Troy

@Mel Hopkins is is only confusing when stated that way, out of context. Google is a monopoly for search. I'm dependent upon them for traffic to this site. Google is also a monopoly to advertising sales, so if I want advertising from brands I have to get it through Google. This single entity can put AALBC out of business or enrich me anytime they desire. Google also hijacks traffic to book sites by putting their book store right at the top of the search engine results -- before ads and of course before organic search results. As I've mentioned before, this has stunted the growth of book sites, put many out of business and prevented new sites from launching. These factors alone has devastated Black book sites, depressing book sales and perhaps impacting the number of Black books that are published by the Big 5 as a result. Obviously an business that is dependent on a single entity for its survival is at risk. So while Google may not have a mandate to destroy Black owned book sites Google's actual behavior would be not different if they did.

This is a fascinating statement. @Pioneer1 read some the articles then tell us what you think.

@Cynique are you seriously arguing that misinformation is better than no information? Again, the opinions you are getting regarding the reaction to Omarosa being called a "dog" was designed to generate revenue for Facebook by keeping you engaged on the platform. Any resemblance to the truth is highly unlikely and purely incidentally. So I misread your statement -- shoot me 😉

@Cynique asking @Delano a question multiple times will not get an answer from him if he does not want to answer. I do it to make it obvious that Del is avoiding a particular question. Your question to him regarding how he reacts to me compared to how he reacts to Pioneer is a good one. Del will not answer a question that exposes his inconsistency. My take on the difference is that Del construes my comments as being elitist. Del dislikes elitists (incidentally, so do I). As a result, he is far more sensitive and less forgiving to what I say, while coming to the defense of @Pioneer1 thinking he is protecting him from an evil "elitist." But I've mentioned, on multiple occasions, I understand Pioneer's perspective as I've held many of his positions in the past. As previously mentioned, I believe Del had his feeling hurt in a big way by an elitist. Any man who has been in the presence elitists has subjected to some form marginalization. I too have experienced this -- even from Black elites. My embracing of 45 was intended as tongue in cheek. That is why I put a 😮 the end of the post to make this a bit clearer. Of course Google's monopoly. needs to be stopped. If 45 can do some good by accident that is fine with me.

@Mel Hopkins of course I would submit the raw data -- it is what drives the website -- so of course it is "factual and verifiable." Obviously it is valuable, so I would not share it with just anyone, but I'd be happy to share it with you if you are that interested. Shoot maybe you'd be moved to write an article 😉 Also many people talk about the self publishing "revolution," as previously stated, but this has not replaced what we have lost. Below is a graph of the rest of the independently published book on the site. This is a much smaller sample of independently published books but probably a good sample as it skews to the books that clearly have some prominence or marketing dollars which would rules out book that are not likely selling well. The 2018 figures are not as good as with the traditional publishers because most indie authors are not provided advance information. But 2018 is shaping up to be the lowest total in the past decade.

This is how fake news propagates. it I gave it more weight because @Cynique and it sounded plausible so I was inclined to believe it. Again it is why I don't consume news on social media and an very skeptical of sites that regurgitate information from other sources. I always go to the source -- if I care about the info. @Kalexander2, actually Frontline said the McCalin did not support Sarah's style and refused to dis Obama (to his credit). The pundits believed if he McCain was more willing to be like Palin he could have beaten Obama.

No, no, NO. I will not subject myself to those "true crime programs" they give people a warped perspective of reality. @Cynique lets distinguish actual behavior from the perception of that behavior. I'm not disputing how humans behave and the predilections -- on that we agree. What I'm trying to get you to see is that the PERCEPTION of that behavior varies a great deal in this country and the differences in perception often effect how people behave. You can find catholic priests fornicating with littles boys, but the behavior is generally frowned upon by the parishioners, so the priest not only hides the behavior they speak out against it. This is no different that the baptist minister who says gay people will go to hell while he knows full well his choir direct is a closeted homosexual. But that same homosexual can flaunt their sexuality, in the church, without restriction in some places. The same goes for the sexual behavior women -- sure we all behave the same way (or want to), but in some places the behavior is great curtailed -- sometime with deadly consequences and it is virtually always women who suffer these consequences.

Whoa Miz Benita, betta watch out spreading rumors about our newly Sainted cultural icons -- even 45 had to be respectful. 😮 I was unaware of McCain's racism, but given his age and background that is not a surprise. While I try to avoid all the hype the media generate I did see Ms. Franklin's red heels -- that seemed a bit much to show. I can ever remember seeing anyone shoes in their coffin. It is amazing what the media choose to cover -- the shoes of a dead woman... sheesh. Tell Mz. Benita she can post here anytime -- just tell her not to spread any gossip about me LOL!

@Kalexander2, perhaps people do envy 45, but people will certainly replicate the behavior as it works. A recent episode of Frontline said this strategy started with Sarah Palin -- indeed she greatly helped McCain's campaign -- she was far more "popular."

I dunno Mel, what am I missing? I thought my data was factual and verifiable. I did not just pull this out of thin air. It reflect an excellent sample of Big 5 output of books written by Black people. So, which one of my assertions do you now agree with or feel that might be more substantiated based upon the data i presented -- if any?

@Cynique, with all that you know about Facebook why would you think you are getting a clear and accurate vision of what the majority of other people think? Omarosa has a new BFF? No, I'm not aware of this, Who is it? Oprah, Obama, Colin Kapernick, Viola Davis, Beyonce, Cornel West? Don't make me go searching for it; just tell me 🙂

@Delano, I guess you are just a better human than I. Like most other Sapiens, I'm flawed, fallible and imperfect. But I continue to try. I would however like to see someone run a successful web based business and ignore Google.

@Cynique maybe in the big liberal cities, but remember everywhere is not New York City or Chicago. There are still places (and even communities within these large cities) where women and men are held to a different standard regarding their sexuality. Some people, like @Pioneer1, believe these differences are natural and that part of our culture's sickness is that we fail to recognize and support these differences between men and women. I don't assume to know to answers, but I do know everyone is different and the country, at least big sections of it, is not nearly as liberal as you seem to believe.

@Cynique, I'm giving you a hard time as I recognize there is very little I can do. Even trying to convince people here that man-made climate change is real is impossible. How can anyone be expected to make a difference -- especially when people in other countries might face starvation, in the short term, without fossil fuels. Sure @Delano 45 is definitely a symbol of America and how it works. When @Mel Hopkins talks about the success of what is "popular," 45 is a reflection of the worse aspect of that reality. Unfortunately, but understandably, as people like 45 become successful others will replicate his behavior -- unless your charts are right, things well get much worse...

@Cynique I guess you'll be happy to know that Omarosa's book has been sitting at the top of the NY Times bestsellers list for the last two weeks. Here is the complete list What is the basis for this statement? How would you even know?

Omarosa's UNHINGED enjoys a 2nd week (September 9, 2018) at #1 on the NY Times Bestsellers List. (Click to see the entire list)

After I shared my data you wrote; "I need verifiable evidence." What did you write to suggest that the data I shared had any validity? Why share Mike's opinions when he offers no verifiable data?

"The U.S. government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country's citizens, but is instead ruled by those of the rich and powerful, a new study from Princeton and Northwestern universities has concluded." Talk about a statement of the obvious. But I will read the Princeton study anyway. With so many people struggling (invisibly so, because the media are constantly talking about a booming economy) it really is a really bad time to be poor in America. You president want to cut or eliminate the few programs designed to help the poor. People with decent jobs, who live fine communities and great schools don't really see the people (the majority of American) who are struggling. The chickens will come home to roost and when they do we all will be effected. This is the unraveling of America I'm not looking forward to witnessing...

Well @Cynique a perverse side of me wrote here, before it was obvious that 45 would be even the GOP nominee, that it would be interesting to see what a 45 presidency would be like. However, after seeing this twitter addict run the country, I wish I never put the sentiment out into the universe. Watching the country unravel gives me no pleasure. I guess I'm not quite old enough to sit idly by and do nothing about it. Of course I appreciate changing anything about this country is, and always has been, an uphill battle. I don't have nearly as much faith as you do that our progeny will be able to do anything about it. We have large numbers of people who buy into and support 45's positions, people who are climate deniers for example -- we may already be past the point of no return and 45 is only making things worse -- promising to bring back coal, dismantling the EPA... My God! 45 will almost certainly finish the year, has a better than even chance of finishing his term, and may even be reelected for a second term...

You are indeed being stubborn Mel. Seriously, the graphs I showed you are backed by data which can be very easily verified -- it is all on that site. But that is fine. My beliefs are backed by a great deal of data. No one I know, close to this issue, shares your perspective which is backed by nothing, other than your refusal to entertain the ideas or even concede that it might be plausible. Nothing you have mentioned, not ebooks, POD, Brown Girls Books, not indie publishing, nothing, has made up for the loses over the past decade -- which itself was the end of a fleeting period of growth in the number of Black books being published. As far as 45 is concerned; no I was not aware of Mike Farb and his theories. It is interesting that you accept and share Farb's theories, while he is just some blogger without any data to support his conspiracy theories. I give you actual, verifiable data, and you reject all of it. Why? What makes Farb so special? Think about it @Mel Hopkins...

Wait, Jim Brown, a man's man, went on the record to support 45?! Whoa, I was just kidding about Trump being my "friend" (though I know @Delano is wound to tight these days to get that), but now I have to rethink what I think of Mr. Brown. His judgment was a little suspect when he started throwing women out of windows, but I chalked that up to the silliness of youth. Maybe CTE is the problem. Still Google's power needs to be reigned in, and I don't particularly care how it is done.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Anyone paying attention to detail may have noticed I don't use our president's name. However the psychopath may actually do us some good. Reuters reported yesterday: "White House probes Google after Trump accuses it of bias." The man actually has a point -- seriously. I noticed this several years ago as Google out ranked negative information about Zane and Terry Mcmillan over their accomplishments. While I'm trying to learn more about their work as writers Google is shoving all the negative stuff they can find about these sisters in my face -- information I'd argue should be private. At any rate, 45's motivation is entirely selfish and I doubt anything constructive will come out of this, but if President Trump can reduce this gatekeeper's power, I say 4 more years 😮

Hey I'm sorry I missed the fact that this was The State of Black Science Fiction club -- my bad. I'll stay on point next time 🙂 Hey I'm sorry I missed the fact that this was The State of Black Science Fiction club -- my bad. I'll stay on point next time 🙂 That said @NubianFellow, regarding getting rid of social media; (1) is not common sense, people really don't know what is happening and if they do know the implications of what this means are lost on them and; (2) social media is addictive (think cigarettes or crack) -- people can't live without their handheld devices. People have written in a humor way about the impact of social media. Now getting back to science fiction; have you seen Black Mirror. They had a brilliant episode, of not too distant future, where people rate each other on all interactions -- not too far fetched, because we are doing this today:

You can find some information on book deals in Publishers Lunch. It is a subscription based publication that would be a good source, but someone would need to dig through the reports. I do have some real data that would be supportive of my anecdotal evidence that the number and size of book deals are smaller. The graph below is the number of books published by the "Big 5" and a large independent (Kensington) over the past 10 years. Since virtually all of the books in my dabasse were written by Black writers and I have captured all of the most popular books, my data is an excellent sample. As you can see this data reflects a steep reduction in the number of deals over the past decade.. While this data set does not speak specifically to the size of advances. I do know authors who refused deals because the advance was too small. If you don't find my data coupled with my anecdotal evidence convincing -- you are just being stubborn. Admittedly the reasons there are fewer Black authors being published by the large presses are more complex that just being offered a smaller deals. Virginia Deberry and Donna Grant wrote an article about this a few years ago: "Our writing career is officially on HOLD." They have not published a new book since. Of course my finer point, speaking to the lack of books dealing middle aged Black men is part of this. @Mel Hopkins, you glossed over my questions (cutting me deep with the 45 dig 😉), but I believe the will help you understand the role gatekeepers in determining and indeed growing popularity . Again Whose platforms does this popularity exist? Whose algorithms determine which content rises to the top? Popularity does not happens as organically as you seem to believe. 45's ascendance should help you appreciate this.

I think my previous statements address all of these question. I'm content to leave this alone. You were offended. I intended no offense. The rest of this is just noise. I apologize if you were offended @Delano.