Troy

Here is the reply from Bookshop. I defintely did expect a resonse on Easter Sunday. Has the expectation for business communication become 24/7 since I been in corporate America? Thank you for your email. In order for a bookstore to be listed on our site, they must have a brick and mortar store and be a member of the ABA. If they met those requirements, then they would need to reach out to my colleague in order to start their account with us. Let me know if you have any more questions! ...I guess just another competitor. ABA provides bookstore software to members. I guess this software is being phased out. I'm an ABA member (not sure when my membership expires), anywho ABA currently runs a site https://www.indiebound.org/ in which readers can find a book then select the closest indie bookstore (including AALBC) to buy the book. Bookstores earn their full commission. I hope, for the sake of member stores, that ABA does not abandon that program.

@Pioneer1 Sure that sounds logical, but it is far more complex than that. Before writers used to complain that Black publications did not pay writers enough. The reason was that many publications simply did not have the resources to pay a lot. Of course this could have changes, overtime, as publication grew and became more profitable. One day HuffPost comes along and amazingly they are able to get talented Black writers to write for free ... FREE! Sure they got a byline and they could argue that HuffPost had a large audience, but The Huffington Post, run by a white woman, had a large audience, in part, because got talented writers to give them free content! Once HuffPo went public and Ariana Huffington got billizons many of the same Black writers were disgruntled because they never did share in the wealth. Today you hear very little of the Huffington Post and very few author benefited materially as a result. Most would have been better off taking what little the Black publications could pay. Who knows maybe some of those Black-owned publications may still be around. Today many of the same Black writers and countless neophytes have turned to social media publishing their content freely on social media giving those platform complete control over copyright, working hard to amp up the followers and engagement. These social platforms are some of the wealthiest companies around and their owners are billionaires. Facebook has never paid any writer for their content either. This is why you will never see me post more than a link back to my site on social. No Pioneer, it is not that simple.

I don't know if Black people go to white owned sites and shit on them the way some, presumably white, people do here. However I've seen Black people, on social media, dish out vitriol often ganging up on some unsuspecting victim for some imagined misstep. Now I'm pretty sure these Black people though callous and insensitive, are doing this for fun. Again I can't imagine the poster of the comment above, which was never displayed on this site, did this for fun -- unless they get their kicks making more work for me...

The has been a lot of noise about Bookshop lately. Bookshop's affiliate model is superior to that of Amazon, in that their affiliate revenue share is 10% versus Amazon's 4%. However the comparison is not as simple as that, for Amazon also pays affiliates for everything customizers buy during that tranascation (unti the cookie dies 24 hours). So if they also buy a lawn mower affiliates earn commissions on that sale as well. It was not unusual for AALBC to earn more on commissions on the sale of other items books. The problem with Amazon is that they abuse other business and use them only as long as they need them. Amazon will use their website to identify popular product then manufacture those products under their own brand and bury the the competition in the search. I no longer do business with Amazon not just because commissions on book sales suck, but because they have undermined Black books by providing a platform for bootlegging our books, monopolizing ebook sales, ripping authors off by encouraging them to sell exclusively through Amazon and making their books unattractive to any other books sellers to sell, etc, etc. Bookshop is touting themselves as a solution to booksellers, While 10% is better than nothing it pales in comparison to what can be earned by booksellers, or even authors who sell books directly. When I buy book from a distributor my discount is 45% from the published it is 50% to 65%. 10% is a relative pittance. However Bookshop and I have a common enemy, so I reached out, via email, to them to learn more: Hi Bookshop, How do independent web based booksellers, like AALBC, benefit from your support of independent booksellers? AALBC is a 22 years old web based bookseller with our own database, using Bigcommerce to process transactions, and Ingram, mostly, to drop ship. Obviously 10% commissions do not help us, but we have a common goal of preventing Amazon creating a true monopoly in the sale and production of books. I notice the AALBC is not listed as a bookseller on your site. I also noticed that a popular brick and mortar store in New York City, Sisters Uptown Bookstore, as well as a bunch of others, are also missing. How do these stored get listed on your website? Peace, Troy Johnson Founder AALBC.com Honestly I don't expect much love from Bookshop. Indeed they will probably just be another competitor. I'll let you know what response i get, if any.

As much as I actively try to avoid 45’s innate tweets, I can’t — unless I eschew media altogether. This video helps explains how Fox News helped destroy jounalism. I've always argued social media (i.e. 45’s tweets, Covid19 conspiracies, antivacers, etc) has put the assault against journalism on steroids. Many who reject the adverse impact of social media, in general, and Fox News in particular say, "It does not change the way I think." That may be true, but for too many others is does. Fox smeared Hillary Clinton over Pizzagate and the use of an unsecured email server, and Trump was tweeting objectively outrageous ideas. Mainstream "journalists" dutifully covered all of it. Marginalising Clinton while raising Trump’s profile, legitimizing him as a candidate, and thrusting into the White House. Black people, more than anyone else, need journalists to cover issues that concern us. Twitter can not be our source of information. Platforms like Ebony/Jet did not die overnight. We lost them slowly over decades. the information the provided changed over the years. Articles like "The Negro in Literature Today" simply are not written in publications today (if anyone knows of one please share it). Even Ebony stopped writing articles like this choosing to focus more on celebrity and downplaying more substantive subjects. It is obvious true journalism simply can't function under our form of capitalism. The government will not use our tax dollars to do it, for the government is beholden to those who don't want us to have access to true journalism. Subscribe to a Black owned newspaper. Support Black owned media and journalism.

@Pioneer1 that is sufficient reason right there. Most Black strive for white validation, because white folks have all have the money and power. We see this in every corner of society. Black people may use Black business as a stepping stone to work for a white one. I could write a book out how this plays out on the web. Of course there are those of us who struggle to build and support Black businesses and institutions, but we are in the minority. I have no illusions of it being easy, for there is so much to overcome. The structural inequalities made plain during this pandemic, keeps us dependent upon white folks because we have and control so little.

@Pioneer1 so it is simple evil behavior, like enslaving Africans, masscuring natives, putting jews in gas chambers, or creating convid19 in a lab to make money to the vaccine? You don't think Black people engage in the same type of behavior online?

I dunno @Pioneer1 I just think when you throw out comments like Spike being the "only authentic Black man" and the others being "Puerto Rican/mixed," it just become a sloppy conversation, because those terms only have meaning to you and oeople who think like you. For example the one doing most of the talking (far right) just looked like a straight up white boy. The one to the left of spike could be Black, though not "authenticity" Black as you'd describe it. I wouldn't put a qualifier on someone's Blackness. That is like saying Cynique is not authetically Black, and that Del is more authentically Bkack than me...

No. That is a far fetched notion borne out of a deep seated distrust of white people. As a Black man I get it, I just don't agree with it. You'll call it conditioning, I'll call it common sense.

True, I have not observed any difference in the types of books people are buying (based upon my sales) they are just buying more. The concept of doing more with ones iwn website is great. Did IBPA talk about how authirs could get people to visit their websites?

OK cool, but it is this, justifiable, distrust of the government that makes us so vulnerable to people out to hurt us. It is why 45 is in the white house (about to be elected to a 2nd term) and why people are anti vaccination (willing to bring back measles, whooping cough, polio, smallpox, etc).

What larger point, that Covid19 was manufactured in a laboratory to kill people?

America is far from a melting pot as current hyper partisan politics illustrate. @Chevdove my point to Pioneer was simply that any "look" he attributed to a Puerto Rican is based upon a prejudice caused by American indoctrination. @Pioneer1 have you visited PR and ventured beyond the hotel swimming pool? In terms of what you call racial diversity PR is pretty diverse. , Again the issue of trying to determine if the speaker is part "African-American," is of little consequence. By your definition I'm "part African -American." From my perspective it is not based upon your skin color it is a function of the culture you identify with. Again you can't determine this by someone's nationality ot skin color. You have to get to know them. I know our country people prefer simplicity, there is no room for gray areas, subtlety, or even a little uncertainty. BTW, I'm sure Spike think Perry films are "Coonery," and probably laments the fact that he has been able to enrich himself to a greater level than he has. Spike is not dumb enough to continue publicly degrading another filmmaker for the amusement of Hot 97 listeners. Even the title of the Hot 97 Video uses the word "beef," when there is no beef. A Tyler-Spike beef is something that Hot 97 is promoting for ratings. I use the "Welcome to America" phrase as a sarcastic response acknowledge America's ills. Someone expresses surprise that America incarcerates more people than any other first world nation, I say "welcome to America." Shocked we elected a dim-witted, con artist as president; I say, "Welcome to America."

I suspect you, like myself and most people, to not go to other sites a spew racist hatred against the people there, for a variety of good reasons like it being a complete waste or time and energy. Still what is you partial explanation, because other than a combination of stupidity or evil I can;t think of one that makes sense -- maybe it is that simple....

Here is a quote from a comment on one of the authors pages. I deleted a few moments ago. "I abominate this black jigaboo who wouldn't even make a good field hand. Pretending to be an intellectual? With a 400,000-year evolutionary shortfall, she needs another two centuries to learn how properly to wipe herself." I delete comments like this all the time. For some reason this one struck me as particularly unnecessary -- gratuitous even -- because the subject of this attack is a very nice women. Perhaps the only "controversial" thing about her is that she is lesbian, something the "commenter" did not bring up. Why do people invest so much time spreading hate?

@Pioneer1 do you know why there are so many racial classification as Neely Fuller asked?

Pioneer OK. Why bother conjuring fictional stories that run counter to something that has alresdy been proven? Dude there no basis in objective reality for a so called, "Eastern European branch of the Caucasian race." This is dervied fromracist junk science and is perhaps why you like using Puerto Rican to describe the way some looks. Yes, I'm familiar with the term slavic.

Pioneer there are blond haired blue eyed Puerto Ricans, Puerto Ricans much darker than spike, and everything in between. Puerto Rico is a nationality, you can't assume someone is from PR based upon the color of their skin any more than you can do that for an American. To your point, sure Spike is the darkest dude on the set but the station is not designed to appeal only to Black people any more than rap music is. I'm sure that is why many of the Power, KISS, Hot f.m. radio stations use people like that Black sounding white people and lighted "skinned" Black people. Welcome to America.

Hey @Delano you don't think the average person, when presented with the facts that, 4 of every 10 people who died of Covid19 in the U.S. is Black, 7 out of 10 deaths in Chicago are Black, and that every person who died from the virus in St. Louis was Black, would continue to believe Black people are immune? @Pioneer1 I revisited the conspiracy-theory laden article that Kareem shared https://operation-nation.com/coronavirus-patent-documents-vaccine-race-and-countdown-to-war/ I'm would not be surprised if he wrote it himself, because it now addresses issues I raised! However, it is still full of factual inaccuracies (lies) and misleading presentation of information. It continues to assert that Black people immune. The article is on a Blog that has been running for 12 years. There is no advertsing, so profit can't be the motive. Why would someone publish such content? Could there really be forces out there working to undermine Black people and this nation -- sure there are! We know for this has been proven to be the case on Facebook and Twitter. I just never expected these forces to target AALBC. If AALBC is worth targeting, in a perverse way, that is a sign we have a sufficiently large audience to make a difference.

@Delano good point. White people dragged Black people here kicking and screaming for centuries and offered large rewards when they ran off. If rich white people killed Black people off who would fill their prisons, provide their entertainment, use their payday loans, and use twitter?

Exactly.

I actively avoid 45's tweets. Despite thus I learn about quite a few if them, because the media can help promoting 45 lies. I, Just a few moments ago, came across the tweet below in an article about amazon: The enemy of enemy is my friend? @Delano my bet on a 45 win in 2020 does nit seem as much as a long short as I originally thought.

Please elaborate.

There is no beef between Spike and Tyler. This is white provocateurs (and their Black social media stooges).

I'm not trying to change you words around. When restating my understanding of your position I use words like "apparently" because I'm not sure, but making assumptions based upon your statements. Besides, I'm not making statements based upon my preconceived beliefs. I'm making statements based upon my understanding of the available science. I have no personal way of knowing that Neanderthals even existed -- let alone have become extinct. All I'm saying is that when you declare that Neanderthals are not extinct rejects all the scientific data we have available.