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FUTURISTIC MOVIES, EVERYONE, DIFFERENT RACES GETTING ALONG,IS FINE/ESCAPING REALITY/ I LIKE THE MINIONS MOVIE..TROY CRITICIZED FOR ME NOT POSTING///LIKE SCIFI AND FANTASY MOVIES.

You know I forgot about Janeway... and Deanna Troy, but she was kind of eye candy as well... Star Trek is the United Nations of the future though. I mean we had a Black Captain and Jordy, Wharf was Black (I didn't see a Klingon) and while the White guy was the savior, with Star Trek the diverse group always held more logic and morality. I still haven't gotten into the reboot since I just don't get to the movies that often, but I loved the Harry Potter series. I didn't read the books for the others so I was not as engaged in the other white woman as hero films. You have to admire the tenacity to make sure women look empowered as we enter the year of Hillary ;-)

Hello Everyone, Like I said, I was half-joking and half-hoping. I know it would take mega bucks for the miracle that I speak of to take place for us. Anyway, moving on, I have changed my shipping. I only had it set that way because it took time to order the few books that I needed from Archway. Also, my shipping is based on weight. For my books and t-shirts it is $4.50 to ship. The cost goes up for the mermaid wall dolls because they are heavier and fragile. By the way, I have gone up and down Galveston Beach to check out their mermaid figurines and there wasn't a single pretty Black mermaid doll, painting, or sculpture no where to be found. Galveston Island/beach is surrounded by poor Black folks. But you hardly see any of us on the beach walking around. I was totally amazed by the poverty that is found only a hop, skip, and a jump from the tourist parts of the beach. When I went there to pass out business cards and talk about my book, I was floored by the lack of us!!! About my website, with my book ad on aalbc.com and NAPW, my visits went up quite a bit in the last few days. However, I am only getting window shoppers. My goal is to figure out how to get my visitors to make a purchase. I cannot lower the price of my book anymore without practically giving it away. I cannot and will not turn my mermaids white. So who knows what will happen for me. I will have to find my target audience somehow. They are out there somewhere. Virginia Beach, for example, is famous for mermaids--that's why I love my home so much. I was raised seeing mermaids--of course they were white. Also, Authonomy is down. By the time, I placed my manuscript on the site, two days later, everyone received notice that Harper Collins was discontinuing the service. Troy, I don't have any stats on the number of Blacks that actually had an opportunity to get their books reviewed by the editors and accepted by Harper Collins. I am sure that, like everything else, there were disappointingly few. Finally, I want to say that I go out of my way to support my people as much as I can--especially when it comes to our children. I do not understand why we don't support one another more. Our dollars run out of our communities as fast as we can get our paychecks. I really must move on from this because this is really disheartening. As a true believer in God, I just keep on doing what I am lead to do. Right now that mission is to keep writing and pushing to see how far I get. Again, thanks to all of you, Troy, Chris, and Cynique, on aalbc for your kind enthusiasm and support. I truly appreciate this site and believe me, I am always telling people about it. Troy, I am noticing that when I post, sometimes my post will not fall in order of first to last. It has done this twice. Could I be doing something wrong? Thanks

Nah, it's not a stretch at all. Think about the last few blockbusters and they all have had a white female heroine. Especially those created from books. Hunger Games Insurgent Harry Potter (Hermione) Twilight and the list goes on when it comes to film and white heroines. Interestingly enough, Star Trek doesn't even have a prominent White female actress. Uhuru is the only woman of prominence in the show. Hell, even in the 60s white women were just THOTs and Jump offs for Captain Kirk, so you're right. Star Trek will never earn as much, lol.

It's such a double edged sword... I can only compare it to my shoe company since my books aren't very popular. I have had my own site forever. When I list my shoes, as well as my books on my site, I give both options for purchase. I've done this with my books also, and the result is always the same people buy where they have their credit card information already saved. I very rarely make a sale through my own site and I have to assume it's the same for everyone out there. It doesn't matter that the same item is cheaper on my site, it simply doesn't sell through my site. It's unfortunate because whether a Black biz sales for a profit or not, odds are they will go out of business because convenience rules. As much as I want to support a bookstore, I also value my time and waiting is something that I'd rather not do, so I take a real effort to visit Black shops in Memphis and write reviews about them in order to help give them a bigger platform. All businesses are built on speed and convenience and I don't know if asking people to take the time to help build a business is even worth it. (It is, but I'm just at a loss for how to make it better.) I do know this, I do a lot of shipping. A person with an account can get a book from NYC to Cali in 3 days. They may take a bit of an L in doing so, but faster shipping is the only way a Black distributor/bookstore will grow. They can't use media mail which takes 1-3 weeks. People just don't like waiting and honestly you can't ask them too. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd love to be given a consultation on how to increase sales and help a Black distributor/bookstore improve. I know you have tons of articles, but maybe Troy you need to provide an Olivia Pope Fixer type package where you analyze my book biz and tell me how to make it better. I'd pay for that... depending on the price, lol.

Hi Troy, I just checked out the home page and I love it. Thanks so much for connecting to my website. I have my book on the National Association of Professional Women (NAPW) website now too. It also goes straight to my website. Thanks for the exposure :). I know that I am going to want to renew this--so don't sell my spot.

The problem isn't starting a publishing company, it's distribution. In order to publish and build up authors, someone has to be willing to sit on thousand of books and then get those books distribution into the mainstream outlets as well as into Ingram so smaller accounts can buy those books. It's really hard to run any company when you sit on inventory, so it's not going to happen. You would need a six figure reserve to just get started. The best we all can do is to support sites like AALBC and to take the time to visit other websites that discuss books, which I can't really think of any right off the top of my head.