I recently came across this statistic from our server log files and felt it was so encouraging that I wanted to share it with you.
I had no idea that Big Grammar Book was still so popular (it was published in 2004), and the total number of downloads for this year to date will be much higher, since the book can also be downloaded from numerous other websites – the most famous being Guardian.co.uk – where it is the second most recommended resource of all time, and rising! – and TES.co.uk. The million downloads from englishbanana.com does not include any of these other sites!
When you consider that Big Grammar Book was published 11 years ago, you can add to this 1 million all the other millions of downloads over the years – not to mention those of my other 19 books – plus downloads of all the thousands of worksheets – and you can see that EnglishBanana.com material is really pretty popular! The total number of downloads – which I have not been able to calculate, being an English-y sort of person, rather than a maths-y one – must be mind-bogglingly huge!
Is the high number of downloads because it is free? I hope it is because it is high quality, but I guess being free doesn’t hurt! According to figures from bookshops, the average book sells fewer than 250 copies per year and fewer than 2,000 copies during its lifetime. It is only the celebrity books and books by really famous authors that hit the million mark. When people ask me why my material is all free and in the Public Domain, I point them in the direction of this page, which helps to explain my motivation. But as a writer, there is a part of me which gets a great deal of satisfaction from being read. I’m personally thrilled that over a million people – this year alone – have had the chance to use my Big Grammar Book – that I put together on my computer on my own all those years ago – to learn or teach English.
Also, since a normal ELT course book has the “normal” price of £28 in the UK, it’s no wonder that people are glad to download free resources, like Big Grammar Book. I’m glad to be able to offer them. 🙂
So, go ahead! Download Big Grammar Book – and all the other popular free downloadable pdf files and resources from EnglishBanana.com. It is all online waiting for you to discover!
English Banana.com ESL Blog 