Troy

DEADLINES QUICKLY APPROACHING!! 13th NBWC Poetry Cafe Auditions & Call for Papers The 13th National Black Writers Conference: Writing Race, Embracing Difference Produced by the Center for Black Literature Medgar Evers College, CUNY Thursday, March 31, 2016 to Sunday, April 3, 2016 Register NOW! When Thursday March 31, 2016 at 1:00 PM EDT -to- Sunday April 3, 2016 at 1:00 PM EDT Add to Calendar Where Center for Black Literature Center for Black Literature Medgar Evers College, CUNY 1650 Bedford Avenue BROOKLYN, NY 11225 Driving Directions Join Our Mailing List #NBWC2016 #NBWCWritingRace #WritingRace Find this event on FB. The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, CUNY Phone: 718-804-8883 E-mail: writers@mec.cuny.edu Like us: Center for Black Literature Follow us: @Center4BlackLit NBWC Poetry Café Auditions Calling all Emerging Poets & Spoken-Word Artists! This is your opportunity to shine! Online submissions will be accepted through January 28, 2016. A live audition will be held for this event: Tuesday, February 9, 2016 (subject to change) 6:30 pm - 9 pm Edison O. Jackson Medgar Evers College, CUNY Brooklyn, NY 11225 This is a New Talent event. No artists with books printed by mainstream publishing houses. Groups and Individuals accepted. RSVP's for the live audition must be made by: FEB. 5, 2016 Out of State? Learn how to submit electronically. Find this event on FB See video from previous years now! Would you like to become a panelist at the 13thNational Black Writers Conference? CALL FOR PAPERS We invite interested faculty, independent researchers, and students to submit proposals for papers focused on the conference theme and panels or in the literature and work of our conference honorees: Rita Dove, Edwidge Danticat, Michael Eric Dyson, Charles Johnson, & Woodie King, Jr. The year 2016 marks the centennial of the birth of author and educator John Oliver Killens, founder of the National Black Writers Conference. As we celebrate his birth in 2016, we welcome proposals on the literature and works of John Oliver Killens. A one- or two-page proposal with references should be submitted by January 15, 2016. Please include name and contact information on the title page. Read full description now. Please submit to: writers@mec.cuny.edu cc: bgreene@mec.cuny.edu with "2016 NBWC Call for Papers" in the subject line. Early rate currently available- Register Now! Have additional questions about the conference? Find the answer on our FAQ's page.

Right now we have 6 Book positions on AALBC.com's Homepage! This is a terrific deal to expose your books to readers. This deal will only be available for a limited time. One these spots are taken. The deal will end. Secure your spot now! If you buy today your add will run until February 25th! online

@Shirley Gale, I notice our people are less likely to buy directly from an author's page than via Amazon or B&N. I have offered signed copies of very popular books, at lower prices than Amazon, and have generated very few sales this way. If given an option people buy from Amazon. On my new site I'm consider selling books directly (drop shipped by Ingram), but I'm not sure it is worth the effort given the purchasing habits of people who visit the site. I have to tell you when I set you book up and noticed the $32 price tag--I know folks will balk at that. Is there a way to offer the book at $15 on B&N and Amazon too? Will you be able to offer that $15 price you offer on your website permanently? If so I can place a buy link to your website. I also noticed a three week delivery time (why so long?), and I could not determine shipping cost in advance (what do you charge for shipping?).

@Shirley Gale, my pleasure. Also how was your experience with Archway in publishing your book?. I see they are owned by Simon and Schuster.

Interesting back story @Shirley Gale Of course I had to add your book to AALBC.com! Thanks for sharing your information here and for participating in our conversations!

Hey Shirley, yeah Home is F*ucking Buring was interesting, but I think Cynique's story would be more interesting to us. I'm sure we could relate to and and enjoy her story more--not that I have loads in common with an 80 year old woman, but our families share the same cultural experiences. I could learn from her story, in many ways her story is mine. Dan's story while interesting too, missed everything that was in Cynique's little story. When Cynique writes, "...gathered around a card table munching on a barbequed hot link," I'm already bringing in a lifetime of related experiences because I been in that setting countless times. I know, and enjoy the experience. Of course I have a cold one in my hand, telling the folks on my left and right to look out for the train! I also know the inquiry from a elder. The worst are the judgemental ones, or the ones who are simply nosey. The ones love the most want to help. You know whose talking to you before they crack their lips. Dan came across as a privileged and spoiled rich kid. To his credit Dan acknowledges this throughout the book, but that did not exactly endear home to me--despite the tragic loss of his father. Shoot, I lost my father at 17. Many kids his age don't even know their fathers. Dan in stark contrast had a father than loved him and provided a splendid life for him and his family. His grandparents were loaded too. I'm all broken up over his "tragic" life. We really need more stories like Cynique's published. But I don't expect those, who are just as privileged as Dan Marshall, who make up New York publishing to do it. Maybe if Cynique, added some lesbian sex scenes, a drug dealer and plenty of foul language, maybe it will get pubbed.

Thanks man. I just posted Reed's reaction on my blog.

I did not know that Natalie passed until I read your message just now, she was only 65.

AALBC.com mourns the passing of Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, author of the the bestselling book The Isis Papers

What's not to like

I was reading an old issue of Black Issues Book Review magazine and came across this quote by Ishmael Reed. Reading it now it seems almost farcical and Ishmael Reed is brilliant. The truth is at the time he wrote this I agreed with him. Today I don't I actually started to post my reaction to his quote here, but as I got going I decided to make a Blog post out of my reaction, which you can read here.

“Outsiders” have often dictated the trends of African American Culture, sometimes doing the job themselves, sometimes using what authors John A. Williams called “surrogates.” Both W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington accused each other of being manipulated by outsiders With the introduction of cyberspace, younger writers have the ability to reach audiences unheard of during the sixties when African American writers produced broadsides and saddle-stitched chapbook. As access to cyberspace becomes less expensive, more voices will be heard and this period, the most prolific in the history of African American Literature, will rise to worldwide prominence, no longer having to obey the tastes of the outsiders in power or the dictates of the establishment-manufactured Talented Tenth. —Ishmael Reed (Black Issues Book Review; November-December 1999)

@Bookscan the video on the page you linked to is listed a private.

OK regarding the video and thanks. When I get some time I'll run a report based upon my websites salese that looks at sales volume, relative to price, over time and compare that to revenue. Of course my data is biased toward books I cover, but it would be a good proxy for the data Amazon has, which they'd never release, and I don't know who else has enough data, or the inclination, to do it.

Sara, I was responding to Cynique's question, I was not talking about you. Besides, you and Cynique were not first, and will not be the only two, to get into, that type of conversation. I've been running forums for almost 20 years, people argue, get angry, and hurl insults, it is actually normal. Expecting to never happen is unrealistic. I just don't want the board dominated by that type of discourse.

Hey Cynique regarding adding images I gather that you don't see the option pointed to in the image below. If not, I really need to go back and review the permissions for these boards. I may have gone a bit overboard trying to lock the site down, protecting it from the Unkle Ruckuses of the world. Think of your memoir in smaller chucks. You don't have to do all 80+ years in one humongous tome. You can just write about periods of your life or you can compile a series a more manageable vignettes like the one above about your granddaughter. You can write for the senior citizen a demographic, overlooked group if you ask me. It will be interesting because of your perspective. Dan's "memoir" only covered two years. Maya angelou wrote about 10 covering different parts of her life. You could even flesh out "The Golden Child's" story. Your perspective/input on her father's reaction, her parents divorce, what makes her "Golden", is she tarnished as a result of the revelation, do the parents blame themselves, did you see signs from her childhood, etc, etc. But from your perspective, given a the historical and familiar content. She told you she was an adult and did not have to justify her life choices, to you, her grandmother, you say that is "true." Was this true in your day? Is it a good idea today? You shared a bunch of stories here that would be a good start, maybe you can just mine the archives for ideas.

OK. Chris I will make a point of making these types of videos. What struck you about what I said that prompted the comment. I know you've made the suggestion before, and this time I'll make an effort to take your advise, but what am I saying that you think other people would want to (or need to) hear that that is not already being said or that I can say differently enough to be worth the effort?. Thanks

I'd prefer a more civil discourse, but a heated exchange every now then is fine as people are human and this is natural. And of course I know you've taken much "better/worse" (whatever adjective make more sense), in the past. I was not a fan of that back then either, though it did give you ample opportunity to sharpen your claws. Or did you come here with sharpened claws already As an aside, why do you think a verbal assault had less impact on you than say Thumper. He (and others) took some of the verbal abuse very personal and found it impossible to ignore. By the way our racist spammer Unkel Ruckus asked about you as he defaced a few pages on my development website a few days ago. We are battle hardened.

Chris I'm not debating your reasoning for going with a 99 cent book--it is perfectly logical and sound business decision that I agree with. I'm just making an observation on the impact the improved technology and the current business model as had on the Black book industry, which I feel has been adverse today. Individuals will, indeed must, make the best decisions for themselves. It is unreasonable to expect people to behave otherwise in a capitalist society. So if gas is cheap people will buy bigger cars and drive more frequently; why should they care if the planet is rendered uninhabitable for humanity in a couple hundred years? If they sacrificed driving a big car, while no one else changed their behavior, it will not make a difference and they will be at a disadvantage. Any positive change in the book industry can not be made at the individual level.

Hummm embedding is easy (unless this is another one of those features limited to admins). Basically you post the regular (unshorted) URL to the video and hit return. The video is automatically embedded. It may take a couple of seconds for the URL to convert into a youtube video. But there is not real extra effort. Sorry I need to go back and re-read what I wrote, but I think the available of free and 99 cents ebooks hurts the sales of the average individual author. I don't have data to support this, but my sense is that today we have say, 1,000,000 authors making an average of $500 on a book, when 20 years ago we had 10,000 making $50,000. So yes, there are 999,000 authors generating $500 they would not have had otherwise earned and there are 999,000 more titles being published, but fewer are earning a living from their books and most of the additional books published are not very good. Finally, the good books are more difficult to find, because there is less revenue to spend on promotion and advertising and crappy books are often on equal footing with good one and it is harder for the reader to sort them out.

Hi Cynique, I read this last night on my cell phone it reads like a short story and was very engaging. The title is inspired as you can read a lot into it. Your life would make a fascinating memoir, and you have the wit to pull it off. I just finished read a memoir by a written by a 25 year old white boy, Dan Marshall, Home is Burning. It made me think of your story. Not that your lives have very much in common... Basically he is a rich kid who has two terminally ill parents and the story covers a two year period ending with the father's death. The story would have been much sadder for me (I can see other people crying by the end), but in my present state of mind it is hard for me to feel a whole lot of sympathy for some rich family that has had every advantage imaginable. What reminded me of your story is that Dan's sad tale was told with humor, like yours. Yeah, the lesbians who go for mannish women always confused me, but I guess human sexuality runs on a spectrum.

Yeah the film has been out a month and has earned 2.5 million at the box office. In stark contrast Star Wars which has been out two weeks less has already grossed more than 1/2 a billion. I think it would be more rational to price tickets according to demand. But using this calculus, Chiraq and most other films would be free. Sorry to hear about the rapper King Louie, who some report as being a gang member himself. It is interested when Spike was asked about the negative impact calling Chicago "Chiraq," he pinned the blame or Chicago rappers.

Yeah we pretty much convicted him immediately upon the allegations. I think people got a perverse pleasure out of seeing Bill Cosby fall, and the media of course gave us our fill. Personally I was not so quick to condemn Cosby. I advanced arguments like the ones presented by James McIntosh and others.

Wow someone tried to return knock offs! A slick scheme, that might work for a large corporation. Where these sales through Amazon? I used Vimeo for years, but I could not justify the monthly expense given the views the platform generated--which was minimal. Youtube actually generates views of my videos--independent of AALBC.com. I'm getting views that I would not get otherwise. Plus, and this is a big plus, I make money off these views. No other social media site does that. This 5 minute video (below) of the Harlem Godfather book launch party (a book about Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson) I posted, taken with a camera, so the quality is relatively poor but it has gotten over a 1/4 million views, over the last 8 years and generates a couple of bucks a month. I'm not getting rich off this revenue, but it is FAR better than the model other social media platforms have adopted where you have to pay for your content to be seen.

This is apparently Bill Cosby's mug shot (booking photo). It does not look good for Cosby, as it appears he indeed be found guilty of sexually, and indeed be guilty, sexually assaulting women. Tragic, no matter how you look at it.