Such a great age: Happy birthday to Lit Hub—you’re seven years old!
Seven years ago today, Literary Hub launched during AWP Minneapolis. If you’d told any of us we’d be around and thriving seven years on (outside and beyond being a purveyor of desirable tote bags)… well, we’d believe you (because why not?)—but we’d also worry it was a horrible trick. The last several years have not been kind to independent digital media, but Lit Hub has been able to weather those particular storms thanks in large part to its dedicated and talented staff, colleagues among whom I consider myself lucky to work.*
Lit Hub started with one full-time employee (hi!), but was very quickly two people (the incomparable Emily Firetog is deputy editor to this day), and then three at launch. We have since grown to a full-time staff of 13, having launched two more sites—Book Marks and CrimeReads—with plans for more.
Taking a quick glance at our CMS analytics, as of today LitHub.com has published 24,430 stories, which have garnered 175,327,029 pageviews along with 23,076 comments (none of which I ever read, if we’re being honest). Last calendar year was our best year yet, and saw us averaging close to 6 million pageviews a month across the three sites.
More important than numbers, though, is the work we put out on a consistent basis. I feel safe in saying that my colleagues and I believe deeply in making our small corner of the internet a better place, publishing work that elevates, interrogates, and inspires—and if we don’t always succeed in raising the level of discourse, I can say in very good faith that we are trying.
The world seems a particularly fraught place at the moment (without much sign of getting better), so it’s hard to imagine what another seven years looks like, but I truly hope we can all get together for a big, rollicking, in-person party when we hit double digits. Until then, thank you for reading.
*Maybe one of them could help me with this awkward clause?
