AALBC.com Supplemental eNewsletter

Here are a few announcements from AALBC.com. We are expanding our offerings to better serve both writers and readers. Please share this information and email us your feedback. Our regular eNewsletter will be emailed on Wednesday, Aug 1st.

Edit 1st was founded by AALBC.com to help meet the growing demand for editorial services for self-published authors and independent presses.

Edit 1st is a full service manuscript editing company. Our editorial staff has a great deal of experience including senior level positions with major publishing houses.

Visit http://edit1st.com for more information.

Based upon experience AALBC.com recognized that video can be a very compelling tool to help promote your book. Not only can we create a book trailer for you, we can also help you get it seen by people most likely to be interested in it. Learn more about our Book Trailer Creation Service.

All clients will receive a 25% discount on any AALBC.com service including our Video Distribution Service.

The entire publishing industry, particularly as it relates to Black books, is at a crossroads. While the industry is reporting sales growth (2.77 billion units sold in 2011 up 3.4% from 2010) there are fewer Black (non-celebrity) novelists being published and smaller advances are being paid. More Black writers are self-publishing than ever before but, despite social media's impact, it is increasingly difficult to build an audience and generate meaningful sales.

Large Black websites have coalesced into a handful of sites run by multinational corporations who rarely cover books. Smaller websites dedicated to Black books are disappearing, the remaining ones struggle to compete for an audience and new Black book sites simply are not being created.

Black owned independent bookstores are falling like dominoes. It was reported recently that almost 90% of the books reviewed by The New York Times are written by white writers. At the same time, coverage in Black newspapers wains, as they shut down, scale back and struggle to maintain readership. There are fewer literary magazines covering Black books. Even Black literary events struggle to attract an audience.

The growth of eBooks is rendering long standing business models obsolete. Throw in a struggling economy and you have the makings of a very challenging environment for Black books.

Most disheartening is some professionals in the industry are beginning to conclude the audience for Black literature is diminishing while readers assume there fewer good books being written by Black writers.

In 1998, when AALBC.com officially launched, The site's success was due to filling a void: We connected readers with books they would never discovered on their own.

Today the void is larger than it was in 1998 and much more difficult to fill. As a result, AALBC.com must work harder than ever to keep pace.

As a result we are investing more resources in building mutually supportive alliances with other businesses. Earlier in the year AALBC.com co-founded ABLE, the Alliance for Black Literature and Entertainment. ABLE's goal is to "preserve and grow black literature, entertainment, art and culture while supporting our collective and our individual organizations."

ABLE is growing and accomplishing things through our grassroots efforts; including developing and maintaining a database of Independent Black Owned Bookstores. We are challenging ourselves to create ways we can support each other's efforts to promote Black literature.

In late 2011 AALBC.com launched Huria Search. Huria Search was created in reaction to the current trend in search results that favor large corporate entities and sensational content over independent websites and more serious content.

While this trend effects all independent websites, the impact on the global Black community of websites is more severe; as their content is buried too deep in traditional search results to be easily found.

Sensational and celebrity driven content has broad appeal and is typically favored by the larger corporate entities who's sole mission is to increase revenue. This degrades the overall web experience by crowding out independent voices and reducing the variety and quality of content one can find. Social Media compounds this problem by creating an "echo chamber" of pop culture minutiae.

Huria Search's goal is to help improve the internet experience for people looking for content created by independent entities. Huria Search will refocus it's efforts to support this efforts of ABLE.

Huria Search will begin accepting tax deducible donations to support our efforts before the end of the summer.

If you've read this far I suspect you are a big supporter of not just AALBC.com but Black literature in general and appreciate the important role it plays in the American culture. Check out the AALBC.com Blog for related articles and to learn how you can help..

Finally, the 15th anniversary of AALBC.com's launch is March 2013. Look out for our 15th Anniversary Commemorative Magazine. 500 numbered issues of this collectors item will be made available. More information we be provided in coming months.

A Luta Continua,
Troy Johnson