Troy

Hmmm, at the quantum level perhaps, but the the macro level--the stuff we can actually see, I doubt this is true. It sounds all new agey stuff, but I think this is one of those instances of people trying to shoe horn quantum physics into some form of spirituality.

Hi @Faith U, first please share your website's URL. Here are a few things to consider (this is not directed solely to you Faith): Website Traffic It is very hard for anyone to get traffic to a website--especially today. For many people their internet experience is limited to a handful of corporate websites, and those websites do everything in their power to keep it that way. I spend as much time working on getting traffic as I do creating content. The Biggest Myth of Self-publishing While it is true that anyone can produce a book (with or without Amazon), one of the greatest myths that indie authors have been sold, is every manuscript is worth publishing and that any book will sell easily as long as it gets into the market place. Company's like Amazon, and vanity presses before them, take advantage of this myth. Amazon v.s. Traditional Publishing One of the most common arguments I've read in favor of Amazon is that Amazon has made it possible for people to get published who could not get published otherwise. This reasoning makes no sense for a number of reasons but I'll list two Mainstream publishers PAY YOU to publish a book. They are investing in your manuscript because they believe they can profit from your book. They lose more times than they win but publishers can take chances if they score a few big wins. More mission driven publishers, typically the independents, will also consider how important you work is and will publish you because you work "needs" be to read. In any case you are not paying to be published. In the Amazon dominated world publisher have to be more risk averse. This, of courser, usually means less chances are taken on Black authors. In the Amazon scenario, as long as you have money they will publish your book. Amazon gets paid no matter what happens and the author assumes all of the risk. Even though there are more published books than ever before readers actually have less choice because they are not selecting from the universe of all self published books--just the ones they discover. Amazon is the only place to buy rare, used, or hard to find books. This books were always available--even online directly from the bookseller's website. Today the customer has been trained to only look for books on Amazon. As a result booksellers feel compelled to sell through Amazon to reach a consumer. Obviously Amazon does not serve as a middle man for free. The net result is that the book costs more than it would if purchased directly from the bookseller or the bookseller eats the Amazon transaction cost--or both. In any event, the price of these book are increased. eBooks Amazon is a monopoly.they control the price and discoverability of this product. Increasingly with the KDP Select program Amazon obtains exclusivity. Here is an interesting website that answer the question, Why Boycott Amazon?

You are probably right @Mel Hopkins, thanks for the advice. Over 150 people have completed the questionnaire so far I'm going to work with the first 100 affirmative responses and see how far I can get with building a coalition.

I can see that as I collect information a build a team of supporters that I'll need to also help readers and self-published authors understand the options that they have available to them. Many fell not only that Amazon is their best options for obtaining or publishing books, but they feel it is their ONLY option. At this point 2/3 of the survey's respondents would support a boycott.

I realized as soon as the family on the beach in Brazil came up that I'd seen the documentary before. But I did like the approach of putting the issue of poverty in a global context. The documentary is a decade old and things have gotten worse. The interesting thing about 45 dissing the widow was the fact that America was carrying out operations in Niger. Wait, what what the heck are we doing in Niger? All due respect to the widow, but 45's flubbing of the condolence was both expected and pales in comparison to what American is doing in with our money, and in our name, on the continent of Africa. There are many who feel we are growing our colonizing ways, raping Africa of their resources, and impoverishing the people. But as long as we have cell phones (Africa is rich in the metals needed to make these devices), we don't care. But how can we care? We don't have a media with the resources to help us understand what is happening and why it matters.

I could see why you may feel like a "bitter Black woman lacking compassion," but I don't see it that way. If you were totally devoid of compassion you would not have bothered sharing your thoughts. Rather I think that you are a mature human being telling her truth. I'd be willing to bet that most people don't care about the things you mentioned. We are bombarded with so much it is hard to care about any--at least not until it effects you and then it is usually too late... I trust that at some point we will put our focus more on what people your age have to say @Cyniquerather than the twenty-somethings, and dysfunctional older people, who get all the media's attention. Maybe in that world people your age would feel more invested in what happens after they are gone and everyone else would benefit as a result. While most of the people who read what you write will not acknowledge it, you do have an audience who benefits from your thoughts. Hopefully you won't become too bitter to sharing them here.

I hear you both, but we can simply live are lives. If you engage with the world--they are constantly assaulted us in a myriad of ways. And when I say "they" I don;t mean all white folks or even a majority of them. I'm talking about the plutocracy, who treat poor an middle class white folks like crap too. The dot com bubble, the real estate meltdown, hyperincareation, drugs, affect them too. Sure Black folks are adversely impacted disproportionately, but making this an issue of race is why these problems can't be fixed. Racism is an invention of the ultra-rich to keep us fighting with each other rather than dealing with our real enemy.

I'm going to watch this too. "We aren't inching towards the haves and have nots... we are there - slaves and slave masters..." Exactly. But this we will not change because too many people don't realize this or care. The most astonishing reaction to my proposed boycott of Amazon, for example, is that some, a minority for sure, but a sizeable one, sees absolutely nothing wrong with Amazon being a monopoly. Here is a conversation I had with someone (who I don't know) on Facebook over a period of less than 24 hours. The conversation went nowhere. I don't see how I could possible help someone like this understand why Amazon's growing dominance is bad for all concerned (save Amazon's investors). Troy Johnson María, It is interesting that some have made this an issue of Amazon versus mainstream publishing. Sure Amazon is manhandling the "Big 5" publishers, but my motivation for this action is to help independent authors, publishers, and booksellers. Manage María Cristina Silva López Amazon is not the only place independent authors can use to publish. There's tons more. But they require extra work and advertising, which many are not willing/able to put in. Hardly Amazon's fault. As for independent booksellers, there's Amazon marketplace, as well as many other alternatives. Nowadays if a person wants to run a business and be profitable they can't just expect one source of revenue income. That's why Amazon is so profitable, they get it. It's not just books, it's clothes, it's appliances, it's groceries, it's dash buttons, it's own products, it's percentages of other business' sales. It's a great business model that anyone could replicate in smaller scale. Bitching and moaning about the big bad Amazon is not gonna get these people sales, but it's a heck of a lot easier that working your arse off to get them. Consumers are turning to alternatives from traditional publishing because they're not getting what they want. Amazon is just one of the ways they can access that. 30 years ago it would have been impossible for me to discover a self-published teen author from Australia. Today that teen can get my money and a new fan, and I can help spread their name around. Remove Troy Johnson I'm not sure if you've read my article. In it I reference a report: Amazon’s Stranglehold: How the Company’s Tightening Grip Is Stifling Competition, Eroding Jobs, and Threatening Communities (Institute for Local Self-Reliance), you may download it her...See More Manage María Cristina Silva López Yeah I read it. I agree with a lot of it, the way they do some things is far from great. Doesn't contradict at all what I'm saying though. Assuming I didn't because I don't suddenly agree with you it's insulting towards me and extremely arrogant. They ...See More Remove Troy Johnson María, being insulted is your choice. I simply did not think you read my article or any of the related information because of what you wrote. In many areas Amazon is, or approaching, becoming a monopoly. Surely you must realize a monopoly represents is a complete failure of capitalism. Now if you think Amazon is a reflection of capitalism working well; then we will have to disagree--no insult intended. Manage Valerie Drew I purchase books from Amazon, Kobo, local bookshops, charity shops and mainstream sellers. I support local bookshops as I love them and don't want to lose them. So no this isn't just about Amazon. Remove Sarah Hindmarsh Then stop being a prat and kill this before it starts. You are going to HURT independently published authors beyond belief. Your actions are completely irresponsible and you clearly have not properly considered the consequences for the people who depend on ebook sales through Amazon to make a living. Remove Troy Johnson Sarah, my sole motivation for considering this action is to benefit independent authors, publishers, and booksellers. I would be willing to bet that I've made more money from Amazon that you have, since I've been an affiliate for them since 2002. If I were to boycott them I'd be cutting off a revenue stream--fortunately my livelihood is not dependent upon a single corporation. But again the very fact that you believe that I would "HURT independently published authors beyond belief" is precisely the problem I'm trying to solve. No author should be dependent upon one company. Again this is the situation monopolies create. Manage Sarah Hindmarsh You obviously fail to see the point completely Troy Johnson. I have a very successful tuition business and rely on amazon precisely zero for the roof over my head. Others are not so fortunate. Attempting to make them destitute to further your own political cause in this way is frankly despicable. Remove Troy Johnson Being hyperbolic and accusing me of wanting to make others destitute is absurdly hyperbolic and/or disingenuous. But thanks for your comments. Manage Sarah Hindmarsh That may not actually be your aim, but if this poorly thought out action were to succeed that would be precisely the result. I know you think you are doing a good thing here but your grasp of the potential consequences is atrocious. At this point i gave up. Some people have to had the last word, and I was clearly not getting anywhere. But it gives you a sense of how Amazon has become an issue of religious proportions. I doubt even a documentary like the one above will make a dent in people like the person I was debating above.

Here are the preliminary survey results. Over 100 people have commented so far.

Yes I understand we all want it to be seamless as well as transparent. This will take some time to develop. Send your thank you page when it has been created and I'll follow up shortly. Dealing with the monopoly Amazon has become, will be driven by authors folks like you who chose to take control of their products rather than completely handing it over to Amazon. If people want your book they will have to buy it from you. You will make more money simply by keeping Amazon out of you pockets and readers will get the books for less money. One very fundamental thing that readers are missing is that Amazon is a monopoly they can only sell books at 40% off and ship them to you for free because they can afford to take a loss on that sale. Sure, the reader "benefits" in the short term with cheap book but the longer-term adverse impacts are incurable. The loss of Black indie book sellers on line and off is just one aspect.

@Mel Hopkins, I'm so glad you explained, in more detail, how marketing and sales work in publishing. Others (especially indie authors) will appreciate the effort it actually takes to get books into the hands of readers. They really do believe Amazon sells books for them and gets them in from of readers and there are no other options. I just updated your link to reflect the AALBC.com button you sent (it will work the same way). Now just to be clear when someone purchases the book are they send back to a thank you page on your site or is the PayPal confirm the last stop? . If you create a customized thank you page I can show you how to use Google Tag Manager to determine where those customers, who actually purchased your book came from. If fact, once you set up Tag manager you can give me limited access to your Tag Manager account and I can set this up for you. I'm currently working with others to do this, but I'd be at you to the list. Just peeping the responses to my survey has been eye opening! While the results don't surprise, as it is consistent with the behavior I've observed, the reasoning is a little surprising. The subject has clearly hit a cord; in less that 24 hours, over a hundred people have filled out the form.... more on that later.

Hi @Mel Hopkins, I asked about the customized thank you page for your PayPal transactions, not because of customer service, but because it give me a place where I can have you drop some code to actually track the source of a transaction, alternatively you can use Google's Tag Manager on your website. Please send me the URL of your thank you page. My goal is to allow both the bookseller and the publisher/author to know when a sale takes place--unlike Amazon where you have to trust what they tell you. Mel I can handle your printing needs. The sweet spot would be about 200 books in terms of bang for your buck, but I do fewer at a very competitive price plus you get a finished book to review before your job is started, so the results are guaranteed--no production snags: https://aalbcprintsbooks.com/ Me That may be because you are not that type of book buyer. For example, I'm not a "shopper." I never go to the mall and look around to see if something strikes my fancy. When I go to the mall I do so because I need something, and when I find it I'm out. Some readers are this way. Others may go to the store with just a general idea or not idea at all. I've purchased many books because they were sold to me by a book seller. I in turn have sold that same book to many others. I'd bet money Penguin had salespeople who pitched books to distributors to sell to stores. I discover more books through Ingram than I do through publicists.

@Mel Hopkins, I currently have code on the site which allows me to link directly to authors site for buying a book, as I have for your new book: So You Want to Be a Flight Attendant: A Memoir. I'm going to update the code so that all other options to buy the book are removed so that only the author's link is an option Ultimately I'm going to reach out to you and anyone else I do this for to create an affiliate programs so that I (or any other bookseller) can be paid for the sale. Right now I'm think about keeping it easy and cheap, say a $1 a sale. What do you think about that? It is FAR less than what Amazon takes, and can be scaled across all other websites. I'm working with an author I know to work out the process, so that the work on the author's end is trivial--otherwise no one will do it. Mel, when someone buys your book they are sent to PayPal, have you created a customized thank you page? I'm thinking about showing others how they can track where sales come from. Basically you'd just pay AALBC.com (or anyone who sells you book) a $1 for each tracked sale. I can set it up so that we both see this in real time. Let me know if this is something you are interested in doing? Also what is your wholesale discount? If indie authors and publishers boycott Amazon by themselves without the support of readers, I'm afraid readers will just buy other books. Only the indie author/publisher will be hurt and Amazon will be un effected. Reader really have to be part of the effort. I know at least 50 people have filled out the questionnaire from this afternoon, but I have not looked the results yet. Those results will determine if I move forward with this effort.

New York submitted several locations to Amazon. No one thinks these things through. I considered trying to boycott all of Amazon but figured no one would be willing to sacrifice that. I thought by just boycotting the bookstore everyone who is affected by this might consider at least doing that. I heard the NAACP was motivated to this action because some celebrity was booted from first class...SMH I'm sure American Airlines won't be affected in the least bit. They'll offer the obligatory empty apology-- if they haven't already so and promise to put in procedures to avoid any recurrences in the future...yawn.

Power is not always in the form of job title. Men might have power over women because of age; one and can exploit younger less experienced women. Men can exert power over women with lower self esteems. Of course men are physically more powerful than most women, etc. So you flirt with women in a higher position @Pioneer1? That is insubordination as well as harassment. In a corporate environment you might have been fired I was sexually harassed by a woman but she was low class--not poor, just common, and did not know any better. I ignored her the best I could for she was a contract employee and would not be around very long. Today, almost today 30 years later, I would have just shut her down--she was not attractive enough for me to sleep with. Sleeping with someone is a bad way to decide to promote someone. I prefer to make the decision based upon qualifications and merit. Beside you open yourself of for being used when you do that. It you don't get the promotion or the raise you have no recourse.

“(October 24, 2017) – The NAACP, the nation’s original and largest social justice advocacy organization, has released the following statement today announcing a travel advisory warning African Americans about their safety and well being when patronizing American Airlines or traveling on American Airlines flights: “The NAACP for several months now has been monitoring a pattern of disturbing incidents reported by African-American passengers, specific to American Airlines. In light of these confrontations, we have today taken the action of issuing national advisory alerting travelers—especially African Americans—to exercise caution, in that booking and boarding flights on American Airlines could subject them disrespectful, discriminatory or unsafe conditions. This travel advisory is in effect beginning today, October 24, 2017, until further notice.“ This reminds me of the last NAACP advisory to avoid MIssouri. One of the four examples to justify this action was the following: “An African-American woman and her infant child were removed from a flight from Atlanta to New York City when the woman (incidentally a Harvard Law School student) asked that her stroller be retrieved from checked baggage before she would disembark.“ The NAACP seems to be swifty careening into irrelevancy. Maybe I'm being too hard, but these two issues seems to be relatively minor ones to be preoccupied to be throwing the whole weight of the NAACP behind. All of these issues are thing that people can actually handle on their own. What the NAACP is asking us to do is something Black folks do anyway. We already know to exercise caution. I going to reach out to the NAACP and see if they will join in and support my proposed boycott of the Amazon's bookstore. I just wish they would stop issuing these toothless advisories. Like the boy who cried wolf no one will take these seriously--assuming anyone is taking them seriously now.

The New York Post reported yesterday; "Colin Kaepernick has inked a book deal worth just over $1 million with Random House imprint One World, Page Six has exclusively learned. One World’s headed by book world superstar Chris Jackson, who also publishes Jay-Z and Ta-Nehisi Coates. He launched One World last year." One World was founded in 1992 and was on the leading edge of imprints created to meet the demand of books dedicated to African Americans; a period which only lasted about a decade. One World has been relaunched, and Chris Jackson has been named Publisher and editor-in-chief of One World, which arguably makes him the most powerful Black man in mainstream publishing. It will be interesting to see how this book sells. It will probably make the NY TImes Bestsellers list because the publisher has the wherewithal to make that happen given the subject, but to earning out a million dollar advance will be a challenge. But even if the book does not earn out One World can still make a tidy sum. But time will tell. Maybe Chris can bring another dimension to the story; Colin being blacklisted from the NFL, how 45 changed the narrative, and how the coverage of football games has steered completely away from the National Anthem. Well if One World profits from this particular book, at least two Black men will benefit from Colin's protest.

The “Black Book Ecosystem” refers to the independent Black professionals responsible for getting books into the hands for readers. This includes independent writers, editors, designers, marketers, distributors, printers, reviewers, and booksellers. As Amazon expands their dominance of the publishing industry, even mainstream publishers are adversely impacted. Needless to say, the impact on Black independents is worse. For many Black authors Amazon controls everything--from production to sales and profits qute handsomely. For many authors Amazon even serves as the author's primary web presence. Now many will argue that Amazon has made it possible for any author to publish a book, when this may not have been possible before. The fact of the matter Amazon is not the only option and I'd argue they may even be the most expensive option as they profit from every step in the process and assume no risk. For Amazon, the production of books is purely a monetary transaction. Amazon is motivated solely by maximizing revenue. The professionals in the Black Book Ecosystem, which AALBC.com is part of, are motivated by revenue too, but we are primarily mission driven. We recognize that books are not merely commodities to generate profit or to crush our "competition." Books hold the cultural legacy of our community. They relate our history and stories. We simply can not allow a single profit driven corporation to own our cultural legacy and to be the only entity to profit from the business. I'm not limiting this appeal to just Black folks I'm reaching out to anyone who cares about books. If you agree, would you consider no longer buying your books from Amazon or using any of their book related services? Please fill out the form below and let me know what you think. I'm going to reach out beyond the Black community, because Amazon effect the entire book ecosystem. The Survey has now completed. Review the result here.

You compliment women's butts, 45 grabs vaginas. Lewdness is in the eye of the beholder. Again I know both tactics work. It depends on the people and situation. I'm sure some, perhaps most, of the women Harvey Weinstein got sleezy with took him up on his offer. Weinstein's lewdness worked for him until it didn't.

Wow that was some post. Thanks for sharing such an insporing story!

I truly appreciate your thoughtful comments RCG1. Hopefully you'll create an account and comment here more frequently. Allow me to introduce you to AALBC.com. I started the website 20 years ago and it has been my passion ever since. I run the entire website by myself and it has been my livelihood for the last 8 years. What started out as a site to sell books as an BarnesandNoble affiliate has grown to be much more. I celebrate Black culture through books. However, over the years I've noticed that independent Black booksellers both online and off faced many challenges much of it having to do with a lack of visibility, so I made it my mission to "shine a little light where it's actually needed." This is an aspect of the site you appear to have missed here are some examples I think you'll appreciate. I have maintained list of all the books website you make an effort to sell Black books: https://aalbc.com/booksites/ I also keep track of Black owned book stores (including stores that sell Black books, but are not Black owned): https://aalbc.com/bookstores/ Some might argue that it makes no sense to provide free promotion to one's competitors. But these business are not my competitors are family and we are engaged in the same battle. I need to them to be stronger. Now you are not going to read about the booksellers in Black Enterprise, you are not to hear Oprah talk about them. Over the years I've reporting on how many of these business are dying and what it means to our culture: https://aalbc.com/blog/index.php/2014/03/31/54-black-owned-bookstores-remain-america/ I also noticed the same thing happening to Black owned newspapers: https://aalbc.com/newspapers/ and other Black content providers. I even created a search engine that searched hundreds of Black websites: https://aalbc.com/huria/ all of this in an effort to uplift and support OTHER websites. You said that my list overlooks sites not in the top 50, but you missed that page where in link to 300 more stes: https://aalbc.com/top_black_websites/top_black_sites_list.php all of these site are in my database I maintain and they are regularly montiored. I even maintain a section of the site where I categorize Black Blogs: https://aalbc.com/blogs/blog-category.php?category=Academics AALBC.com links to thousands of other websites. That is not hyperbolic it is a fact. Again I do it because we ALL need support, and no one else is going to do it. I try to lead by example, but know going in the support will not be reciprocated. I sacrifice time and energy that can into activities that would directly improving my own business, but it is absolutely imperative that we support each other. The most popular post in the Black literature section of this discussion forum is "The 10 Best Damn Black Websites Period!" It has been viewed over 100K times. Part of the reason is that virtually no one is talking about Black websites (another reason may be the clickbaity title). Now in the early days of the web we did this, but not today. Now that post was rather weak from a content perspective, so I improved it: creating the Top 50 Black-Owned Websites section of the website that your are already familiar with. I'm not aware of another site doing as much to promote other Black-owned website. Today a Black websites do a lot to drive traffic to social media. They mention their social media platforms before they even mention their own websites. They published so much content on social media that their social media sites come up before their own sites--deservedly so, because their own websites are subordinate to their social media presences. For many authors their social media presence is their only web presence--they have completely abandoned have their own websites! In fact I started offering a service where I'll host an author's primary web presence--usually for free! https://aalbc.com/authors/mydomain.html Speaking of authors I can't tell you how many times I've recorded an author to promote their work and when asked where their book can be purchased they will always say Amazon--as if no knows book can be purchased their. I now explicitly ask them to simply tell be the name of a Black owned bookseller you like: I hope this helps folks better understand the effort placed into uplifting other Black owned websites, the challenges faced into doing and hopefully why it is important. Do we really want the world wide web to be run by Facebook owned websites? In terms of getting consumers to be more Afrocentric in their selection of vendors I think this will start to happen as people start to push back on the dominance and the control exerted by these monopolies. The lack of choice and options that these corporations provide will create a desire for black folks to support smaller less powerful Independent organizations and companies. This is what fueled the explosion in books written by black people in the 1990s. Black folks found a need and met it. Authors like E Lynn Harris and Terry McMillan Who Sold books out the proverbial trunk of their cars are prime examples. Today it would be harder for an independent author to emerge in the same fashion; for we now publish our books through Amazon and even give them exclusivity for the book's sales. Black folks really have very little say in determining if an author is relevant or derives commercial success. We have allowed large corporations to take that control from us. I'm trying to remedy that situation.

Sure that is true Pioneer, but we need to prioritize things. If a guy comes into an emergency room bleeding profusely from multiple gun shot wounds and has a really bad cavity and is at risk of losing the tooth. Are you going to threat the cavity and gunshot wounds with the same urgency? A normal Dr. would completely ignore the tooth decay in the situation. You see my point?

Cynique, you obviously surround yourself with good people. Pioneer I guess lewdness is in the eye of the beholder. I never comment on a woman's physique to a woman, at least I don't recall ever doing it. There are a myriad of ways for that conversation to go south. That is why the "does my butt look big?" question is such a good opener to so many jokes

Check out the Chicago Crusader's coverage of this event Third World Press Foundation writers and poets gather at Betty Shabazz Academy to participate in 50th anniversary events. The historic gathering included Askia Toure, Dr. Eugene Redmond, Dr. Maulana Karenga, TWPF founder Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti, Dr. Sonia Sanchez, Kalamu ya Salaam, and Dr. Aminifu R. Harvey. (Photos by Raynard Graves)