Articles

Sanyu Dillon, Black Executive CMO Alliance Founding Member, will head up Random House Publishing. According to the New York Times, the publishing company's former chief marketing officer will now lead Random House, the Dial Press, and One World imprints. One World is described as having a multicultural focus. And its editor-in-chief, Chris Jackson, has worked with literary luminaries such as Ta-Nehisi Coates, the civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson and emcee Jay Z. From Forbes, "Dillon is also extremely passionate about driving inclusiveness in publishing, which is why she launched, "All Ways Black" a community and platform that celebrates Black literature. The Instagra…

I was in a meeting with some booksellers last night and some were surprised that AALBC.com is not a fan of Bookshop dot org. It felt just like the reaction I got from people regarding my feelings about Amazon when I began to express them years ago. People could not understand my aversion to Amazon initially, but today, most people get it. Bookshp is Amazon all over again. Read the article in Publisher Weekly (and the comments) for some insight; "ABA Relationship with Bookshop Draws Booksellers’ Scrutiny"

NO SURPRISE--PUBLISHING INDUSTRY STILL LACKS DIVERSITY Diversity, equity, and inclusion were central components of several workshops and one of the two keynote speeches. A little over 100 out of approximately 3,700 members attended online April 7 - April 10. One keynote panel composed of women of color from various publishing houses spoke of the continuing lack of diversity among the staff and executives in publishing as the main reason for the lack of diversity in books published by people of color, differently abled people, LGBTQ+, and people who are gender non-conforming. A panelist from Lee & Low-- a minority-owned, f…

“The Authors Guild’s 2018 Author Income Survey, the largest survey of writing-related earnings by American authors ever conducted finds incomes falling to historic lows to a median of $6,080 in 2017, down 42 percent from 2009.” Read the conclusions drawn from the survey here. There are many additional reason for this decline, not mentioned by the authors guild, because as a bookseller I see the problem from a different angle. During the same period my revenue from the sales of books has declined as well. This is the reason there are fewer booksellers online, or offline, than there were 10 years ago. The major reason: Amazon. I sell boo…

Hodari Ali was the founder and owner of Pyramid Books in Washington, D.C. As I mentioned earlier, I grew up three blocks from that black owned bookstore, even went past the building every day while attending high school, yet had no idea it existed until I was an adult. Another store, Jewels of Aton was two doors away, though it specialized in jewelry it sold books also. This Black Enterprise article from 1981 is before Pyramid opened and tells how a business grew to fill a need through distribution. I knew I had to post it here when I read the quote "they don't want blacks to think." https://books.google.com/books?id=L8nDKoa0eBQC&lp…

Hummingbird Digital Media, an audiobook and e-book provider, has been acquired by 360 Media Direct, a growing marketing and customer acquisition agency in the print and digital media sectors. Hummingbird co-founder Josh Mettee has joined the 360 Media Direct team as executive vice president of Hummingbird Digital Media. The American Booksellers Association partnered with Hummingbird in 2018 for e-book sales. Established in 2014, Hummingbird offers a free, turnkey e-book and audiobook retailing platform that allows bookstores, publishers, media, nonprofits, and bloggers to have their own branded and customizable storefront for customers to discover, purchase, a…

Authors have compiled a public spreadsheet detailing the advances. According to Publishers Weekly, National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward, wrote: "Even after Salvage the Bones won the NBA [National Book Award], my publishing company did not want to give me 100k for my next novel. My agent and I fought and fought before we wrestled our way to that number." That is remarkable.

The Guardian newspaper (US) covers the plight of Marcus Books during the Coronavirus Pandemic in the article "Economic duress is nothing new': Can America's oldest black bookstore survive the pandemic?" by Andre' Wheeler dated Fri 15 May 2020 Wheeler references AALBC's black bookstores research in the article. "According to the African-American Literature Book Club, there were over 200 black-owned bookstores in the 90s. In 2019, the number was slightly over 120. " (Author's note: I also donate money to The Guardian )

Serving Writers and Readers: African-American Literary Organizations by Diane Patrick Features our own @Troy and AALBC.Com leading the pack of several organizations that help books by and for African Americans thrive. The Publisher Weekly's article lists African American Literary and Culture Society, Cave Canem, The Center for Black Literature, Harlem Writers Guild, and Hurston Wright Foundation. For more of what each organizations offers writers and readers visit Publisher's Weekly November 22, 2019

The video describes the situation but not why. When you have multiple competing vendor specific platforms this lowers adoption and sales. Amazon's effective monoply and proprietary kindle has actually made things worse. Imagine if the only place you could buy and listen to music was on Apples Itunes and Apple hardware.

Extraordinary Women in Publishing a Conversation Hosted by Tori. Tracy Sherrod, the editorial director of Amistad; Yona Deshommes, Associate Director of Publicity at Atria Books; and Cherise Fisher, a literary agent at Wendy Sherman Associates Literary Management. All of these Sisters are have been supportive of AALBC for years and provide keen insight into the publishing industry

“Co-owner James Fugate reflects on his evolution as a bookseller and how Eso Won came to be the city's unofficial literary headquarters for Black writing. “ And for inquiring minds he shares the meaning of the bookstore’s name. Listen here - Source: The RunDown | Reporter: Neyat Yohannes

Wild Fig Books & Coffee in Lexington, KY finds new life after owners raise $35,000 and convert the bookstore to a worker-owned cooperative business model. Read on | Source: Next City “Black-owned bookstores are making a comeback.

The plan is to produce more videos of this type to promote the books of publishers and authors who have demonstrated a commitment to #ReadingBlack. To keep videos like these and more coming please subscribe to The Tea's YouTube Channel. Also subscribe to AALBC.com's YouTube Channel as well.

“At Hakim’s Bookstore in West Philadelphia, there are signs of life for what is believed to be the oldest black-owned bookstore in the country. Only a couple of years ago, the store was near death’s door.” Read the rest of Valerie Russ’ article at The Philadelphia Daily News. #readingblack Yvonne Blake took over Hakim’s Bookstore (Photos credit: Geneva Heffername)