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AALBC.com is continuing to expand. We are just a few months away from providing book printing services. I'm excited about this because this is one of the final pieces needed to becoming a full service publisher. The other great thing is that I'm working with an established Black owned printer who is producing a quality products at competitive prices. I'm setting up the website now (which is slowing up the AALBC.com upgrade, but it is worth the effort). I also plan on publishing great books that agents can't find publishers for, I'm about a year away from this, but there's some great potential here that I can't wait to begin working on.

@VL Towler man you articulated that better than I ever could and I agree 100% This is why I struggle to get those in my sphere of influence, the Black book ecosystem, to work together in the manner you described. Slowly I see it happening, if not for anything else--out of necessity.

You raise very strong points, Troy. Excellent ones. And you're absolutely right. We DO need a platform for our own voices. And yes, these mainstream platforms are used more to market to Blacks and reap financial benefit, than anything else. So I hear you, loud and clear. I think part of the problem is that Black people, if I may generalize, for the sake of argument, tend to compete for scarce resources, than collaborate, pool resources and build for the whole. This is the problem. So, instead of stepping in line to support each other, we create separate camps. And the financial resources that we need end up dissipating as we find ways to disagree and fall out from each other, than to weather the storm for the sake of our futures. Lastly, it's always about dollars, and the best of us can be lured by money, which always silences our voices as we cater to our financial masters. Which is why I self-published my novel. No one can ever tell me what to write. Because they really don't have our best interests at heart, honestly. They have their own financial interests at heart. Thanks for the reminder that we need to do for us, by us, and for us.... but the question is... can we unite $$$$$$?? Imagine if every black person gave $1.00 -- that's $13M for businesses. But we don't. But that's another story.

AALBC.com is curently testing a service where I provide online markting services to authors. The idea is that AALBC.com would work with authors and publishers to help them market and promote ther books on the web. This would of course include promotion on AALBC.com's platform, but it would also include the use of social media, Amazon, Google adsense, and other Black owned websites. This service is an attempt to evaluate and maximize the effectiveness of various online options to give the client the best bang for the buck on the web. @CDBurns, this is the answer to the question you posed several months ago on the Bloggers helping Bloggers forum on what service I can provide, beyond the 30 day and out type of banner ad placing.

I agree. I believe our very survival as a people will rest on our ability to articulate FOR OURSELVES what our needs are. Consider me in your camp. I have watched you over the years, on Twitter (lol), and I have mad respect for you being such a strong pioneer for Black American writers. I'm here to help in my small way. Let me know what you need.

Brilliant @VL Towler thanks for expressing those sentiments. Obviously I can't disagree with your experiences, but I would like to explore how you perceive them. You see a common refrain I hear from folks extolling the virtues of Twitter, and social media in general, is that Black people; Have a voice; make contacts, and network; sell books; and complain to corporations, and get a response. All of this is of course true, and I have used Twitter for all of these reasons too. But, what we seem to forget is that all of this was possible before social media. Some, usually social media owners--those that stand to benefit financially--speak as if they have revolutionized human networking. The World Wide Web revolutionized networking. The owners of social media have simply mastered the monetization of social media by exploiting our privacy and information. As a result, social media has distorted and corrupted the WWW's effectiveness. My primary problem with the massive social media sites--especially the outsized use of Twitter by black folks, is that is comes at the expense of Black owned platforms. Large Black owned sites are virtually non-existent and this was not always the case. Today Black people's voices are expressed solely at the largess of white owned platforms. We serve at THEIR pleasure. Like the black person creating a back door where none was present; we do so willingly. You see, our true voices are not measured by the volume of uninformed opinions, the spread of unsubstantiated rumors, and the dissing of other Black folks. To understand what is really happening we need journalists. Black journalists do not thrive in a social media dominated WWW, neither do undistorted Black voices, nor things that truly serve Black people. I also know that some Black individuals have reaped financial success as a result of social media, but again Black individuals achieved financial success.before social media. All in I believe social media has provided a net deficit, financially, for Black people collectively. I say believe because I can't prove it, but I have over two decades of experience creating content for the web and observing the contribution of other Black owned platforms.

I actually use Twitter a lot, to advertise my novel. I love Twitter, although less so, now that my novel is published. But I can tell you that it is a great place for networking, more than Linkedin because you must use photos on LinkedIn (which I think hurts more than helps Black people--I make my living on the Internet as an attorney, and my clients have no clue of my race until the discussion of race comes up -- AFTER I've proven what I can do for them). I think Twitter's usefulness depends upon what you use it for. I like to talk politics, and it's opened my eyes to a lot of diverse views. I have a lot of conservative followers with whom I discuss Black issues, because the dialogue is important and they don't always talk with Black people candidly. I found @aalbc on Twitter! I have made a lot of contacts. I've had people with whom I've dialogued purchase my novel. I think Black people have a larger voice because of Twitter. #BLM, Shaun King, and even Joy Reid, Deray got their fame and/or jobs because of Twitter, to my knowledge for better or for worse. I could go on and on. So, I'm a Twitter fan, but less so, now that I need to market my novel in brick and mortar stores. Personal contacts ALWAYS work, but access to people is the problem. Facebook advertising is 100% better than Twitter - $50 goes a long way (I'll be using @aalbc during the holidays). Let me just add that the reason Twitter works is that corporations get to hear from their customers. I have tweeted corporations to complain, to extol good customer service, etc., and get a 99% reply. I've been mentioned 3 times on C-span. I would not get a voice otherwise, in my opinion. Corporate America cares about demographics. They get it on Twitter. I agree that the shaming on Twitter is deplorable, and the fact that it is anonymous is problematic. And I hope that is changed (I read that Twitter is going to stop the trolling). Just my thoughts.