, I don’t care who was at the battle of Agincourt, you gotta give a shout out to the sisters) are all hereby temporarily exempt from my scorn and derision — write away, happy few, I promise not to openly mock any of you until at least May.
Here’s a few interesting things I learned about my readers:
- The vast majority of them are still pikers — hundreds of people read that thread. Hundreds. Can’t even comment on a blog, yet you think you can sell a 500,000 word historical romance about the fall of Rome from the POV of a Vandal afflicted with pillage angst.
- Majority of commenters are American. No surprise there. Most of those listed their state when I clearly said “country”, which to people who live outside the USA, is no surprise either.
- Popular locations: (somewhere in) Texas (USA), Melbourne and Perth (Australia). Perth’s a bit of a cheat, though, as I used to live there, and have eaten nachos with 2 of the 3 commenters. I have never eaten nachos in either Melbourne or (anywhere in) Texas.
- Countries other than USA/Australia: France, UK and Ireland with 2, and Spain with 1. Some of the world’s best writers came from those countries. They’re all dead now, though, so they didn’t leave comments.
Wow, hard demographic data like that will make heads explode at the Banner Ad division of Shredders R’Us. They’re trying to break into the lucrative bad writer market. (Check out this beauty, it can even shred your backups!)
A couple of points to clear up, from questions/assumptions made in the thread:
- No, blogless_troll, there was no domestic dispute. Ms Reasons’ only objection to this blog is the high Time Invested : Money Earned ratio (there are a couple of readers who could help solve that problem, but they’re shy). It really was the eighth anniversary of the day we met. Advice for the lovelorn: if you’re going to spend 57 hours on a bus to meet the love of your life, find out ahead of time if the destination terminal has a shower.
- Bethanie, I do not use fsck instead of f*ck because of Unix-nerdiness (I wasn’t aware of its etymology, thanks Mike). Studies have shown that fsck is 35% funnier than f*ck, which itself is 23% funnier than fuck (depending on how you give one).
The Open Thread is still open, by the way, and will remain so. If your country (or state) is not represented, you know what to do.
![[Logo]](/images/101ReasonsLogo.png "101 Reasons to Stop Writing")
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Most [Americans] listed their state when I clearly said “country”, which to people who live outside the USA, is no surprise either.
Touche. However, the USA is 50 states divided by one country. Plus, I know British people who identify themselves as Yorkshirefolk first and Englishfolk second. I think our regions more than our countries reveal more about how we identify ourselves.
“But still, you didn’t answer the question properly,” Sean says. “I don’t care a whit about how you identify yourselves. You really do need to stop writing.”
Your wish = my command.
You mean Texas isn’t its own country? When you say that, you yellow-bellied rattlesnake, you’d better smile. (Pretty good for a second-generation American and carpetbagging Texan wannabe, eh?)
Actually you said “city/country” … information that is useless without the state. There can be many, many cities with the same name within the United States, but only one per state.
You can blame it on Paul, though. He’s the one that started the trend of city/state.
Heather, you’ve got me (and Paul) there.
alkelda, I’m fascinated by how people identify themselves, particularly where they put the fences between themselves and others. Certainly being from Washington isn’t reason enough to stop writing. Florida, maybe.
Paul, most Texans don’t know Mexico is another country.
Are you kidding? Most Americans don’t know that Canada is, either. (If you can hunt it down, watch the Rick Mercer documentary “Talking To Americans”, where Mercer and his crew asked any number of Americans, including George W. Bush, fake questions about Canada just to demonstrate how ignorant we are of our northern neighbors. The only thing funnier than watching Dubya talk about his close relationship with Prime Minister Poutine (and my explaining to my native Texan wife why I was laughing so hard at earnest Americans denouncing seal clubbing in Saskatchawan) was where one woman interviewed about how “Canada was merging its states into one country”, and her kid grabbed the microphone and yelled “Hey! Canada doesn’t have states! It has provinces!”)
Most of the Australians listed their state, too. Just sayin’
If you’re ever in Melbourne, there’s a nice pub with great nachos I can take you to/direct you to.
JM - FicScribe
FicScribe, if I’m ever in Melbourne I’ll take you up on that.
You’re right, Paul.
I listed Canada.