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Hey @Bill, thanks for commenting here. There are is one hard fact which makes your suggestion very, very difficult to implement: No other online bookseller can compete with Amazon on the things that are most important to customers price, speed of delivery, and trust. Indeed, it is impossible to do it. I'll also go a step further and say this is even more true for the Black independent online booksellers. This is why there are so few of us selling books, independent of Amazon, and making very much money doing it. What is worse the VAST majority of publishers and authors who direct people to Amazon don't even bother to use an affiliate code!? Increasingly, authors areusing Amazon as their primary website. This is probably worse than using Facebook as one's primary web presence because at least Facebook allows hyperlinks to external websites (for now) and Amazon does not. This too hurts us more than it helps in the long run. I say this as someone that has been selling books on the web since 1997. Amazon owns the Black book ecosystem, to our detriment, and it is our own fault. The question is what do we do about it? Hi @Elva D. Green, well if that newsletter you publish your article in has enough of the right readers it may help. What we really need is a critical mass of folks with a platform to hammer into the public what the impact of Amazon means to Black-owned businesses and what this means to readers of Black literature. But most people are really too involved in their own struggles to be concerned about Amazon's impact on the Black book ecosystem, particularly if Amazon is giving them discounts on books and free, same day, delivery. I'm sorry to read about your experience with that one bookseller. Ignoring his rudeness (there is not excuse for that); his reaction is not terribly surprising. Look at it from a book seller's perspective; in the last 15 years or so there has been an explosion in the number of self-published books. Booksellers have been inundated requests to stock these books. We simply can not afford to waste time vetting products that will not likely sell. These books are often poorly edited, have no advertising budget, no publicity support, have not been critically reviewed, and written by obscure writers without a platform or much knowledge of the publishing industry. So the authors of these books are often left with no choice but to sell their books themselves using Amazon as their primary platform. Again this usually does not result in the sale of many books, because the reach is too small and there is a ton of competition. Now Amazon, who is the publisher of a large percentage of these books, makes money no matter what, for their revenue is transaction based--quality is incidental. So today, your only perceived option is Amazon. It shouldn't be, it does not have to be, but sadly this is the situation we are in for now.

The TV ONE SCREENPLAY COMPETITION 2017 is meant to encourage and promote the production of creative, contemporary, engaging and relatable screenplays that can be turned into original movies for television. The competition is meant to: Encourage filmmakers to offer a fresh perspective and submit contemporary stories with a focus on the American black cultural experience with wide audience appeal. Encourage filmmakers to creatively center around entertaining, heart-felt and relatable topics that resonate and appeal to African American audiences. Expand upon the genres/formats that tell these entertaining stories. Genres include, but are not limited to comedies, romantic comedies, dramas, and family adventures (submissions should be non-period stories). One (1) Grand Prize Winner will be selected from three (3) Finalists and announced at the closing night event of ABFF. Click here for Overview, Eligibility & Instructions Click here for the Official Rules ( http://www.abff.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/TV-ONE-SCREENPLAY-COMPETITION-2017-Official-Rules.pdf ) SUBMIT NOW ( https://tvone.tv/43771/enter-the-tv-one-screenplay-competition-2017-here/ ) Contest Opens: December 16, 2016 Contest Deadline: February 16, 2017 *Contact them* _Email_ ( info@abffventures.com ) _Twitter_ ( https://twitter.com/ABFF ) _Instagram_ ( https://www.instagram.com/americanblackfilmfestival/ ) _Facebook_ ( https://www.facebook.com/americanblackfilmfestival/ ) _Official URL_ http://www.abff.com/tv-one-screenplay-competition/