Troy

Sure Pioneer they way we look is indeed a factor of how we are treated; gender, height, beauty, race, weight, etc are all factors. You can say that Obama is treated like other Black folks because he is "black," but do you think a dumb, dark skinned, short, fat, Brother would navigate the world the same ease as Barack has simply because both are Black? Again, I assert Barack's upbringing, innate ability, ambition, and even phenotype, in combination is not typical of anyone, certainly not your garden variety African American. Either way, nothing in President Obama's background has predisposed him to doing anything more for Black people than any white politician.

I'm becoming more and more convinced that there just simply are not that many smart, conscientious, and righteous people. We all want police officers with all of these qualifications; but where are they going to come from? Cops are asked to put their lives on the line, work crazy hours, and deal with the worst of humanity all for a relatively low wage. It is simply unrealistic for us to expect exemplary behavior from all of them at all times What surprises me is that we don't have more low life racist cops doing evil things. If you want cops to behave better you really have to compensate these professionals accordingly. Cops as have to be treated professionally by their superiors. Cops in my neighborhood seems to be under a great deal of pressure to give out tickets. This is stressful for both the community and the police officers. Of course this increases the number of confrontations and the likelihood another brother gets killed. Usually the extra, and unnecessary, pressure cops are put under is political in origin.

The bestselling books for May and June of 2016 is a interesting mix of books published by major and indie publishers, newly published titles and classic books.

Interesting, I was looking at the thumbnail pic from the perspective of how it appears on the page. If you changed both the title and the thumbnail at the same time it would be tough to determine which one had the greatest impact on views. But I see you are already experimenting and evaluating (I must have forgotten who I was talking to ). As far as a plan for promotion drop me an email with your budget (monthly spend and duration), that will give me an idea of what I have to work with. I can even potentially do some off site promotion as well. Yes I agree the website upgrade has had a lot to do with improved engagement from Facebook. Visitors from Facebook also tended t be more engaged with the website that even visitors arrive via organic search. What is even more interesting, and I'll write about this in the article, is that while visitors from other social platforms has also increased, the relative increase from Facebook completely eclipses the other social platforms and is 88% of all social traffic. Now imagine if my strategy was to post the actual content directly on Facebook? Think of the value that I would have provided Facebook--without remuneration.

Man @hen81, those are slave hours (almost like a booksellers hours) I hope your were compensated in a way that matters to you most. You wanna send me an updated bio and link to a video for your aalbc.com profile: http://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=D.T.+Pollard

Oh ok I misunderstood Cynique. Lita, I doubt Hillary would say something that silly in public, but if you ever find a source please do share it.

Cynique, we have more options than Hillary, Trump, or nothing. We can vote for a third party candidate, I'll probably vote for Gary Johnson. He is calling for a consumption tax and eliminating the income tax (which would render the IRS obsolete) this is something I always thought was a good idea.

The 2016 Phillis Wheatley Award Finalists announced this week. There are some really excellent books on this list; including one we just reviewed, Bibsy by Brenda Ross.

Hey man I just made your requested changes. That is definitely a much better video to use. I also added it to the book's page as well. I would however change the default preview image on the YouTube video to one in which we can see you presenting. If you don't like the three images that YouTube provide I would consider creating your own, you can do a screen grab from a clip of the video or even use an image not actually in the image. Google better not have a problem with that book They are already giving me enough grief with Kola Boof and Karrin Stephans' books On a side note, my traffic from Facebook is much higher so far this year. This is despite Facebook reducing my organic reach on there website and my only using the platform for posting links. My year to date Facebook referral traffic is higher than all of 2015 and 2014 combined--dramatically reversing a two year slide. If the trend continues I well get more Facebook referral traffic this years than all previous years combined (I began measuring Facebook referral traffic in 2006). I will write this up in a day as part of an article on 10 years of social media.

I've deliberately avoided consuming any material related to this "controversy," on social media. As these things go viral on social media, they just strengthen the very structures and systems that we, and even Jesse, complain about. So while Jesse's spoken word piece was moving, it will not change a thing. Going viral on Twitter only enriches the owners of Twitter. The only thing that will change anything is a change in our behavior. White folks don't "extract" our culture we give it way, in many cases freely. We boast about writing for the Huffington Post for free, while turning our noses up a payments deemed to small from a Black owned platform. We even go as far as claiming ownership when none belongs, to the point when some people actually believe that "black Twitter" or BET are things that Black people own.

Oh yeah please give me feedback on the page. I'm going to roll out hosting an authors website using the template shown. I'm encountering too many authors who simply don't have a website. It will be much better than using a Facebook page as one main web presence. I also believe I can also improve upon what Amazon is doing with their author's pages. I've stripped out the right hand side ads for these users, but it does not seem like the best use of space on the page. I guess I'm so used to pages bombarded with ads when you see a web page missing them, it almost does not look right. I just have to figure out why your icon image is not displaying in the browser tab when I use your domain name, but it is showing up with the AALBC.com URL: http://aalbc.com/authors/home.php?author_name=Christopher+D.+Burns I've also added the Twitter feeds for some authors. I also need to find a good calendar widget so that authors can maintain their events calendar on the pages as well. Ultimately, I may grant authors the ability to make their own updates, but than brings in a whole 'nother level of complexity. Again, if you can think of anything to improve things let me know

http://chrisdburns.com/

Well considering that there are far fewer Black Lit sites today than 10 years ago, and many of the ones that remain are undiscoverable; you may not be over reacting. On the whole jumping through Google's hoops has helped make AALBC.com a better website. A few years ago Google made SSL a ranking signal for their search engine. I'm going to make AALBC.com secure as a result. Google are also behind making the while web secure, which is not a bad idea.

Mickey, I can't find any evidence that Hamilton Book Store And Art Gallery store is open. Facebook, Yelp, Yellowpages, all copy the same stale information. I've called the number listed and it is no longer valid. If you or anyone has different information that I can verify please post it here.

Here is a another notice from Google I got this morning (I don't post all of them). Google claims this page: http://aalbc.com/books/bookinfo.php?isbn13=9780446179980 violates one or more of the policies described below. I disagree and will try to fight this one. Google ads may not be placed on adult or mature content. This includes fetish content as well as sites that promote, sell or discuss sexual aids. Examples include, but are not limited to: sexual fixations or practices that may be considered unconventional sexual aids or enhancement tools such as vibrators, dildos, lubes, sex games, inflatable toys penis and breast enlargement tools sexual fixations or practices that may be considered unconventional sexual aids or enhancement tools such as vibrators, dildos, lubes, sex games, inflatable toys penis and breast enlargement tools For more information about keeping your content family-safe, please review our program guidelines and these tips from the policy team. Additionally, you can watch our short animated video & policy refreshers on this topic.

Classic Cynique...Thanks for that.

...so says the New York Times. I guess there is nothing we can do about it, huh? The article mentions as if it is some form of consolation; "The emergence of Black Twitter has also given African-Americans a powerful voice on social media." Black Twitter?! Please it is just Twitter; we don't own it, we don't control it, and it damn sure ain't benefiting Black people.

Missy B. Salick is an author and a blogger I met a few years ago and she really epitomizes the ideal of “Bloggers Helping Bloggers.” Recently she launched a Meet 50 Bloggers Tour #Meet50Bloggers and interview me as part of her effort. My interview may be found here.

Your book will appear on the AALBC.com Homepage and the Book’s Main Page for the entire summer. If you take advantage of placement now that is less than $1 per day. Click here to get started right now; there are only 5 positions left.

Sara you are the only one saying you said something that is not true. The only thing I was interested in doing was finding the source of the image to determine if I could trust that it is indeed what you say it is. I asked your your assistance, by providing the source but rather than helping you went on a paranoia fueled rant. But I downloaded the image, ran a googloe image search, and found an unaltered version on Getty: http://www.gettyimages.com/pictures/civil-rights-leader-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-sitting-with-news-photo-50397246 But only MLK is named as being in the photo. The image is all over social media, but I don't use unattributed information from social media as a source of information. I could find known images of Bernie from the period and compare them--and still I could be wrong, but it is not important enough for me to go through that effort. I dunno I guess I can't engage with Sara on any level, without drama, so I won't bother anymore.

Sara, you are being way too sensitive. I asked a simple question, no hostility, just curiosity. I was actually interested in sharing your post, but I wanted to make sure the photo came from a trusted source. The white guy in the photo could be anyone. I can't tell that is Bernie with any certainly by looking at the photo. I never wrote that you drew the circle. Again your hyper-sensitivity makes you see things that are simply not there. Most sites are fact not checked or vetted in anyway, they are just people, like you, sharing unattributed stuff they found. Of course you all may have positive intent, but because you don't check or cite sources you often spread things that are simply not true. The only link in you post was this one: http://pdafund.com/component/k2/item/70-25-things-you-may-not-know-about-bernie-sanders and the photo is not on that page. Sara think about it for a second; why one Earth would I have any hostility against you? You are not a threat. If I wanted, with a press of a button, I could delete everything you ever posted here. What you confuse with hostility is only an attempt to check a source, nothing more If you were not so sensitive, you'd probably observe that I treat everyone who posts here with love and respect. That does not mean that I will agree with everything they post, or that I will hold my tongue when I disagree. If you really want post where you will never be challenged, or exposed to perceived hostility, you would probably enjoy Facebook more. Facebook prides itself on helping members only see the things that conform their world view. and if Facebook ever slips up members can unfriend the offender-- a sensitive person's paradise.

“If you haven’t posted anything personal on Facebook in awhile, you’re not alone. A damning report published by The Information on Thursday revealed that Facebook has been struggling to reverse a 21% decline in “original sharing,” or personal updates, from its 1.6 billion monthly active users.”—Fortune.com This is on top of additional reports to that Facebook is further diminishing the reach of brands in users news feeds to ensure that used see more posts from friends and family. Maybe the pendulum is beginning to swing back toward the World Wide Web proper and away from "walled garden" corporate sites. This would of course be a great thing for the web, because people are starting to believe Facebook is the web; and don't consume any content outside of the platform.

Where did this photo of Bernie Saunders come from? It is not on the page linked; I'd like to check the source. Funny someone took the time to circle the white guy, as if anyone would have difficulty finding him :-) I have a great deal of respect for the white folks that protested in the deep south, risking and even giving their lives, to support Black people.

Well Cynique in hindsight I don't believe Obama's goal was radical change. Nor do I think if should have been. Universal health care was a lofty enough goal, but that turned out to be a windfall for insurance companies without the public option. Indeed the Obama presidency has been a tremendous windfall for corporate America. The idea that any of the large financial institutions responsible for the mortgage tragedy are doing great today is a travesty of justice. So while Obama, and the likes of Bill Maher go on about how great America is doing, Bernie is at least articulating the anger many of us feel. Whether Bernie could have done something went Obama could not is a moot question, but I do think Bernie intentions would have been to actually do something. I try to ignore all the personality assessments, personal motivations the media talking heads try to apply to candidates. Because these and either objective or unknowable. Even reporting on what a candidate says is not as important outside of the context of what they have done. I wish the media would report more on what candidates have actually accomplished....

@Cynique, do you think the reduction in hypocrisy was worth the increase in irresponsibility?