2014: A Year in Review

I had a few site goals for 2014. Number one being figures. Earlier in the year we were on pace to pull a half-million hits to the site. Things slowed down just a bit, and we ultimately fell a little short of that. But we did flirt with the 400k mark, and I can’t be too upset about that. For a still relatively young site aimed at a very niche crowd, without any big financial push, we’re doing some pretty fine numbers. Another big goal was to release, at the very least, one new anthology. A lot of roadblocks (money being the most imposing) surfaced, seemingly out of nowhere, and those problems certainly hindered our publishing progress. However, we did get the paperback of One Hellacious Halloween put together, and we did get our first poetry collection, Passages of Pain, Lyrics of Loss, out there to the public. It certainly wasn’t a total loss on the year in regards to releases. Rest assured, this year is going to be more productive. We still have an awesome monster anthology (I know it’s been shelved for ages now, and I’m sorry!!) headed your way, and Pieces of Everything (which features a who’s-who of genre studs, including Ketchum, Maberry, Lebbon, Everson, Shea and a whole lot more) is still in line for proper release. If I have to take out a personal loan in 2015 to get those two beasts released, so be it.

One of my other big goals was to ensure that you, the reader, continue to see awesome reviews, interviews and articles pour in. That much we made happen without a hitch. Our contributors put in some amazing work in 2014. In fact, I’ve got to take a little time to thank everyone (I’m sorry if I miss anyone!!!) that stepped up to help keep the machine functioning properly. Matthew J. Barbour, Vitina Molgaard, Paula Limbaugh, Tim Meyer, Wesley Thomas, Anthony Rapino, David Lenton, Mack Moyer, Ridge Hardy, Josh Black, David Blackthorn, Wayne Rogers, S.T. King, Lois Kennedy, Myra Gabor, Tera Kirk, Emily Sikes, Tracy Crockett, Kate Genet, Dave Robertson, Chad Lutzke (who also continues to prove his studliness by working on the facebook site like a dedicated madman!), James Keen, Glenn Rolfe, John Wisniewski, William Massa, Brent R. Oliver, Sheri White, Joe Hempel, Erin Shaw, Caleb Arron Tong, Emmet O’Cuana, D.S. Ullery, and Crystal Leflar, you are all amazing. You’re the reason HNR has grown into something very special. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Without you guys, this is just another site. I’ve also got to throw a big thank you in the direction of our guest posters: Joe R. Lansdale, Todd Keisling, Mike Robinson, Terry M. West, and Kurt Lawson, you guys rock. Really!

We posted nearly 500 reviews last year, added more than 500 new direct website subscribers, saw the facebook page continue to grow regularly, connected with some amazing authors and publishing houses and saw our name surface on a myriad of novel releases. Those are excellent achievements, and they cannot be dismissed. It was a winner of a year. Our position in this market is now starting to feel firmly established. That all happened in 2014, the year we blossomed from little blog to serious website. Looking back, I can honestly say it was a pivotal year. To know that we’re still growing is amazing, and I can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store!