I did this same thing last year for Best American Short Stories 2018 right about the time I was getting into BASS for the next year. Basically, I can track which stories from the BASS anthology got the most clicks on my blog, and I'm sharing that information here for those who might be curious. One of the reasons it's interesting to me is that I like to see if readers of BASS who cared enough to do further research generally were interested in the same stories I found the be the most compelling.
That's based, of course, on the assumption that people are clicking on stories because they like them. Like I said last year, I can't totally interpret the meaning of the stats. A lot of the people clicking are probably students in classes studying BASS. The stories with the most hits might just be the ones assigned by the instructor. Or, if the assignment was something like, "Pick a story you like and write about it," then the stats might show a bias toward stories early in the anthology (because lazy students probably won't read that many) or toward shorter stories.
Whatever the stats mean, here they are from 2019:
1. "Hellion," Julia Elliot: 1590 clicks (also one of my favorites)
2. "Nothing But a Bubble," Jamel Brinkley: 1213 clicks (in my top five from last year as well)
3. "Protozoa," Ella Martinsen Gorham: 1203 clicks (I can see why students would have liked this one)
4. "Anyone Can Do It," Manuel Muñoz: 1168 clicks
5. "Natural Light," Kathleen Alcott: 1082 clicks
6. "Letter of Apology," Maria Reva: 1026 clicks
7. "Wrong Object," Mona Simpson: 937 clicks (If I had been forced to write about a story from BASS 2019 for a class, Hellion and this story would have been my top choices)
8. "Pity and Shame," Ursula K. Le Guin: 932 clicks
9. "They Told Us Not to Say This," Jen Alandy Trahan: 888 clicks
10. "Natural Disasters," Alexis Schaitkin: 873 clicks
11. "Black Corfu," Karen Russell: 872 clicks
12. "The Era," Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenya: 851 clicks (which, as the first story in the collection and also a fairly accessible story, I thought would have a lot more clicks)
13. "Omakase," Weike Wang: 803 clicks
14. "The Plan," Sigrid Nunez: 677 clicks
15. "Seeing Ershadi," Nicole Krauss: 666 clicks (I thought this would have more just because it would be a harder story for people to understand."
16. "Audition," Said Sayrafiezadeh: 548 clicks
17. "The Third Tower," Deborah Eisenberg: 508 clicks
18. "Bronze," Jefferey Eugenides: 506 clicks (guessing the length chased some readers off)
19. "Our Day of Grace," Jim Shepard: 501 clicks
20. "Great Interruption," Wendell Berry: 455 clicks (which maybe people felt didn't need much explanation, but still, the three old white guys in the anthology seemed to generate the least interest)
Finally, I wanted to point out that BASS 2018 continued throughout the year to get a lot of clicks. In many cases, it got more than BASS 2019, although 2019 was the new one. This supports my assertion that BASS 2018 was the best one I've read. Danielle Evans's "Boys Go to Jupiter" got as many clicks last year as it did the first, and is easily the most-read post I've ever made. People love that story as much as I did.
Interesting how we have some very different results. That was true last year, as well, though we both had Evans way out in front. I notice my top three have SF/F elements, I wonder if that means they appeal to two distinct audiences so that's why they got more hits = but I would think that would carry over to you as well, and it doesn't.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, my results (I left out the middle):
The Era 2669
Third Tower 1355
Black Corfu 1337
Anyone Can Do It 1150
Natural Light 1062
Pity and Shame 985
Bubble 913
...
Wrong Object 410
Audition 402
Bronze 362
The highest 2018 story is Evans by a 50% margin
Evans Boys go to Jupiter 1404 for year ending 10/30/20
3309 all-time
so 1905 prior to 10/30/19
Her collection is coming out soon, I'll be interested to see if that gives her another boost in next year's stats. I'm glad to see it, she deserves it.
Maybe "The Era" was low for me because they all found you. (And maybe "Wrong Object" was low for you because they all found me?) I'm sure you're aware of this, but when you Google these stories, your blog and my blog tend to be the top results after the story itself. If you're #2 and I'm #3, I'd bet a lot of students only ever find your story, because who has time to read two reviews about it? Same thing if I'm #2 and you're #3. That would explain where all the readers of "The Era" went, because I really expected I'd get more. Not only is it the first story, but it's an easy-to-enjoy first story. As much as we try to direct readers to each other, I think sometimes we cancel each other out. If so, I feel bad that I stole your idea of blogging about BASS and took some of your readers.
ReplyDeleteEvans is remarkable. I'd like to just do a month of reviewing all her work and see if the B side is as good as all the big hits I've seen from her so far.
That's a good point, about splitting views. Don't feel bad - I keep trying to get others interested in doing this, which would split them more, but 1) the benefit of seeing other reactions is well worth it and 2) if I was chasing stats, I'd write about stuff people want to read instead of stuff I want to write about. It gets depressing sometimes, especially when I spend months on something (like Don Quixote or Dante) or come up with what I consider a really good post or write about a really good book, and get the same 2-to-5 hits from regulars before sinking into oblivion. But with BASS, at least there's some secondary reward.
ReplyDeleteEvans' collection is coming out in hardcover; I almost always wait until the paperback, which will put it two years in the future (assuming there is a future, that's still iffy). i might make an exception.