Troy

You just have not seen him when he is grabbing "pussies."

Me too LOL! Come on, no one reasonable expected this and no one here even expressed this notion. What people did expect was a change, not more of the same; Wall street bail outs, windfalls for insurance companies, and wage stagnation was not the change people hoped for. Sure more people got some mediocre for of health insurance but white folks were the primary beneficiaries of the while people people were burdened with the tax penalty for for not carrying health insurance -- something Trump reversed... Sheesh, can we just take if for granted that Obama is more intelligent than the average person? The only think I question is his Black consciousness. A lack of which is easily understandable given how he was raised and spend his life. The fact that he married a Black woman like Michelle Obama says a lot for Barack in my book.

...then what about all the white people who are profoundly impoverished?

Man the weather is a big deal. I would seriously consider moving there were it not for the weather. I'm actually surprised given your focus on what Black people are genetically predisposed to doing that you would encourage us to move to a place with weather like Detroit we'd have to take vitamin D supplements and apply ointments to our skin just to inhabit that frozen tundra (and that is just during the summer)...

@Stefan I actually celebrate anyone who takes their precious time to not just read what is written here but to contribute to the conversation as you have. See here is the thing Stefan; right here on this very forum I publicly bet two different contributors $50 each that Trump would win, so you were not alone in your prediction. You are not the first to disparage bad writing here on other forums in general. As some one who has run this forum for over 20 years, and have participated in online forum before the WWW was invented, the quality of writing and expression of thought varies a great deal, and as far as I'm concerned it is fine. I can't recall a truly bad writer posting here... the ideas expressed are usually more cause for concern than the writing 😉

Here are some folk invoking steps 1 through 5 right now in ATL: 19 Black families bought 97 acres of land, and they want to turn it into a city called Freedom https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/10/06/19-black-families-buy-97-acres-georgia-land-create-freedom/3593821001/

I still disagree with the statement for a variety of reasons; one and most importantly, there is no data to support it. Indeed all the information available to tends to counter your statement. American had the best educational system on Earth. This fact that many Black people and poor people don't enjoy this system is another problem, but the world's elite come to America to be educated. The number of great books created by American writers every year tells me a completely different story. Great writing even comes out of the most impoverished conditions. It can be more easily argued that we are a nation of great writers. This does not mean we don't have poor ill-informed writers -- of course we do. But don't based the nation's writing ability by what you see on social media. Social media and discussion forums are most likely biased toward poorer uninformed writers. This forum has enjoyed the writing of many professional and skilled writers, including you @Stefan

@artGriot Please feel free to post a link the website where readers can learn more about your book.

So @Stefan, did you teach writing? 😉 If would not have matter anyway. Your anecedote would not have proven anything. I was jusyt curious as I'm on the look out for good Black-owned forums ... any Black forum with active participation really. I'm not sure what you expect here or any other platform. Some people write really well and others don't. Some people are more informed on some subjects and other not so much. Some people have a sense of humor and others act like they have a stick up their asses. Some people take themselves way too seriously and other are more grounded. The same person can exhibit all of these characteristics at any given time. This is not a function of one's so called "race;" it is just human nature. If you expect perfect sentence structure on an informal discussion forum, you need to change your expectations, for you will be constantly disappointed.

Who has disputed your prediction Stefan; and why do you care so much about it any way?

@daniellegfny for someone looking to sell more than 10K copies of their book you really can't to turn down promotional opportunities 😉 AALBC's primary focus is on physicals books. Right now, for a variety of reasons, Libro is my partner for audio books. One reason is technical -- they have given me API access, so adding their audiobooks to AALBC was easy. That said, post the product link to your book in Akoobooks, I'm always interested in working with Indie, Black-owned business. Maybe I can incorporate them into AALBC.

Send me a copy, and I'll add it to the site if you like. AALBC 302 Reconciliation Way Tulsa, OK 74120

@Stefan I don't find this information particularly revelatory given the lack luster democratic ticket and the general population's desire for something different. I predicted Obama's win in '08 and Trumps win in '16, largely for the same reasons, my belief that people wanted something different out of Washington. Obama failed to deliver bolstering Wall Street with his Ivy League buddies. Trump was the best chance for substantial change. Some people can't wrap their heads around the fact that many people voted for Obama twice and then voted for Trump.

I'm curious, which "Black social media websites" have you visited and which non-Black ones are you comparing them to? At the end of the day trump has done some good things for some Black people and bad things for others. It seems people choose to see what they want to see to support their opinions and ignore the rest. It is human nature. If 20% of Black people saw enough benefit from Trump to go out and vote for him, why reject the benefits they obviously see. All things considered I think Trump was a bad president and needed to be removed. A large majority of of Americans obviously agreed. Do I think Biden will be that much better -- who the heck knows. What I do know is that Biden will behave like an adult and demonstrate a lot class and respect for the office. That alone is worth the price of the ticket.

🙂 My Faith has been restored @daniellegfny I'd forgotten about that production company. My bad!

No, obviously I have no recollection of writing that. Post a link to the post you "quoted." I can't find it. Honestly, I hope you prove I failed to recall making the statement. The alternative would be disappointing.

Welcome to my world 🙂

Again, I'm not familiar with "Authors Republic." I'm not sure why you keep writing that. I just ran a search on my site and you are the only one who have ever mention it. You are exhibiting Troll-like behavior again. Why are you trying to attribute support of Author Republic to me? Bookshop lists all of the books that are available for sale in via Ingram. They are defacto partners with Ingram, attempting to eat into Amazon's dominance, by positioning themselves as an ally of indie bookstore, which I think is bullshit... but that is another conversation Yes, some bookstore owners have turned their online stores over to Bookshop. This is one reason I have put Bookshop into the same bucket as Amazon. I boycott both. Basically authors publish with KDP and get the best terms on Amazon or the publish with Ingram Spark and get full distribution. Right now I believe Ingram Spark has the advantage. Hakim's consignment deal is fairly standard and fair. But, I asked about details on consignment arrangements requiring a "fee." I don't offer a consignment. I simply buy the books outright -- it is cleaner that way. I will also order books from authors as orders come in, but that is not efficient, so I do not do it often.

Personal experiences, while interesting, are anecdotes not data. Many don't make or even understand the distinction. I don't know if more people Black people voted for Trump in 2020 than in 2016. All of the Black people I know who voted for trump did so for what they perceived as personal financial reasons. Any of Trump's flaws are purely incidental -- these Trump supporters simply do not care. They are solely interested in themselves. Drug dealers are they same way. I heard a speech in 1981 where the speaker said, "Unless you are getting your news from nine different sources you are being lied to." I rely on a wide variety of sources for for books included on this site -- including sources I may not personally agree with. In fact that is why sites like AALBC are need right about now everyone is promoting Obama's book. I sell it but I'm not going our my way to promote -- that is easy to do. What is hard is finding and promoting the more obscure but important books.

Since I wrote my response. I have dropped all Amazon links, but I have decided to allow advertisers to link to Amazon. Many authors do not have websites, have published through and sell exclusively through Amazon, so they have nowhere else to send readers to buy their books -- I can't even sell their book here on AALBC as I'd have to source them from the author -- which is inefficient. this is an alarming trend... but that is another story. Again I believe Amazon's near monopoly has contributed to lowering of the average author's revenue. Part of the reason is there are more authors than ever and therefore simply less money to spread around. Amazon also extracts more wealth from the authors, as mentioned, putting downward pressure on list prices and and extracting a higher percentage of the book production and sales without adding any value to the quality of the production. I took an ad from an author who published their book through Amazon. The book's title had a typo! Amazon really does not care what they publish even a cursory glance at the author's book would have caught that error. But again, authors feel they are saving money by going through Amazon, but at what cost? @daniellegfny Good luck with your goal. It is indeed aggressive -- bold even. $154K in sales within a year for a an independently published children's book, during a global pandemic, by an unknown author and illustrator would indeed be impressive. If your book retails for $15 (which would be pricey) you'd have to sell more than 10 thousand copies. That is a lot of books man!

Actually @daniellegfny I sell audio book through Libro.fm. I'm not familiar with Authors Republic. Also, please explain how the paid consignment deal worked. @Lisa Washington if your book is available through Ingram, then virtually any bookseller can sell it. If the books have a decent disc and are returnable, you should be good to go. Now some booksellers don't have credit accounts with Ingram and these bookseller may be less inclined to carry your book, unless there is some compelling reason to thing it will sell, like a signing or the authors helps promote the fact that the book is available for sale at the particular store. Most of use send readers to Amazon. I tell authors all the time you have to tell readers your book is available for sale at (enter store name here). Everybody know books can be purchased at Amazon.

Generally what ever I post on social media I post here too, but with additional context: I was in the process of editing an image and the program I use, Pixlr saves the most recently edited images, when I opened it this morning I was just struck by the faces. People collectively are just beautiful. These are just some of the authors I've added to the site in the last 25 days. Some are paid clients, others are winners of major awards. Young old, Black, white, and everything in between.

Me, that is who. 😉 Why? What did I say that was wrong; that she looked good, was short like me, and must be 60 by now (google say 63)?🥰

Yeah they call that state "flow" nowadays. I experienced it all the time. Time during these periods literally flies. I can become so engrossed in an activity that I loose track of time. The first time I noticed this someone pointed it out to me after watching one of my gymnastics routines in high school. They said it looked like I'd completely blocked everything out. It was not a conscious thing that I tried to do. It came naturally. Now I'm aware of the conditions when it happens and I try to take advantages of them. If I'm engaged in an activity, that I can choose, and time seems to drag, I don't do that activity. My last corporates gig was like that it seemed like it took lunch time FOREVER to come. @Pioneer1 your question about being "eternal" presumes we can dispense with the notion that everything ends. I don't think anything is eternal -- not this universe or even they photos that are hitting your eyeballs right now. I passed Stephanie Mills on the street many years ago, in the 70's she was still playing Dorothy on Broadway. She looks GOOD in that photo compared to what I recall from 40 years ago. Yeah she is short and I'm only 5' 7", My she has to be close to 60 now, so I guess that photo is very old.

The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award honors the best in Black literature. Check out the 2020 Winners, Finalists, and Nominees.