Troy

In an earlier post I mention there are no Black owned bookstores in Harlem. Technically that is true. But there are a couple of Black owned bookstores in Manhattan. Both can be found in my database of Black-owned Bookstores One of these stores is Sister's Uptown Bookstore which is run by Janifer P. Wilson. Her store is in Washington Height which, is the community just north of Harlem. Some people consider it part of Harlem. I believe they would be in the minority. Janifer, shown in the video below, recounts what drives booksellers who focus on celebrating our culture through books (including myself). There is another store, which appears to be Black owned, run by a church, Becoming God's Answer Bookstore. No one ever talks about this store, but it a really nice store, for Christians. The store is in East Harlem, just a few steps from the boundary of Harlem and East Harlem, 5th Avenue. If someone wanted to argue that is was in Harlem I would bother to split that hair.

I know the impact of Katrina was very serious, but I can't help but laugh when I see this. Mike was obviously reading a prepared statement and Kayne was obviously talking off the top of his head. Mike's reactions was funnier than anything he ever did as Dr Evil, and the abrupt cut back to Chris, who looked like he just finished rolling his eyes was priceless. Anyone else would have been fired on the spot. You can't put Kayne on live TV. I wonder how much Kayne ended up giving to the Katrina recovery effort.

Well I guess that is how you define crazy. But I hear you. Honestly I don;t really care enough to have a strong opinion in any direction. I'm not naive enough to believe Bernie could to anything that would put the interests of the masses above the plutocracy. But I believe he would try harder than Hillary who I don;t think would try at all. Bernie would be assassinated before any radical change would take place. Which is one reason Barack Obama is the safest man on Earth. Hillary has another thing going for her; she is white. I guess in my heart of hearts I would rather see Hillary in place over Ben Carson--definitely Trump. Maybe I'd have no reservations if she were not a Clinton. Despite Black American's love affair with the Clinton's and the democratic party, Clinton's repeal of Glass-Steagall, was disastrous for America--Black people in particular. Yeah I know she is not her husband, but they are all cut from the same cloth and really don't care about people. Since no one else will run on the Democratic side, Bernie actually has a fighting chance.

I'm not sure how all this is related but... Black people hate Ben Carson. I would take Ben over Trump I'm voting for Bernie. If Bernie is not an option, I'm not voting because it really won't matter who wins, in my admittedly super-cynical mindframe. Then again if it is Hillary versus Ben, I might cast a vote for Ben.

Yeah you guys are right, I fell for the ole use-controversy-to-drum-up-sales okie doke. Perhaps I was susceptible because I actually am a big fan of science fiction--always have been. But I'm not a fan of the Star Wars franchise (ignoring the race issues). I have not pre ordered tickets, and the only reason I would consider even going to see it in the theater is that it is showing in IMAX. Even a mediocre film, which I expect this film to be, can be fun in Imax. You definitely won't catch me standing in line to get in no Star Wars museum. Melody Hobson is the shit. Too bad a brother could not have scored her. But hey...this would not be the first thing a white guy has stolen from us Harlem has more Starbucks than independently owned coffee shops. Don't get me wrong Red Rooster is a nice restaurant, as far as restaurants go. It is just overhyped and to expensive. Sylvia's is an iconic restaurant, compared to Red Rooster its decor is run down, but it is a spot better suited, based upon cost, for people in the neighborhood. But so is the Applebee's and Red Lobster a fews block away. That said, if you come to Harlem, as a tourist, both Red Rooster and Sylvia's are good choice because everyone else knows about them. But a real foodie with try some of the other spots in the hood like Melba's, Chez Lucien, or Yetanga.

Periodically I run a process which updates the my list of websites dedicated to Black books. I've been doing tracking Black book websites for well over 10 years. Before I ran the process today I had 55 sites; after running the process I now have 42--that is almost of 1/4 of the sites! Surely something was wrong, I mean how could so many sites disappear so quickly? Well I checked, and nothing was wrong. At least nothing was wrong with my code. We've a lost bunch of websites, dedicated to Black books in recent years including many quality sites like, A Place of Our Own, The Urban Book Source, Azizi Books and many others. One can only come to a few conclusions: Sites which celebrate Black culture through books are irrelevant or obsolete Black books are covered adequately by the corporate sites Black people don't read, and no one else reads Black books People who should care have no clue what is happening One or more of the above could indeed be the stark reality. But obviously I don't believe that. However watching sites, run by people more knowledgeable and passionate about book, than I will ever be, is a very discouraging and a great loss to us all. But I feel like I'm the only nut running around complaining. Turning into an old curmudgeon, bitching about the way things used to be... Of course I appreciate that I run one of these websites so I'm far more sensitive to this issue than most. But there are still readers out there right? Don't they miss these websites? I know I do. Almost 5 years ago, when I noticed this trend, I wrote an article called, "Black Book Websites Need Love Too." In hindsight, I realize what probably killed most of those websites was their lowered ranking in search. I know AALBC.com took a big hit back in late 2010 due to a Google algorithm change. Many other websites did too, but I suspect most were not sophisticated enough to know what happened, which is the first step in knowing how to react. This was the main reason I began advocating for indie sites. Creating Huria Search, trying to get sites to work with each other, etc. Most sites just folded or reacted by turning to social media. I began using social media more aggressively myself--even helping others to do the same. The results are that our efforts on social media have enriched the owners of social media, and impoverished our own platforms, aggravating the problem further. All I can say to anyone that cares, is to try to support the few sites that remain http://aalbc.org/otherwebsites.htm. Buy something from them every once in awhile. Side bar: I was on Cheryl Wills website and noticed that Cheryl is explicitly directing readers to buy her book at an independent book seller! You don't see authors doing this very much any more. This is important because it strengthens the stores, when in turn strengthens the writers. Now Hueman, which was founded started in Denver, by Clara Villarosa back in the 1980's was one of the country's premier bookstores. That store ultimately closed. Clara ultimately relaunched the store in Harlem and it was ultimately taken over by Marva Allen. The Harlem store eventually closed, taking with it the last remaining bookstore in historic Harlem. But Hueman continues to do events and runs a website. Authors like Cheryl help the iconic Hueman brand persist. Cheryl has also been supportive of AALBC.com. We need more authors like Cheryl Wills.

Shoot, what do I have to do to get signed by Ghetto Heat.

From Dwight Fryer Many of you have asked for a new book; however, "such as I have, givest I thee!" My new short story, "The Green-eyed Blues" comes out on November 3 in a fiction anthology, Memphis Noir. Join us at this event to meet my co-authors and hear us share our stories: Tues., Nov. 3, 6:00pm Crosstown Arts’ story booth438 N Cleveland StMemphis, TN 38104 Sponsored by The Booksellers at Laurelwood

Yep, spikes are great, especially if you can keep them rolling in. There are hundreds of millions of english readers, with internet access, on this planet. If one percent of them visited this site, each year, and never, ever returned, the site again would be doing great. The web is a big place man.

Hi Shirley, I've taken the liberty of pasting your word document directly. People (myself included) are often download attachments that could potentially have malicious code. So I almost never do it. Plus it save folks a step and is better for SEO. Thanks for shgaring Shirley G. Perry-Church shirley1212@comcast.net www.readtoachieve2.com Subject: Cracked Glass, Part 1, The Whole Damned Family—Semi-biography, YA transition to Adult Dear Agent: Thank you kindly for the opportunity to present my Semi-biography, Cracked Glass, Part One, The Whole Damned Family. I started drafting my autobiographical manuscript in 1983 in a desperate attempt to save my family from a generational curse. Unfortunately, my best efforts came under attack and I could not complete my task. Today, I am on a mission to complete what I started. I must tell this story or another generation will be damned to repeat what was started with my grandparents. It all started in the 1920s with a baby girl being taken against the will of her dying mother. In subsequent generations, the children, especially the girls, would pay the ultimate price for the denial of the death request. Carlton Press, Inc. in 1991 described my original manuscript as follows: SHIRLEY GALE (TWT) is a candid semi-biography based on a life of tragedy and suffering, including fascinating portraits of despicable individuals that were known by the narrator… Shirley Gale Perry’s story is provocative and eloquent in its appraisal of the environment and people encountered, from the faithless husband, to living temporarily in a homeless shelter with her children… It is recommended for its realism and human drama. Cracked Glass, Part One: The Whole Damned Family, an adaptation of Shirley Gale tells the story of how one man destroyed an entire family—eleven sons and daughters, and a host of extended family members while he hid behind religious pretense. Cracked Glass… reveals how this man is my uncle and my daddy at the same time. It tells how, as my daddy, he tried to have sex with me while my momma-aunt lay passed out—drunk—in her bed. How this man used his powers of manipulation and deceit to have his way with his wife’s sisters—first one, then two, then another and another without her taking notice of it when it was happening right before her eyes. Then, if this isn’t enough, you will read how my brother, or was he my cousin at the time, took my virginity? No, he didn’t merely rob me of being a virgin, I know now that my nineteen year old cousin-brother raped my seven year old body and left scars on my heart and soul that I had to conceal in my dreams. And finally, Cracked Glass… will take you into the depth of our dysfunction, revealing how the men in my family tried to turn me into my mother—a negligent single parent and the family whore who allowed men to beat her simply because they could. This does not imply that I didn’t love my mother; it meant that I did not want to become her. Cracked Glass is a sad depiction of the dark side of too many families in our world. This is not a story to taken lightly, but one that each of us should learn from and vow never to have repeated in any family. This story is contained in thirty-six chapters, with a word count of 84,840 words on 278 pages. This is a multiple submission query. Thanks for accepting this manuscript for review. I am hoping that you will find merit in my work. I truly believe that Cracked Glass, Parts One, Two, and Three is destined to be a best-seller and someday even make it to the big screen. I am looking forward to your request for more. Please find the synopsis and the sample chapters per your request. Also, the book proposal is available upon request. Sincerely, Shirley G. Perry-Church, M.Ed., Author, Artist, Educator, and Mentor Organization Memberships: National Association of Professional Women (NAPW) Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrator (SCBWI) Golden Key International Honour Society Synopsis: Cracked Glass, Part One, The Whole Damned Family uncovers the hellish nightmares that a second and third generation endured simply because a girl child of the first generation was taken and not given back. In the 1920s many Negroes or Coloreds during this era were poor, uneducated, and void of the experiences necessary to exist anywhere but on the tenant farms that they occupied. As sharecroppers, such was the case for my grandparents and their nine children. Their children, my mother, aunts, and uncles, of the second generation, abandoned their farm lives and headed for something bigger in the northeastern cities of Virginia, Richmond, and New York—places where they were too naïve and unprepared to navigate. Once there, they had children, my cousins and me, the children of third generation. While the second generation came with a curse that they were unaware of, their negligent and self-destructive actions resulted in the damnation of their children at the hands of one man. All but a few survived their torment because somehow the one man that they should’ve been able to love, trust, and respect managed to manipulate and destroy their hearts, souls, and minds without many of them—his children, ever being able to refer to him by his proper title—which should’ve been Daddy. This is a story of “damned” lives that were mysteriously repeated because of an unfulfilled death request. A dying woman requested that her younger sister marry her husband and take care of her four young babies. But the sister wanted no parts in it. What happened from the actions of the original family and the denied request entwined itself into the next generation and resulted in their ultimate demise by way of an unresolved murder, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual deviations—incest and adultery, lies, deceit, trickery, and pure evil—the kind that kills discriminately, with purpose and by selection. However, one girl child, marked for salvation, endured the madness, but somehow emerged, battered and mentally bruised, to tell the story and put an end to the generational curse passed down by her fore parents. Cracked Glass, Part One: The Whole Damned Family is a portrayal of life supported by documentation via a Human Resource, Social Services Agency, The Norfolk Police Department, and a Veteran’s Hospital. It is a book of 84,840 words contained in 36 chapters, on 278 pages. Cracked Glass … is derived for the original manuscript, Shirley Gale, copyright 1983. Other work: The Hunt for the Magic Pearl, Copyright 2015, Archway Publishing, Edited and Reviewed by Kirkus Indie, Available where all books are sold, please visit www.readtoachieve2.com The Peanut Butter Trap, Copyright 2015, Completed Manuscript, Edited and Reviewed by Kirkus Indie (Not yet published—being queried) See the Preview section of www.readtoachieve2.com

Connie I just migrated your not so "mimi" review on to the new website: http://aalbc.org/books/bookreview.php?isbn13=9780974814278 it really was well written and would probably interest folks would would actually enjoy reading the book that might not otherwise do it were it not for your review. Interestingly I've come become friendly with Amari (the author of this book), and have collaborated with him a couple of projects. He is really serious when it come to this subject matter. I'm going to share this review with Amari again. I'm going to email it to him, 'cause, like a real Man :-) he does not do Facebook.

Yes, I'm working on a way for writers to contribute content to the website, directly but it has to be done a in structured way and curated. I'm also thinking of a way to pay writers for their writing that is both transparent and a function of the articles impact on the website's profitability. I'm thinking about paying writers based upon the number of times an article is viewed, perhaps $5 to $10 for every thousand views? So if a writer decides to share an article on social media, and it goes "viral" they will share in the financial rewards--even if that happens a year from now. Sometimes things just take a minute to gain traction. For example, I wrote an article, "Are Negro Girls Getting Prettier?" back in March and it is one of the most popular pages on the site--this month. I have not had to the time to sort out why, but this is not unusual. The other thing about content is that uniqueness counts. The publishing of syndicated articles a model many online newspapers follows, does not work as well on the web. Search results would simply send readers to the source of the article of the site that was indexed first, so generally large corporate sites benefit and small sites are crowded out.

No problem man, I'm glad to do it. So you split the revenue 50-50, but who incurs the costs of getting a book into the readers hands; printing, editorial, design, layout, storage, shipping, marketing, promotion, events fees, etc, etc?

No problem Hickson, this is not Twitter, there is no expectation of an immediate response :-) Of course the goal is to sell books at a book fair. As a bookseller myself, I used to sell books at the event, but abandoned the effort after the nature of the vending changed. Today were very few publishers and bookstores on the street this year. The majority of those selling books are individuals selling their own books. As a result there are simply fewer titles available for sale, and attendees complain there are simply "no books." Went I sold books I would have more titles at my one table than 20 vendors, selling just their book, would have today. Last year the first year since, the fair's inception that I had absolutely nothing to do with it, I didn't even attend. This is a shame, given the proximately to where I live, my enthusiasm for and role in the world of Black books. This year, again, I was not involved with the fair (though they did reach out), but I decided, that afternoon to walk the street and speak to every single vendor--i.e. network. In a couple of hours I was able to make it to most of the vendor tables and spoke with each of them. I collected 46 email addresses. I emailed all of the folks a couple weeks later, and we will see how that goes over the longer term. It seems much of the Black literati that supported the Harlem Book Fair, supports the Brooklyn Book Festival. I've attended the Brooklyn Book Festival, and it is extremely well done, but honestly I just don't have the enthusiasm for the Brooklyn Book Festival, that I once had for the Harlem Book Fair. But that is really comparing apples to oranges. The Harlem Book Fair was a celebration of Black culture while the Brooklyn Book festival, a terrific event, is simply not the same thing. It is like comparing the old Capital Bookfest to the National Book Festival. The best thing going in New York City for the world of Black books in the National Black Writers Conference, which is coming up in April.

Agreed about the film. I was walking down 125th in Harlem and noticed there are three new wing spots that opened in the last year--they are all chains! There are many new local, non-chain, restaurants but the all cater to people with money. Sylvia's used to be the stop every tourist wanted to eat at, but people living in the neighbor could also eat there because it was affordable. Today all the media attention goes to Red Rooster, which is across the street from Sylvia's, and right off 125th street, but it is outrageously priced. Drinks start at $15, portions are small, and they are not going to even put down a piece of bread on your table without you paying for it. While the restaurant is fantastically successful, many locals simply can not afford to dine there. You'll never read anything like what I just wrote about Red Rooster, not because my opinion is fringe, but the people who feel this way have no voice in the media. They are building a "Whole Paycheck" (Whole Foods), supermarket on 125th and Lenox and it is massive! There used to be a concept of a neighborhood, homes, parks, libraries, small businesses. Now everything is super-mega stores and chains. It is almost like you can't escape. In my old neighbor they built a basketball arena where the NY Net's play. It is literally blocks from where I lived. The arena, and all the accompanying business have come with it, have destroy the vibe of the neighborhood (part of Park Slope, Brooklyn). There were a couple of bookstores on 125th a few years ago today there are no Black book stores in Harlem! Fortunately there are museums and libraries in Harlem, but this IS New York City for Christ's sake. Speaking of Black suburbs, The Bowie/Mitchellville MD, which was one of the best Black middle class neighborhoods I could think of still has not recovered from the crisis, with many, if not most homeowners underwater in the mortgages.

Speaking of doing the white thing. This trailer for the next Star Wars Film was viewed 46,523,058 times in less than a week--that is roughly 5% of the planet's population! The film which appears in theaters in December is already sold out opening weekend in many places. Princess Leia was the only non-white-male character (of the human characters) in the original Star War flick. During the time comedians use to joke that white folks did not plan for us to be here is the future. The new film addresses the lack of diversity and some white folks are complaining about the film being anti-white. Can you image? Some guy on Twitter called the film's director J.J. Abrams a director "an anti-white nut" that got 141 favorite and 171 retweets. I did not bother to look at how many of his followers were fake, but CNN covered his tweets....(I wish they would get rid of the 24-hour-per-day reporting of news, a lot of it is just crap).

Man, if you have book reviews send them! I literally working in the book review template. Basically, if you have written a review on the website, a link to it will pop up on your author's profile page. I've only migrated three reviews, as test cases, but here is one written by Robert Fleming. The review links back to roberts page, his books, his reviews and more. So any reviews I publish of your will just create more links back to your page, further elevating your work not to mention increasing the exposure your the book you've reviewed. Robert Fleming has been in the game for decades. In an alternative, more sane universe, he would be well known. Regarding Facebook the desktop users (all 7 of them) did engage the site to my satisfaction. But the charm there is that all I had to do was create the content, I did not have to worry about engage on Facebook myself. I will probably add social sharing button to the authors profiles, for this reason. But I'm still considering removing social sharing button from the site altogether.

Hi Donia, have you published your books yet? Tell us something about them. What does it mean to be an herbalist and why should I be interested in, or need to buy your books?

I added your book to my database: http://aalbc.it/gillianberry this is a website under development, the the URL will always work. Once your ISBN is "active" the buy links will work. Let me know if you want to change the information or if you ever post a youtube video, I'll add it to you page. Thanks for sharing information about your book here. For the sake of booksellers, I would add the ISBN to the website, that and the name of the publisher--even if you are the publisher. This also helps readers who want to have a bookstore order your book.

Chris also consider the quality of the engagement of the facebook users. Looking at the chart; the mobile users spent bit more than 1/2 a minute on the site. However the desktop users where on the site for a full two minutes longer (on average), and looked at more pages. Now the current site bestsellers list is not optimized for mobile, the new site's bestseller list is optimized for mobile displays, so engagement from mobile users may improve when I cut over to the new website. Also let me check on books book sales as a result of the facebook engagement....as far as I can tell there were no direct sales as a result of the engagement (I only checked Amazon and not the other channels) But sales are trickier, they are not always immediate, and people often obtain books off-line, after discovering them online. Even without a sale, that I can directly attribute to the referrals from Facebook, there is still value in branding the website, Trice's book, and the books of other authors on the pages viewed by the visitors from Facebook or whereevr they originate.

Hi Chicki I'm posting you youtube video below (basically you post the url and the forum's software will automatically embed the video.

Yeah, Trice is one of those mutually supportive authors, we need more of. On top of writing good books; behind a very pleasant, and attractive exterior, is a serious business woman. Here are the results of her posting on Facebook. The quick answer to the question of how many clicks to the website resulted from Trice's posting on Facebook, 41 hours ago, is 24, as shown on the chart below. Considering her post had 162 likes and 5 shares (2 were mine), this is far better than any ad I've placed--not just because it did not cost me anything extra, but because the engagement rate was far higher. Organic engagement always performs better than paid engagement. I'm attributing all of these click to Trice's post, because during this period I was not aware of anyone else posting on Facebook but the same page on my site, so I could be off. But if I am, I doubt the impact is significant. There were 30 authors on my last bestsellers list, those that share the list, generally tend to perform better in sales, on my site. Of course I appreciate Trice's support so I also more willing to help her when I can. These are the types of relationships that fuel our businesses and helping readers discover better books. During the 41 hour period, Facebook was just over 2% of my over all traffic. Of course Trice link was not the only source of referrals, from Facebook, during this period, but it was the largest one. Looking at the chart on the right you can see that during the 41 hour period all social media made up 3% of my source of traffic, and referrals from other sites was double that. This is why I will increase engagement of other site rather than social. Looking at the chart on the left you can see that Facebook referrals make up most of my social media referrals--facebook always has. What is most striking is how poorly Google Plus and Pinterest performs for my site. I'm not surprised by Goodreads, because I don't engage there at all. I'll probably blog about this in more detail.

Got it! Please post your ISBN13 so that I can add your book to my database. Thanks. I'm pleased to see you also mentioned African American bookstores as a source. Authors used to say something like, "available where books are sold," without giving any particular store the free promotion. Today many authors say, "buy my book at Amazon" and display a big Amazon logos on their websites. An independent bookstore would kill for that time of free publicity. On my site redesign I'm sending readers to a variety of different stores--even to the publisher's website, when that is an option, to buy the book. I'm also considering transitioning to selling books directly. Man if I could get authors to display an AALBC.com logo on their website and say by my book at AALBC.com I would actually pay for that. .

Righteous, you have a very nice website =, but I could not help but notice that your are selling your book directly, as the only option. I was wondering if there was a specific reason you chose to do that.

Man I just read the banner I created for your books and I see now that it makes no sense. I'll correct it but is there else that you would like me to write there instead?