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Yes. combating Google (and Amazon) will require not just creativity but some short term sacrifice. The later is the challenge in the book world. That NY Times article about Amazon is quite telling. A couple of authors I spoke with in Austin on Saturday were shocked that I could buy their books on Amazon for less money than they can afford to sell their books themselves. They thought they were the only ones who had the books so they believed it was not possible for anyone else to sell their book at a profit. One could not wrap her head around it. Now I don't know if their books were being pirated (which is not a new problem on Amazon) or if the 3rd party sellers were selling stolen or used copies. Incidentally, Google favors Amazon in their search results as well. Speaking of Amazon. I mentioned during my talk how using Amazon publishing services and giving Amazon the exclusive right to sell own's book (something that would normally be considered crazy) cuts one off from all other booksellers. I showed one authors how her book in not available in distribution (so I can't sell it). Plus some booksellers flat out refuse to sell book published by Amazon -- even when it is not sold exclusively by Amazon.

YEAH DABASTIDS!!! YEAH!!! I'm glad you included it because I'm about to be the website marketing evangelista for small websites The other day, I was actually thinking about that workshop we talked about. Someone contacted me to teach them about setting up a blog...and I thought of you - I got the monetization and marketing part for new startups but I was thinking there should be someone who speaks in plain English about dealing with google too... You know, teach them what googles does so they can do a creative endrun. But first folks have to know what they're up against. Once folks know how google can jack you up that's when folks get creative!!! #EFFGOOGLE!!! 😂

This is true. If you don't jump through Google's hoops, they punish you in your site's search engine ranking. You don't need to have an adsense account (sell Google's advertising) to be effected. Google "claims" they are merely trying to give the websurfer the best possible experience, but like any dictator Goolge makes this decision for us -- and they do this to maximize their revenue. There is no other long term alternatives. However you can't make it on your own. AALBC has survived only because of our community (which includes you and the others who post and read these forums). I know you know how to build community @Mel Hopkins that last statement was for others reading this. #EFFGOOGLE

@Mel Hopkins you might find this interesting. This is from another publisher of Kam's content who Google buried without consequence. I had not seriously considered than Kam's business was killed as well. He never ever complained even as I too had to stop publishing his content. I suggested that he should modify his model by either monetizing his own website or selling articles exclusively, at a premium. Neither worked for Kam as he was not a webmaster and the nature of his articles limited how much he could sell them for. “Kam syndicated his stories to more than 100 publications around the world, which used to be a good thing until google changed all of the rules in 2011. That one google change destroyed Kam’s syndication business and ours, and eventually caused the shutdown of many of our competitors, who were Kam’s customers. Kam and NewsBlaze were too stubborn to give in to the search engine bully. He would send his Top Ten lists, and I would enhance them to make them unique. I added text from his reviews and embedded the video trailer clips. We continued to work together, trying to figure out a way to stop google destroying both our businesses, until mid-2016 when it became impossible to continue our collaboration.” It was excerpted from an article written by another one of Kam’s publishers, NewsBlaze. The article's author, Alan Gray is skilled in SEO. He and I compared notes several years ago. Again, Google's greed driven, ham-fisted, domination of the WWW, and their adverse impact on Kam's publishers is clear.

The collage makes more sense after you read the book's excerpts.

Hi Kia, I'm Tanisca, president of Word Lovers Book & Literary Club, and I saw your request for a book review. Please email our Club at Wordloversbookclub@gmail.com so one our members can help you with your request. Your book description was interesting. I think we can definitely get into a book like yours.

Hi Debra, I'm Tanisca, president of Word Lovers Book & Literary Club. I saw your request for a book review and would like for you to email us at wordloversbookclub@gmail.com. A member from the Club will help you with your request.

Hi Carla, I'm Tanisca, president of Word Lovers Book & Literary Club. We are in the process of considering books to review. Please email wordloversbookclub@gmail.com so our assistant can help you with your request. Your book description is definitely interesting.

Hi Amber, I'm Tanisca, President of Word Lovers Book & Literary Club. I saw your request for a book review. Please email the Club at wordloversbookclub@gmail.com so our assistant can help you with your request.

Numbers are integral part of science and without numbers it wouldn't be possible to conduct experiments. If numbers are created and not discovered then irs possible mathematics is built on fiction. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/great-math-mystery/

Brotha Troy, that has long been a knock against us as a collective. Strangely, it has survived for much too long. I do admit that it so convenient as I have used it on countless occasions to force home a point. Honestly, as much as I hate to admit it, but I barely read. Sure, I read snippets here and there. In this fast-paced, I have become a browser whereas I was once a fierce reader. Yet, there is a blanket exception to this rule because brrothas in the joint READ! Inside reading is fundamental. Inside, if you wants news, you have to read about it because, of all places, televised news is blase. News rarely affects prisoners so more time is spent watching sports and videos. When I was in the pen in Atlanta the first time, there were guys there that had well-stocked libraries in their cells. My crime partner and I were among the youngest there, and I was forever reading as I was hardly without a book or a magazine. The old heads noticed this and they would bring me books to the dining room where I worked. I had my own table where I read. Guys that were old enough at the time to be my father, supplied me with a mind-boggling array of books----all serious literature. I recall sitting at my table reading Freud. The next day, an old white convict gave me a book about Carl Jung. Reading the ART of War got me editions of books by Clausewitz and Otto Von Bismarck and Machiavelli. It was truly like guys would walk past my table to see what I was reading,and then they would bring me something even more in depth. And now, I barely pick up a book. That's sad. Now, we want info on the go, so we fall for fake news or second hand news or worse yet no news. Trying to keep up is so time=consuming that if you don't hear through the grapevine, it didn't happen. I conclude with an admission. Of all the things I get down on myself about is the fact that I never stopped to teach a close friend how to read. Damn, we were in prison for ten years together and I never taught him to read. I wrote all his letters for him, but I could have taught him to read. I was once chastised by another friend who told me that I was wrong for not teaching this guy this read, but I was too busy writing my books. I was so convinced that I was writing the next best novel that I was so caught up that I never taught my friend to read. It wasn't that I never thought about it. I did. I even planned to write stories about him to use to teach him to read. The sad thing, Brotha Troy, is that I knew what to do becaause on an earlier stretch in the joint, I was at a prison where they wanted to teach inmates to read, but they knew they just couldn't put anyone in charge so it was decided to use the Muslim community to spearhead the program. They knew how well respected Muslims were in the joint so they taught us so we could teach the rest of the population who didn't read. They knew the guys would trust us. We were taught what was called The Laubach Method and this is the text we taught from. I had no excuse. Just think, I blew the chance to give someone the gift of reading. Wow......I don't think I will ever live that down, but I have made up my mind. I am going to find him one day and apologize. The man was my cellmate for 10 long years and I never taught him to read, and I pray to God that I am never so selfish again in my life.