Troy

We just have cameras and the WWW to more easily record and spread the word about these crimes today.

Hey man here is a better link you can use to send people to Amazon: http://amzn.to/2eE5cGA It is better because it has my affiliate code applied, meaning I'll earn commissions on the sale. Read this article for more insight: "5 Things Writers Must Do To Survive Online" I added your book to the site: https://aalbc.com/books/bookinfo.php?isbn13=9780692756584 I'd forgotten that you'd previously shared the book's info on the website. I wish I thought about it when I first posted about attractive covers. I just added your book to my post. Yes I see you ebook is still #1 in three categories: Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #343 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction > Biographical #1 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Biographical #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Biographical ver all it would be interesting to know how many different categories Amazon ranks books in. It could be hundreds I suppose

Sure there are some bad people that deserve to be imprisoned, but you have to appreciate that many of the those locked up are black people locked up low level drug offenses, or buried under the jail before of harsh mandatory sentencing. Your know the U.S. prison population sky rocketed in the 80's all those were not the types of violent offenders you are talking about. Indeed far more than you appreciate were completely innocent. No slavery is nothing new. I think you try to catch 13th. I, for example, learned about ALEC, which explains exactly how "da man" is keeping us down.

It will be interesting to see what Dylan does. Post a link or information about your #1 bestselling book.

Well Cynique, I'm talking about Walmart profiting off the free labor of incarcerated inmates, i.e. slavery. But you are trying to make the an arguement about murderers. Still, no matter how you want to twist it, Walmart should should not be making money off the free labor of locked up people. The only encourages Walmart to pay off politicians to corrupt the system in order to enhance their maximize their revenue. Low wage jobs and cheap products do not make up for this evil.. I don't care if it was Charles Manson doing the work. This is not capitalism, but a perversion of it. Meanwhile, no one is talking about all the mom and pop businesses, that Walmart has put out of business. The mom and pop business are forced to pay a minimum wage while Walmart can use slaves. But hey this is America and we only know how to grow our economy through slave labor...

I read the quote below on Facebook today. I know Paul and heard this story before. But today when I read this story, I thought, a post I made recently made suggesting that Walter Mosley does not support AALBC.com. Upon reflection I was really wrong about that. “Walter Mosley who was probably traveling in Woodson’s spirit when he hooked me up to publish his Gone Fishin’ in 1996. Walter was a best selling author even then. he wanted to make sure that some Black publisher would benefit from his wealth and fame. he made sure that I was in full control and learned the ropes of negotiating 6 and 7 figure deals. with that experience he made it possible for me to serve as Ta-nehisi’s advisor and mentor today, that is territory aside from being his father. Walter did what Woodson visioned. I know Black Classic Press and our readers are forever grateful. Broke as hell I went with into a nest of white publishers that wanted to control that book and me. Walter was a lion. He basically told them to fuck off, keep their money because they were not going to control the book or my publishing. and then he went further, I joke with him about this today, he told them that if he and i had to stand on street corners with tin cups begging in our community for the money to publish we would. Dude was like crazy but on it. short story is we didn't have to an’ the book went on to be one his best sellers.”—W. Paul Coates, Publisher Black Classic Press Often I talk about the "Black Book Ecosystem," one of the most important aspects of this ecosystem is that you derive benefits even if those benefits were not provided directly to you. Walter could have easily sold the book to WW Norton, but he went out of his way to sell it to Black Classic Press (BCP). Indeed Walter may have helped keep BCP in business. BCP supports many other Black business and authors, including AALBC.com. If BCP did not exist or was substantially weaker than it is today, the entire Black book ecosystem would be weaker. Walter's one book deal has positively impacted the Black Book System in more ways than I can possibly envision. I would like to see this happen more frequently. I have a feeling it will. May we all will travel in the spirit of Carter G. Woodson In the video below Walter relates this story.

Yesterday two articles, in which I was interviewed, on the subject of independent bookstores were published. I was also interviewed for another article which appeared in Publishers Weekly earlier in the year that I completely forgot about. It appears there is renewed interest in the plight of indie bookstores. When I first noticed the trend I was alarmed by the apparent lack of concern by the media. I'm not talking about mainstream media, because I know they don't care, but by the lack of concern by our own media. This lack of coverage by our own media, quickly learned was due to the problems they depth and seriousness of the challenges they faced themselves. Of course I'm happy whenever someone wants to help shed light on the challenges indie booksellers face. Black-Owned Bookstores Soldier-On in the Fight to Survive and Thrive by Tony Williams, Caribbean Book Blog (October 20, 2016) Johnson also believes it is necessary for all the stakeholders to have a clear and comprehensive picture of the ‘Black Book Ecosystem’ so that they can have a more informed understanding of the various components and interact better with each other. To this end, the AALBC has meticulously compiled a treasure trove of data, including lists of Black-owned web-based and brick-and-mortar bookstores, Black-owned newspapers and websites and a host of other related information, all of which is freely accessible on the AALBC website. AALBC is also a widely recognized and avid promoter of authors, book and film reviews, book recommendations, event information, discussion forums, writer resources, interviews, articles and videos. Black-owned indie bookstores look forward to the next chapter by Kelsey McKinney, Fusion (October 20, 2016) “There was a larger conversation about books 10 years ago than there is today,” Troy Johnson, the founder and president of AALBC, told me. “Ten years ago, this decline [in the number of black-owned bookstores] would have been big news.” A Glimmer of Hope for Black-Owned Bookstores by By Judith Rosen, Publisher Weekly (Feb 19, 2016) Over the past five years, the American Booksellers Association has witnessed a resurgence in independent bookselling, yet the number of bookstores owned by African-Americans has continued to decline. Between 2002 and 2012, two-thirds of black-owned bookstores closed, according to statistics compiled by Troy Johnson, founder of the African-American Literature Book Club (AALBC). Of the roughly 400 stores that remained, more than half closed in 2013 and 2014. The closings continued in 2015, leaving only 67 black-owned bookstores at the end of January 2016. Much of what motivates me to support independent bookstores is the knowledge of what we have lost and the realization is that there are fewer platforms with the desire to explain what is happening and why it is important. This is why articles like these are important and should circulated widely.

Recently I came across two really attractive book covers. Of course perceived attractiveness is purely subjective, but I think most folks will find images on these covers attractive. Of course we can argue about the relative merits of each cover regarding how well they relate to, or convey, the book's contents. In an online world we could also have to consider how well each cover looks when it is scaled down to thumbnail size. But right now I'm just talking about the visual appeal of the books in isolation, independent of the book's contents. Do they pique your interest? Do you want to know what each book is about? The book on the left is collection of poetry by Laini Mataka, who I recently called a powerful poet. The book in the middle is a historical romance novel by Cerece Rennie Murphy who I just praised for being supportive of AALBC.com. The book on the right by Terrance Coffey is an award winning novel by a new participant on these forums. Does knowing what each of these books are about make a difference? Are they more or less appealing? Do book covers matter?

Well keep us posted!

In a time when an increasing number of authors are resorting to Facebook, or Amazon, as their primary web platform, it is refreshing to see an author establish their own web presence. @Cerece Rennie Murphy is one prime example. Cerece recently took advantage of our Fall Book Special. I'm not just the type to place an ad and forget about it. I actually check out the author's work and even provide unsolicited suggestions from time to time. From my perspective it is a long term relationship not merely an anonymous financial transaction... but I digress. After checking out Cerece's website, watching a couple of videos in her "For Authors" section, I came across her book store. Which included logos and links to IndieBound*, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and Booksamillion. I followed each of the links and realized that I give Cerece a much better treatment of of her work than all of those websites. So I asked her to add AALBC.com logo to the page--which she did in a matter of hours (screenshot below). I know for authors like @CDBurns, and @Mel Hopkins, this type of activity is a no-brainer. But in practice, it really isn't. This is why I'm taking the time to point out what Cerece did in the hope other authors will follow her lead and do the same thing, not just for AALBC.com, but for the independent booksellers of their choice. Cerece is not the first author I asked to do this, but she is the first I asked in quite some time. One of the reasons I stopped asking is that most authors don't manage their own websites so the requests often went no where. But a more alarming reaction I would get is that the author did not want to risk alienating other indie booksellers by recognizing any individual bookseller single "over" another. I always found that last response exasperating because those very same authors would prominently display Amazon's logo while excluding all other Black indie booksellers. It is absolutely not preferable to ignore all the other platforms who have committed their very livelihoods to selling the author's work. But if you visit any author's site most will link to Amazon and most will not link to (support) an indie bookseller. Now if you ask any author if indie booksellers, online and brick and mortar, are important they will, universally, say "yes." It is important that authors appreciate that indie booksellers, particularly the Black owned ones, can benefit a great deal more than Amazon by a simple link on an author's. Of course increased support will benefit the authors themselves as the number of platforms available to promote, critically reviews, and sell their books grow in numbers and strength. *Indiebound represents independent book sellers, but Black owned stores are not represented well. Just a quick query of Manhattan shows a bunch of stores that have closed and does not include the last remaining Black owned bookstore in Manhattan Sisters Uptown.

I watched 13th last night. It was well done and depressing. Cynique, the argument you used is exactly the same one used by people like Bill Clinton who put these horrible laws in place and the right wing who want to expand them further. Of course the argument is flawed because it completely ignores the overwhelming differences in the way the criminal justice system treats Black people. "Poor innocent Black people are treated worse than guilty rich white people." The biggest difference between inmates pressing license plates for the state and making products for Walmart, is that Walmart is a for profit entity. Walmart works with other corporation to literally craft legislation to increase their profits in everything from the prisons themselves to the exploitation of the slave labor the inmate provide. I know it is hard to see past the marketing hype and propaganda to see Walmart for the criminals they are. I also appreciate the terms I'm using like "slavery" and "criminal" might seen like exaggerations, but they truly are more indicative of the behavior of these corporations. Again, it probably seems like hyperbole because we are not accustomed to the truth being told in plain terms. But being clear is the only way "widespread outrage" will occur and change will happen. There are signs of hope, because of film like 13th more people are being made aware of what is actually going on.

Thanks for sharing your information here @JS McBride. Please share information about some of your more popular titles.

Actually this year Youtube has made it much more difficult to swipe content from their website. All the browser plugins that made it easy to copy video from Youtube have stopped working. Of course this is a minor annoyance as anything in digital format can be bootlegged. I still "own" all of my old LP's I guess down the road this will be the only music I own. Just as well that music was better anyway ;-)

What is so crazy about the Dylan situation is that yesterday I went to his website and it said Winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature. I did not have time to share the link here, to demonstrate that Dylan in fact did acknowledge the win. Today however, the text acknowledging the win is gone! I wonder if Dylan will be bad enough to turn down the $900,000 too. Amazon has "Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature" in all caps and boldface on every book by Dylan. Amazon also has the book at #1 on multiple categories. As an aside: I wonder just how many categories has--there are so many #1 bestsellers, and countless top 10 books. Of course this drives sales because the authors share this nebulous accomplishment widely. Amazon is a really brilliant marketer. Here is a screenshot of the page before mention of the Nobel Prize was removed. It is odd that he is being coy about the honor. At this point he should just be like Obama. Take the honor and the money and joke about what a farce it was down the road.

Once you buy a book, CD or DVD, it’s indisputably yours and can’t be taken back by the seller. You can lend it, give it away, leave it to your heirs or sell it to a secondhand store. But the truth is that in most cases, “buying” digital content doesn’t confer any of those other rights. Rights to digital content or items have been revoked abruptly by Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble for a variety of reasons. Amazon stealthily removed versions of George Orwell’s “1984” and “Animal Farm” from customers’ Kindle e-readers after copyright issues arose with those versions; iTunes has removed albums from users’ accounts after the albums were withdrawn or changed by the artists or their labels; Barnes & Noble shut down a customer’s access to an e-book after the user’s credit card expired, even though the book already had been paid for. The above article is from today's LA Times, "Consumer deception? That 'Buy Now' button on Amazon or iTunes may not mean you own what you paid for" I know this to be true and it is extremely frustrating. I migrated all of my music, taking CDs I purchased and converted them to digital files that I managed using the Itunes application. After a few years I gave away all those antiquated old the CDs. Any other music I acquired I purchased at the Itunes store. I have an Ipod that I listen to my music on, but most of the time I used my Iphone to play music. My desktop crashed (they all do eventually), and I migrated from an I phone to a Samsung phone. It was a royal pain in butt to the get my music onto my new computer. I won't even go into the details, but it involved hacks, 3rd party apps, unhiding hidden files, all just to migrate music I "owned" to a new computer. I felt ripped off... because I have been. Now both of these companies want you to migrate everything to the freaking "cloud" so that they can stay in your pocket for ever. F Itunes! I'm going to be like everyone else and steal my music from youtube.

Yeah you should, but you know an increasing number of authors I encounter don't have a website. If I created a web prescence for you on AALBC.com would you share it whenever you shared information about your book?

Well Cynique if I had my way companies would not have the ability to make profits by enslaving Black people. It is not clear to my why folks are so willing to over look this thing. Just because our sensibilities are not offended with the sight of negroes in picking cotton does not make the situation any less cruel. Walmart can make money without taking advantage of enslaving people. @Cynique, you should try to catch Ava DuVernay's Documentary ‘The 13th.’ I have not seen it yet, but I heard that they talk about Walmart taking advantage of slave labor right here in the United States. And as far as fashion you definitely got me wrong on that point. I never was into brand names. Besides today, I don't have the income to waste on over priced brand-name clothing. I go for function and price over brand names. I only buy clothing when something wears out, and my clothing takes a long time to wear out. So I don't buy new clothes very often. Remember, I sell African American literature ;-)

The 13th The title of Ava DuVernay's extraordinary and galvanizing documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States." The progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out by DuVernay with bracing lucidity. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from a dazzling array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis. The film opened in a limited number of theaters two weeks ago and has been available via Netflix since October 7th. I actually have not seen it yet, but I will. I guess I have not been in such a rush to see it because I'm sure I'll learn nothing new. What made me think about it however was a conversation I'm engaged in on these forums about the prospect of Walmart boycott of shoppers, until Walmart stops using the labor of enslaved prisoners here in the United States. Given the virtually complete lack of support to the idea of boycotting Walmart it occurred to me that maybe some folks are not aware of just how bad things have gotten as a direct result of the privatization of our prison system. I strongly recommend everyone watch this film.

OK Pioneer if you are talking about the manager of high priced call girls; the person who vets the clients, ensures they are protected from STD's, manages their appointments, fine. But I'm not sure why these people would engender any more respect than the night manager at a Denny's Restaurant. When I think "pimp" I envision the monsters that prey on wayward teens, coercing them through physical and mental abuse, having them give unprotected blow jobs to truckers at truck stops or miscellaneous dudes in the back alley of seedy neighborhoods. I assume you have no respect for, nor admire them cats, right? No Cynique, none if it is new.

Cute story I remember my mother tell me about God when i was a kid and all I could envision was a "guard," some big dude with weapon protecting a important place. You should post a link to your website Dee.

Deep thanks for sharing that article @Mel Hopkins. @Pioneer1 I suspect based upon your statements that you have not read the article that Mel linked to. Please read it when you get sec, then let me know if you still don't care about the historical accuracy of the film.

This is one thing that puts Obama heads and shoulders above both Donald and Trump. As Obama illustrates there are men who have far more control than Bill or Trump, men who do not abuse their power to have sex women. Cynique it really does not matter if Clinton hooked up with under ages cildren before, after, or during. It is still statutory rape. The take aways should be that we live in a culture where men take advantage of women. If you have a little money, power, or connections you will usually get away with it. Apparently, Nate Parker got away with it. Bill Cosby will get away with it, as will Trump and Clinton (that BS impeachment does not count). We live in a culture where "successful" pimps command respect. Listen to our music, visit a strip club, look at the proliferation of pornograhy on the web, visit any place where you find great numbers of poor black people... and you will begin to understand why men treat and talk about women the way they do.

Interesting. I was not aware of this turn of events (I never kept up with the conversation on social media). So Dylan has not even acknowledged the award, and folks are getting all bent out of shape over the whole thing and Dylan hasn't even batted an eye... Dylan is the man! When the Swedes gave Obama the prize for "Peace" I thought that was premature, for Obama did nothing for peace other than talk about it. I wonder, given the countless innocent casualties as a direct result of Obama, do they think they made a mistake?

"I may detest a rapist, I actually have respect for a successful pimp." Pioneer, you must realize that this statement is at the very least incongruent, and the reasons should even require an explanation. You wouldn't say Bill is as bad as Trump... OK I can't dispute your feelings on a subjective matter such as this. But I have to believe this is more a matter of Black folks loving Bill Clinton and hating the republican Donald, rather than clear-eyed objective evaluation of their known behavior. I heard recently heard that Bill frequented an island owned by a billionaire buddy, who was convicted of sex crimes, where they had sex with under aged girls (sex slaves). Man the stuff we know about these guys doing is just the tip of the iceberg... I'm not going to go to the mat defending either one of these degenerates. Who is worse? Flip a coin.

There are always alternatives Bruh I was actually contemplating the prospect of customers boycotting Walmart, not the employees stricking. But a strike--assuming not scab intervention--would have the immediate effect of shutting the franchise down and that may make sense too. No I'm just talking about people like you and I spending our dollars are other stores; until Walmart ends the practice of using slave labor in our prison systems.