Happy 1st Birthday to Anomia!

One year ago today I received my very first shipment of Anomia! It consisted of 2,500 games and weighed just over a ton.

I had worked long and hard on refining the game mechanics, writing, rewriting, and re-rewriting the rules, and working with designer, Joel Gendron, on the packaging. I was pretty excited when the real thing finally hit my doorstep. Actually, that might be an understatement.

I had lots of plans for how I was going to sell all of those games.  Some of those plans worked and some of them didn't, but suffice to say I wasn't really prepared for what the next 12 months would bring.

I managed to sell about 900 copies of Anomia by the end of 2009.  At the beginning of 2010 Anomia could be found in 3 stores in the Boston area.  As a new business, in a struggling economy, I was feeling pretty good about those numbers, though I knew I had a long way to go.

A lot has transpired since then. We had some major coverage in the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. Anomia was one of the winners of the prestigious Mensa Select Award.  We attended the American Specialty Toy Retailers Association (ASTRA) conference in June and took on over 100 new accounts. Shortly after that we learned that Anomia had won ASTRA's Best Toy for Kids award for 2010. After the ASTRA show, and the Best Toy for Kids Award, things really started to snowball.

In a nutshell, things have been progressing at a great pace.  Almost too good at times. It's been hard to keep up! To give you a sense of where we are now.

• Over 15,000 copies of Anomia have been sold in the last 12 months!
• Anomia is now available in over 350 independently owned toy/game stores in the United States!
• We have distribution in Australia and Canada, and are working on more countries as we speak!
• We have sales reps from South Carolina all the way up to Maine. We hope to be expanding our list of states in the new year!
• Thankfully, I'm no longer shipping games out of my attic, but instead using a fulfillment center, which makes my life a lot easier!

As usual, I have to extend my thanks to all the people around the country, and the world, who have so readily embraced my oddly named game in the little blue box. Thanks, really.  It's very gratifying to see this game come to life, especially when you consider that I sat on the idea long enough to smother it forever.

So, what's next?  Well, we have a few new games in the works.  Some are of my own creation, others are from outside inventors. I'm hoping to start thoroughly play-testing these games in the new year so that I can potentially bring one or two of them to the next ASTRA show in June.

Anomia Press will also be expanding its ranks in the new year. My wife, Jody, will be taking on the role of COO in January. It's our hope that, with a little extra attention, we can continue to grow Anomia's distribution network both nationally and internationally, and spend a little less time working late into the night while we're at it.

All in all, it has been a tremendous year and an incredible adventure. Thanks again for all your support, and if you are so inclined, please keep spreading the word!

Cheers
Andrew

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