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The book Voices of the Harlem Renaissance: Originally Published as The New Negro an Interpretation Edited by Alain Locke and Introduction by Troy Johnson was published in March of 2020. Tragically the owner of the publishing company passed earlier this year, so I was never informed of the book's publication until I inquired about it this summer. I immediately purchased a box of books which I promptly sold (making it an AALBC bestseller for the upcoming period). I noticed the books were not in distribution and inquired about the remaining inventory. The family decided to shut down the publishing company (Konecky & Konecky) and were motivated to sell the books. I made an offer to buy out the entire inventory, and the following week a pallet of books were dropped of at my front door. Have you ever stored a pallet of books in your home? Fortunately, I have a two car garage and one small vehicle. Now, how the heck do I sell all of these books? Amazon has a $1.7T (yes trillion) market capitalization, and sells more printed books, online, than all other booksellers combined. At first glance it seems foolhardy to ignore Amazon as a platform to sell one's book. Well you can call me Troy "foolhardy" Johnson, because I'd rather give the books away than sell them on Amazon. Since I have a monopoly on this book, I can keep all new copies of this book off Amazon's site. The screen shoot of the book on Amazon, from October 12, 2020, below shows three used copies of the book on Amazon. There are three sellers of the book on Amazon and each sells has only one copy. I'll monitor Amazon to see if any of the copies I sell end up on Amazon as new. Other than a newsletter mention and a couple of social media posts I have not done much to push this book. I did have an ad running, but I took it down to make room for paid advertisers. Here is what I plan to do moving forward: I will create an affiliate program such that anyone who direct a reader to AALBC who buys the books will earn $5. $5 is a huge commission on the sale of a book retailing for $19.99. It will be interesting to see how this goes. I will also reach out to indie booksellers and offer them the book at a 60% discount and pay for shipping. Below is a video I created for the purpose. I have not shared the video yet. Lets see what happens.

“...an uncompromising enemy of racism.” Author, Frank Hercules “thinking of one of my early inspirations Lewis Michaux. everyone who knew him has stories of him and the bookstore. when i started selling books in Baltimore, after the Panther Party and before Black Classic Press, i would travel to New York and bargain with Mr. Michaux for slow selling items in his inventory. we'd quietly do our bargaining away from the retail customers. he drove hard bargains, but would most often let me win, taking pity on this young bookseller breaking into the trade that he pioneered. i'd get lost in the thousand and thousand of books on his shelves, and loved the larger than life oil paintings always on display by Earl Sweeting. and the political and literary discussion always going on in the store. Louis H. Michaux remains our greatest bookseller.” —Paul Coates, Founder Black Classic Press (from Facebook post) Lewis Michaux, 92, Dies; Ran Bookstore in Harlem By C. GERALD FRASERAUG. 27, 1976 Mr. Michaux called his bookstore the house of common sense and the home of proper propaganda. The community called it Michaux's. The store was situated for 38 years on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard at 125th Street. Browsers and customers included Kwame Nkrumah, who later became Ghana's first President; Malcolm X and many authors and scholars, such as W. E. B. DuBois, who met his wife, Shirley Graham, there. (read the complete article) National Memorial African Book Store The bookstore was located in two locations in Harlem, New York for 38 years (1932 and 1974). The 125 Street and 7th Ave (now Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard), pictured above, was torn down to make way for the Harlem State Office Building.

1990 seems like yesterday hard to imagine it was 30 years ago. So mych has changed since then The list is missing a few stores that I know were open in 1990 at least two are still open Hakim's in Philly and Marcus in Oakland. National Memorial Bookstore is long gone the building ut wasnin was torn down years ago. Now there is a statue Memorializing Adam Clayton Powell.

Black Bookstore Research Guide: The Bookseller & Bookstore https://libguides.nypl.org/blackbookstores/bookseller