Thoughtsmith

Thoughtsmith in 2011: A Year in Review

Benjamin Harris — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:10:31 +0000

I was looking through the 2011 web statistics the other day and thought back on the interesting and exciting year we had. We relaunched in January and started getting daily submissions almost immediately. We have, with help from sites like Duotrope, Poets&Writers, and Newpages, had far more visitors than I would’ve expected at this point, but I’m not going to question it. I’m incredibly proud to be a part of this, and in case people are interested in the 2011 Thoughtsmith statistics, here they are:

2011 Statistics

Total visits: 64,017
Unique visitors: 16,137 (3.96 visits per person)
Total page “hits”: 364,795

Top 5 Countries:

1. United States
2. Germany
3. Canada
4. Ukraine
5. Poland

Most read piece: “The Birch Tree” by Rick Hartwell (Spring 2011)

Where our visitors came from:

1. Facebook
2. Poets & Writers
3. Newpages
4. Duotrope
5. Google

I’d say that’s pretty good for our first year back! I look forward to another great year and to reading all of your submissions. We have about 7 weeks left in issue 2.4′s reading period, so keep on submitting!

Presenting: Thoughtsmith 2.3

Benjamin Harris — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:48:45 +0000

It’s about time. Without further ado, I present the newest issue of Thoughtsmith, issue 2.3! We’ve narrowed down hundreds of submissions into ten pieces we know you’ll enjoy. Nine pieces from writers new to Thoughtsmith, an introduction by our own Erienne Rojas, and another piece by Thoughtsmith veteran Richard Hartwell (we might have to dedicate a section to him in the next issue!). Click on the link below to check it out or click the issues tab at the top of the page!

Thoughtsmith 2.3 – Fall 2011

Final Selections Have Been Made

Benjamin Harris — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 04:52:46 +0000

Just dropping a quick note to tell everyone who has submitted to Thoughtsmith for the Fall 2011 issue that we’ve made our final selections. We had hoped to get the issue up by today, but because of excessive holiday festivities, we won’t have it up until Monday evening. Thank you all for submitting to Thoughtsmith, and keep the submissions coming! (Please note: we only looked at submissions that came in up until early November. If you didn’t receive a response, your piece will be considered along with the next reading period.)

We’re still here

Benjamin Harris — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 06:30:25 +0000

Hello, Thoughtsmith Readers!

So you may be wondering where we’ve been and why we haven’t published our fall issue yet. (You liars! You said the reading period would be over months ago!) That’s true. We did. Sorry about that! Truth is, we’ve all been incredibly busy, but worry not; Thoughtsmith isn’t in any sort of trouble. In fact, I’ve been working on a complete overhaul of the website that is on track for release around the beginning of 2012, if not a bit sooner. We’re just about finished with tabulating votes on the submissions received for the fall issue, and we’re going to have it up as soon™ as possible. That said, there are a few changes that we’re going to be enacting shortly, and I’ll take this time to go over them.

First, we’re going to be switching to a bit more of an abstract reading period schedule. While our aim is still to release four issues a year, published roughly quarterly, we’re realizing that it is unrealistic, given time constraints and the amount of submissions we need to read through, to guarantee a date when we’re going to have each issue finished.

Second, we’re going to be incorporating an articles/blog section, which will be comprised of articles written by us and article submissions sent in by our readers. We figure that a dynamic content section, in addition to the roughly-quarterly issue-based releases, will be more interesting to readers and will allow us to publish a greater range of things.

Finally, we’re looking for a fifth editor. While we’re mainly searching locally, contacting people with whom we can work with locally, we’re also open to the possibility of incorporating someone from a different geographical area. If you’re interested in becoming an editor for Thoughtsmith, keep checking the submissions page; I’m going to open up a category for editor applications within the next week or so. On that page, I will list the responsibilities an editor would take on. Unfortunately, because running Thoughtsmith is ultimately a labor of love, this is an unpaid position. (I figured I’d be as clear as possible about that.)

So keep an eye on this page. The fall issue will be up shortly (and, as such, submission decisions will be coming very soon) and the changes we’re going to be implementing will be rolling out shortly thereafter.

All the best,
Benjamin Harris