Troy

@Maurice, the cool thing about @harry brown, which I suspects escapes most people here is that besides being a poet, all of the books he recommends can be found on this website. You can use the AALBC search engine to do a search on, "Malcolm X Diary" or "Malcolm X Talks" to find the books he recommends 🙂

Yes I listened the the album all the way through, after reading your post, I had never listened to the this entire album. I was surprised by the number of covers which I'm sure there more than three. If I have a few extra minutes I'd take another listen and point out the others. Turns out the only temps albums I have are complications and they quite good 🙂 The other striking thing about the album is that I expect and album, from that era, a good one anyway, to tell a story. All the songs may not be hits, but the songs are related to each other and relate a larger message than any of the individual songs. I don't think (or know really) if this is still true because I rarely listen to an entire new album.

I just updated the guidelines: https://aalbc.com/tc/guidelines/ Thanks again!

@Kiran H. J. Dellimore, thanks again for your thoughtful and informative response. I said I would add Fresh Ereba to the website if the book is in distribution. Unfortunately the book is not in distribution; it is not in the database of America's largest distributor Ingram. In fact the only place the physical book can be found is by going to Amazon and searching direct for it there. A Google search on the ISBN you provided : https://www.google.com/search?q=979-8642874554 turns up only AALBC (the page with the post you made a few days ago). All booksellers are most concerned about the ISBN13, as it uniquely identifies a book bringing in all the book's metadata (provided the publisher provides it). Now I do sell books that are not in distribution, but this is a very small percentage of my inventory. In most cases, when I get an order for a book not in distribution I email the author, they send the book to the customer, and I send the author 50% of the retail price and shipping costs. Now most readers will search for the book's title https://www.google.com/search?q=Fresh+Ereba which brings up a variety of conflicting information different publication dates, book covers, etc. Readers could also search on your name, but name and title searches presume that the reader already knows that information in advance -- which means they discovered the book or author in some other manner before running the query. So how does an author get their book noticed? Amazon encourages authors to give aways their books because it help to get their books noticed. Amazon used these "free" books they encourage authors to give away, because it bolsters the value of their Nook ebook platform. Amazon attracts subscribers because they provide access to so many free books. Amazon limits this for their benefit not author's. If you think it through you'll easily conclude why. I was able to find Walking in Footsteps of Promise in distribution and have added it to the website. It is available for sale now. But here is the problem with selling Walking in Footsteps of Promise: First, check out the screen shot from Ingram's database (shown below). You'll see that the book can not be returned once purchased by a bookseller. This all but guarantees that the book will not be stocked by any bookstore -- especially a physical bookstore. Since the book is in distribution, if someone goes to a physical bookstore, asks the store to order it, the store can do it, but they run into the next problem with the book; and that is the book's 15% discount. That means the bookseller will clear $2.84 for the sale on this book. This does not cover the shipping, handling, and insurance to get the book from the distributor to the store. Now a large bookseller will have shipments coming into the store all the time so the until cost of insuring and shiping the book is offset by being bundled with other books being ordered. For smaller booksellers this may not be the case. As mentioned AALBC would not stock this book; I would have the distributor "drop ship" this book, but again $2.80 simply does not cover the least expensive way I ship books, which is media mail insured. Now I could ship the book media mail without insurance which costs $2.80, which means I would break even (make 4 cents) on the sale but incur the risk of the book getting lost in transit. So while this book has distribution, for all practical purposes it really does not. But here is the real kicker. Ingram has about 500 copies of these book in stock. What happens if these book do not sell? Given the terms described, the likelihood of Ingram selling all 500 copies to bookstores does not seem very good. (*Now of course some Black books may being very well in stores, unbeknownst to me, despite these terms. That seems unlikely -- but I can't know how well all Black books are doing 🙂 ) Basically all of these unsold books go back to the publisher and are usually destroyed (maybe remaindered I don't know much about this side of the business), but in any event the authors royalties are adversely impacted. Of course all of this discourages authors from even seeking distribution, which booksellers can not easily sell their books. All of this encourages authors to go to Amazon to publish print and even exclusively retail their books. Amazon has been brilliant in aligning author, and consumer motivation and behavior to maximize Amazon's own revenue while freezing out potential competitors. Any perceived benefit by the reader and author/publisher is purely incidental. That said, Kiran I would be happy to add Fresh Ereba to the website please complete this form. I can also complete your author profile page: https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Kiran+H.+J.+Dellimore of you'd be kind enough to complete this form.

Thanks for taking the time to point out those typos Kiran. I fix that page and add the new rule for linking to Amazon too.

Yes. In fact, financial institutions were called on the fact that they were trading stocks own their own accounts while their analysts were generating "reseach" to improve their firms firm's position.

I agree, which is why I hijacked your post. Hopefully I will make worth your while. Is it possible to promote your book on Amazon without giving it away? Is the idea that giving your book away would ultimately encourage the reader to pay for the ebook, or physical book, down the road? Do you believe giving something away depresses the percieved value of it? Why do you think Amazon encourages authors to give away their entire book rather than just a few chapters? Is your physical book in distribution? If so, please post the ISBN13, I'll add it to the website.

I know this has nothing to do with your book @Kiran H. J. Dellimore, but hopefully you and others interested in your ebook, reading this will indulge me. Does Amazon still pay you a royalty for the ebooks you give away for free? Is your eBook currently available on any other platforms (Kobo, Apple, Nook, etc.)?

... assuming we have emerged from the global pandemic by then. History of our Annual Black Pack Party — 2021 Will be the 20th Anniversary of its Start Does Amazon host parties to celebrate Black book professionals? I'm just saying...

This is a new rule that I will, when I get a chance, post where more people can see it. I've starting removing hyperlinks to Amazon's website. Posters are encouraged to link to an indie bookseller, their own website, or AALBC when promoting a book -- but not Amazon. Why? Amazon has never allowed their visitors to link to AALBC and while AALBC has sent several million visitors to Amazon's site over the years. When Amazon allow links to AALBC, I'll consider changing the rule. Besides, I'm engaged in a complete (professional and business) boycott of Amazon's services. They have wrecked enough destruction in the Black Book Ecosystem, I can no longer contribute to this on any level.

I did not appreciate that there was a history or tradition of stoicism in the Black community. Can you elaborate @Morris Junior, provide an example, or excerpt?

I like the song in the video, but the rest of the album ... meh. It is mostly covers done better by others. I always liked that song by the Impressions. The video was weird though, did the yiu notice the audience is just sitting there. No one is bobbing their head or behaving as if a band is performing live music right in front if them.

Basically Wall Street will prop up a company allowing it to stay in business. Analysts write rave reviews institutions and individuals buy shares allowing, say Amazon, to selll books at a loss, until the public is convinced they are great and their competitors are decimated. Your local bookseller still has to make payroll and pay rent each month. The can rely on GoFundMe for survival.

Sorry Kiran please feel free to link to your own website. When Amazon allows links to aalbc.com I'll allow links from AALBC to Amazon.

Again, that is what I thought. Snap Chat has still has not made any money, and they have been around almost a decade. They should have taken the buy out from Facebook. Now Facebook does not need it. Big enough to prevent new entrants small enough to be of no consequence....

Join me for the Curator’s Coffee Chat @ the Langston Hughes’ Library Today 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. We discuss running a web-based business in the age of Facebook, Amazon, and Google. Register: https://bit.ly/2AJOdlq

If the dollar is dropped from being the world's Reserve Currency @Delano it is a wrap for the U.S. Amazon had a humongous market cap before they made a penny in profit. Wall Street knew Amazon was an emerging monopoly. I was too naive to understand this and old my share years ago. I was focused on profits. Elon must have something similar brewing. When SpaceX goes public buy ... though all the insiders will be the ones to make the real money.

Hey Fatima! Thanks for joining us. There are a few titles which employ satire (identified as such by the publisher)

This is actually old news, as the Defender killed its printed newspaper in July of 2019. I just learned about it last week. I try to maintain a list of Black owned newspapers. The Chicago Defender, founded in 1905, was perhaps the most prominent Black newspaper in the country (to bad The Defender, was not a beneficiary of Google's largess)

Yeah I like the Guardian too. To clarify: There were almost certainly never 200 Black-owned books opened concurrently in America. The number open today is still closer to 50 than 100. I indicated this, in error, in the past. The Guardian did not reach out to me for comment. If they did I would have told them. (Hey @Mel Hopkins in Journalism's heyday would this have fallen into the purview of fact checking to confirm the quote attributed to me? Or it okay to just say that, "AALBC said, blah-blah-bal?" Is it OK to leave it up to the reader to determine if I actually said that, or if it is even factually accurate?) My list, includes stores that are not all Black owned and stores that have closed. Stores are MUCH more likely to email when they open or not on the list,, and never email when they close. Here is a link to Marcus Books funder rasier: https://www.gofundme.com/f/marcus-books-anniversary-fundraiser

This these guys were from my neighborhood. I'll add the book to the site during my next upload.

As a webmaster the I can't emphasize the damaged caused by that particular type of error. The crazy this is that a 404 Error is a trival problem to correct -- it is inexcusable It led me to remove prominent link on my site to there on one of the sites most prominent pages, just search for "top black owned websites." I'm glad they are both back up. But the top news stories on Jet's site are years old, the "news" on Ebony's site look like ads for celebrity products, and both site are celebrity and entertainment driven.

Yeah I recently described Marus as my favorite book store. They do not sell coffee and danish, but they had tables of books and people who were willing to talk about the books and culture. The books they carried were not in any of the chain store or white run independents. They were one of the few stores of the type left in the country. There are a number of stores with online campaigns. The local community needs to step up. -- they are the ones who will lose the most if these stores fail. @Mel Hopkins maybe Google will save them too 😉

Never? I'd say corruption usually it wins. Do I really need to run down a list of evil and corrupt people and business who have won? Of course, but stressed out, impoverished, poorly educated, people don't have the luxury time, energy and mental capacity to contemplate bias in news. They are trying survive and find enough cheap diversions to get through life... Short of a complete reboot this problem is almost unsolvable. If someone is not excited about Joe Biden, unwilling to vote for IQ 45, and decides not to risk their lives by standing in line to cast a paper ballot for someone they believe will not make a difference in their lives -- I get it. I don't agree but it is really hard for me to beat someone up over it. @Delano I hope I lose out next bet, but since they can harpon any democratic candidate by trotting out somebody with a sexual abuse allegation from decades ago things really don't look so good. The fact that the media has focused so much attention on this (to drive revenue) is just part of a intractable problem we have in this country.

@Mel Hopkins, I don't dispute the fact; I just don't like it. The CDC says cigarette smoke kills more and 400K a year in the United States. The largest of these murderers, Phillip Morris, donates millions around the world for disaster relief, education, whatever... Jeff Bezos saved the Washington Post newspaper from failure, and indications are that he has not abused his ownership. But the arrow is in his quiver whenever he needs it. Michael Bloomberg tells Bloomberg News not to cover him -- even during the presidential bid that he financed out of his own pocket. No, I don't like any of this. But I know it is the American way. Google of all business SHOULD pay for news. They copy content from news site post the results on the SERP, hijacking traffic from the news sites. Google's monopoly (with Facebook) has forced news sites to buy advertising from Google making matters even worse! Google is, in a large part, responsible for the demise of newspapers and journalism along with it. They should have been broken up long ago -- their donations is window dressing designed to fool people that they provide some societal good, meanwhile they have laid waste to numerous websites and their print publications. Some call this progress, but the death of local journalism is the exact opposite of progress.