Troy

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?

Sounds like you started as friends which explains the longevity

Hummm... Sure Obama is "1/2 Black," but he like Bernie was raised by a white woman far from other large groups of Black people. So he chose to marry a Black woman, but plenty of white people do that. And do I surmise from the statement that you question that character of Black men who chose to marry white women--including many Black activists? Yeah, I'll give you the 3rd point, but Hyde Park, where Obama lived is not exactly the "Wild 100s," and it was not like he socialized among the people, he was part if the Chicago elite. Indeed that elitism was evident by the people he hired. It is not clear to me what you mean when you say that Bernie is not sensitive to "certain issues." He is the only candidate talking about "certain issues" that should matter to all working class people, which includes most Black folks. Yeah Hillary picked up these talking points in reaction to Bernie's popularity, but for her the rhetoric is more political not part of an ideology. Hillary is much more like Obama, than Bernie is--don't you think? Besides how are the Black people in Chicago fairing after 7 years of an Obama presidency? As far as I know, Obama has not even bothered to give any of the Black owned newspaper so much as an interview.

Agreed, whether it is for a business or a family, pooling resources, money, energy, time, and tasks will be key moving forward. It is likely my children's generation will never collect social security; shoot, I'm on the bubble. So, I believe these new family structure will come to pass. It would be nice if the government provided legislation to facilitate or at least ignore these alternative family structures. Right now everything is aligned to facilitate permanent, heterosexual marriage. But few people can achieve this goal, and many don't even want to try. The ideal of the home with the white picket fence is almost anachronistic--but no other alternatives are presented as favorable. Still we make getting married easy, while divorce is hard and often expensive. Married people have a higher tax liability, especially if one spouse makes less than the other. Few talk about the government's hand in discouraging marriage. So while the country is mostly Christian, the influence of the Christianity has continued to wane over time. I think this is also a factor in the increase of out of wedlock births not just in the Black community, but in America in general. A single 18 year old having a baby will likely be embraced, while a single 40 year old woman, who never had kids, is pitied... The number of sperm banks are increasing, with single women being the biggest users, dwarfing even the LGBT community. Also we always talk about the lack of fathers in the home. But many of these homes have men in them, they just don't happen to be the biological father of the children. Many men are indeed raising the children of other men, I just don't recall ever seeing statistics reflecting this reality.

It is a daunting task, for those with the resources I usually suggest hiring a good publicist. But continuing to spread the word and networking as you are already doing will help. I'm actually about a 1/4 of the way through a book about book promotion. I plan to review it. If I do I'll be sure to post a link on the home page. So far there are no real revelations, but it is a good high level overview of the main aspects of getting the word about your book out there. I think advertising can help build a brand, but here to some insight is required to do this effectively. Interestingly, I don't know any professionals one can hire to deal with the advertising side of marketing for authors. I've had publicists buy ads on this site on behalf of authors they were working for, but one can really benefit from a pro that can evaluate the effectiveness of ad placement, and even work deals with media (websites, magazines, newspapers) to secure the best pricing for a several authors.

Yeah, I hear you. While the separate their trash they have outsized carbon footprints driving luxury cars everywhere and having unnecessarily large homes. They even fight to maintain lawns during a water crisis. They destroy public education while their children go to private schools, and on and on.... it is all for show, to make themselves feel good while the rest of the nation struggles. Your critique of Bernie @Pioneer1, could be readily applied to Obama. Would you make the same critique of him?

In order for your new family structure to become more common place folks have to be much less self-centered than they are today. Nothing in our collective behavior or culture leads me to believe that this will change anything soon. Perhaps a cultural shock like a massive depression would move us in the direction of communal families, out of necessity.... and maybe we'd all be better off.

Yeah, I think you got it right Cynique. How did you two love birds meet?

This was an interesting introduction to your work Ray. It is unfortunate to think that labeling your book as African American would narrow it's appeal. Black folks read white writers, in fact a good percentage, if not the majority, of books I read are written by white writers. Writers like Morrison, Walker, Mosley, Coates, Adiche, etc are successful largely because white folks read their work. Categorize the book as best as you can based upon your target reader. The Book Industries Study Group maintain a list of book categories, but books can fall into many categories and with search capabilities I think maintaining these lists and attempting shove books into categories is not as useful anyway. I think your description far more useful than than a category and a decent query will now pull this book up.

Pioneer you come across as somewhat religious calling children born out of wedlock "illegitimate." How long in the annals of history have we been calling children born outside the Christian construct of marriage; disparaging terms like this? Isn't it enough for kids to be cared for and guided by a loving adult? Can children only be raised by a man and woman, who were virgins when married, and committed to never having sex with anyone else for life? Why is this so detrimental? I agree with Welsing, I think we all should wait until we are 30 before having our first child. I was 30, and probably should have waited a bit longer. Many of the people having children younger than 30 are still children themselves; dependent upon their parents, unskilled, uneducated, and unmotivated. Sure many of these people pull it together later, but they would have fared much better without a child, and the child would have too. I'm still astonished that our society condones kids in high school having children--even providing on site day care in some instances. I don't think children should have the freedom to procreate. We make it illegal for a 17 year old to sit up in a bar and have drinks, but they can make babies all day long... I'm sure I did not watch the Maury show enough to dispute what you are saying, but every time I watched it was always some obese white girl trying to figure out who fathered her child...and more often than not there was a physical altercation for kicks.

White supremacists are grossly out numbered, but they and their sympathizers are seemingly armed to the teeth. And if push comes to shove they have the governments backing--especially if the Donald Trumps begin to proliferate, and continue to gain even more success and attention. I watch Bill Maher's program pretty regularly; I find his show entertaining. But he is constantly describing everyone who does not agree with his ideas as living in a bubble. In reality he is living in a bubble too. He does not truly appreciate just how bad off many Americans and as a result can't seem to wrap his head around why anyone would follow Donald Trump, become a Nazi, or join the Klan. Educated, happy, confident people with options and prospects can't be bothered with Donald Trump. I guess rich celebrities don't really see this...

Have you ever shared a link from a page on your website to Facebook, and have you wondered how Facebook chose the image used? You can control the image used when anyone shares a link from your site onto Facebook. You can even use an image specifically designed for Facebook—even one not used on the web page itself. The links I share on Facebook are selected with thought or are crafted in such in a way to increase the likelihood a reader will click the link and visit our web site. In order to help accomplish this I take advantage of Facebook’s Open Graph Debugger Tool. Facebook's debugger allows you to confirm that the web pages your visitors share on Facebook, displays the image and text you choose in advance. The default text and image are defined on the web page. WordPress makes it easy to select the default images and text for social sharing. Custom built websites, like AALBC.com, must ensure meta tags are used properly. Facebook's debugger tool makes it easy to check that your web pages will share your web page's information exactly the way you want. Facebook's debugger interface is easy to use and the information provided is quite detailed. You are also provided with documentation to help make any necessary adjustments. Below is a screen shot of my List of Authors on AALBC.com page. Facebook's social sharing preview allows you to review what the post will look like before anyone shares the page. The screenshot below is actually a snapshot 19 hours after the page was originally shared. As you can see from the preview, this Facebook post was liked, shared, or commented on 2,570 times, in 19 hours. In this case, the image I'm using does not even appear on the web page. I created this image specifically for social sharing, optimizing the dimensions, and even considering the authors used in the preview. If you do not specify an image, Facebook and other social platforms will just pick any image on the page. Why take this chance when it is so easy to control. In Facebook's case, they look for images that are a minimum of 200px by 200px. So even if you do specify a specific image, Facebook may choose not to use it. The optimal image size is 1,200px by 630px. An image with those dimensions will ensure that will be as large as possible on Facebook's feed. Again, you can may use this tool to as an analytical tool to review your Facebook posts over time. Below is a screen from a Facebook post made in February, which links to our Top 100+ Recommended African-American Children’s Books page. This page was liked, shared, or commented on over 35,000 times, since it was originally posted in February 2016. Of course it is nice to get this much engagement on Facebook, but my primary metric for success of a post is how many readers click the link and visit my site as a result. If you'd like to check it out I have published an analysis of the traffic generated as a result of this post. Another benefit of this tool is that it can be used to check the URL's of other websites for comparison purposes. I've observed most indie websites pay little attention to the details revealed by the Facebook debugger tool. This is unfortunate, because this decreases the likelihood readers will click on your link and leave Facebook to visit your web site. It also hurts a web site's search engine rankings, which is even more important than Facebook engagement for content creators, like bloggers. Final Notes: I'm strongly against using Facebook as one's primary platform or the web, or even publishing content there. The only thing I publish on Facebook are links back to this site, with tweet length text and an image to accompany it. This articles describes my process for posting links on Facebook. The social sharing capability of the software running this discussion forum is limited in capability, so one does not have the ability to set a default image for social sharing. Normally I would have created a webpage, or blog post, for an article like this, but I want to collect this type of information in the Bloggers Helping Blogger Forum. I did not go into the specific details of how to actually set the default images and text. But it is pretty simple: in WordPress one simply utilizes the "SEO Settings" at the bottom of the page. For custom sites, one uses the Open Graph meta tags. Here are some Open Graph meta tag examples I use with my Web Design course. I just took a look at the number of visitors from Facebook to the link for the Author List Page. As of 6:30 p.m. June 27th there were 1,675 visitors from Facebook based upon 2,576 comments, shared, and likes. This is a very high ratio of engagement to visitors for my Facebook posts. Facebook changes rapidly. Their debugger tool can change, or even go away tomorrow. However the strategies still hold and should still be used, even without Facebook's debugger. If you are a webmaster proper use of meta tags is crucial for a site's ability to be discovered. As always the mantra remains unchanged; “Use Facebook, Don't Let Facebook Use You.”

I got my hand slapped again by Google this morning. I was warned that I was serving Google ads on pages without content. My initial reaction is always frustration when I get these nastygrams from Google, because these notices generally preempt anything I had planned work on. In this case I was not aware that I had any pages without content. After checking out the sample link provide I discovered the types of pages Google does not like; Basically if someone runs a query on my website and there are not results you end up with a page that says no results. Check out the results page on "Flying Pigs," you see here since the query returns no results (well it may return this page now). Google does not wants ads served on this pages. For my website I think this is a mistake, for the ads still have value there. Basically I have to created new templates which excludes google ads for my search pages and my 404 error pages. Fortunately, this did not take very long. While I was creating the new header, I also took the time to redesign the search bar which looks a lot nicer now:

THE Angela Benson! Thanks for sharing information about your latest book ,which I just added to our website: http://aalbc.com/books/bookinfo.php?isbn13=9781533583512 Seems I was missing profile for you, but I remedied that as well http://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Angela+Benson You actually dropped off my radar for a minute, but I see you've come back strong. Were you trying to paste the image of your book's cover?

Beverly that has been my strategy with Facebook for sometime now. This article may give your more insight into why I have taken this approach.

Hi @Ray Hollar-Gregory, I would not describe what you are doing as “shameless,” because sharing information about one’s book is one of the purposes of this website. So if you are going to take the time to do plug your book, do it in such a way that it might actual pique someone’s interest. I say this not just for your benefit, but for anyone else who might be reading this and contemplating sharing their book’s information or other places like AALBC.com. First, save readers a step, by providing more information about your book up front. I’m not saying don’t include a link to your website—definitely do that, what I am saying is you are likely to grab more attending from the people reading this forums if you posted a description here. Second, always include an image of your book. They say never judge a book by it’s cover, but the reality is people do judge books by their covers. So again, provide that info up front, particularly if you believe if you belive serves to represent your book well. Third, do you have a website? If so always provide a link to it. It you don't have a website, get one. Finally, always use an affiliate code when sending people to Amazon; not doing this is the equivalent of giving money away. If we all constantly give Amazon free promotion the least we should do is get something in return, right? Read this article for more information on Amazon's affiliate program and other things writers should do. Congrats on the new book! Other Side is contemporary literature set in the New York City area, circa 1980s. The themes are viewed through the experiences of Jordan Baros a young middle class African American attorney. While race is an issue and part of the active consciousness, the majority of themes are universal. The title Other Side is an attempt to explore the duality of personality, character and actions of people. The main character faces his conflicts and value propositions through four relationships that are juxtaposed and contradictory. His pursuit of validation and truth is explored through his mother, wife, mistress and a sex worker. The reader is introduced to an array of other characters and backgrounds. The anecdotes from each encapsulate a broad perspective of political and social issues in a multicultural American society. Although presented through the prism of a male protagonist the women's stories of relationship struggle and maturation provides the platform for all the characters development. Jordan Baros narrates stories that represent the various engagements from his and the female characters stage of life and being. His mother (Rachel) is regretful of failure to find happiness (love) and security and its effect on her son, his wife (Trina) is hurting from her insecurities exacerbated from his infidelity and betrayal of Jordan's commitment to family, the mistress (Maria Velez) is damaged from past abuses and sense of worthlessness, and the sex worker's (Toy) anger is a result of untold disrespect and need for basic survival. The characters act out their love, frustrations and dreams for the future. As the story progresses, Jordan navigates the various ups and downs of love, sex, career, family and self. He explores the sustenance and growth that comes from his female relationships and the movement toward an understanding of himself and place in the world. Jordan is firmly entrenched in modern-day America. His perspective through the supporting characters is relatable and combined they present personal stories about love, betrayal and alienation. They express a pervading lack of comprehension with a profound need for stability. Ultimately, he realizes that in order to be fulfilled in love and life he must accept himself and frailties including the strength to control his destructive impulses. All the main characters in Other Side are seeking fulfillment and love. Over the course of the story Jordan strives for completeness. His wife, Trina confronts her insecurities and seeks to reduce her dependence, his mother is resigned to a life she has but harbors no ill will to anyone, the mistress Maria Velez is determined to find her solace and feels entitled to do so, Toy, the sex worker is doomed to self destruction and failure. For the most part each one desires someone who makes them feel special and supports them. As women, they make the mistake of compromising themselves in the pursuit of love and meet with disappointment when the men they choose (or who choose them) cannot be what they want. Their sorrows are immediately relatable to most men and women who have experienced a painful relationship. Other Side captures the raw pain of love in its various forms. The characters in Other Side start out captured in the moment conflicted and searching. The male protagonist is torn because of a desperate need for love. His journey moves from selfish arrogance, duplicity with soiled values to self-awareness and self-actualization. The women characters learn to accept their scars, their successes, and their connection to something more powerful and divine. By the end of the story they become accepting of their stations even when flawed and are hopeful about their future.

I have this love/hate relationship with Google. On some level I believe Google really does want to make the web a better place. However, as a corporation, they have to generate an ever increasing amount of money for their investors, and in the age of Facebook this must be very difficult. As a result, Google is like a schizophrenic; you never know who, or what you are dealing with at any given moment. When Google's algorithms get crazy they can't be reasoned with, have no compassion, or guilt over the mayhem they leave in their wake. AALBC.com posts advertisments, provided by Google, throughout the website. On the page you are reading now, there are likely two Google provided advertisements; one horizontal banner at the top of the page and another at the bottom. I have been serving Google ads for over a decade almost as long as their Ad network has existed, and I've gotten a check from them, often a 4-figure one every single month. But every once in awhile Google comes down on me for something on my website that they don't like. If you don't react quickly enough to address their concerns, Google will remove their ads from your site until you comply. They don't play. I used to have Amazon products appear on my website from their products feed. This allowed people to buy anything Amazon sold on my website, which allowed me to earn commissions on those sales. Amazon sold a sex toy (some kind of kinky butt plug) on their website which meant the product could appear on my site--which apparently it did. Google disabled my ads as a result. Ultimately I ended up removing the Amazon products feed feature from the website. The feature also ran afoul of one of Google's SEO rules, but that is another subject. Another time Google sent me a link to a post on my discussion forums that they did not like. It was something Kola Boof posted. I actually removed the offending images on the page, but that was not enough to placate Google, for they said there were many other offending images, but they refused to provide me with additional links to to help me get rid of all the images. Unable to find all of the images on my own, Google simply stopped allowing the forum to serve Google Ads--no trial, no jury, no recourse. Ultimately, I relocated the discussion from thumperscorner.com to aalbc.com, but that relocation resulted in a big reduction in participation. Just this week I got two more warnings from Google: Hello, This is a warning message to alert you that there is action required to bring your AdSense account into compliance with our AdSense program policies. We’ve provided additional details below, along with the actions to be taken on your part. Affected website: aalbc.com Example page where violation occurred: http://aalbc.com/reviews/kola_boof.htm Action required: Please make changes immediately to your site to follow AdSense program policies. Current account status: Active Violation explanation Why was this action taken against my account: Google ads may not be placed on pages with adult or any kinds of non family-safe content. This includes any site which contains: Full nudity Pornographic images, videos, or games Pornographic cartoons or anime (hentai/ecchi) Please note that to fix this violation, you need not censor the content itself, but you should stop placing ad code on the page. It turns out Google did not like a topless image of Kola Boof that was on the page?! This is frustrating because on the very same page, Google was serving an ad feature an image of a provocative, largest breasted woman, promoting a Russian (wink, wink) dating site. Whose sensibilities are Google trying to protect? I can't show a bare breast, but Google can promote a sex site?! I replaced Kola's photo with modified version obscuring her breasts, which is on the right. if you click the photo, you can see the original image which violated Google's policy. A few days early I received the message below: Hello, This is a warning message to alert you that there is action required to bring your AdSense account into compliance with our AdSense program policies. We’ve provided additional details below, along with the actions to be taken on your part. Affected website: aalbc.com Example page where violation occurred: http://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Frances+Cress+Welsing Action required: Please make changes immediately to your site to follow AdSense program policies. Current account status: Active Violation explanation Publishers may not implement Google ads in a manner that makes them more prominent than the content of the page itself. On mobile devices this includes placing two or more Google ads on the viewscreen at the same time. Please be aware that if you have responsive website design that ads may shift into non compliant positions as the format of the screen changes. I'm saying to myself, "What the hell is Google talking about now?!" I hate sites that place ads which dominate the page. In fact work hard to make sure this does not happen. On one hand Google will tell you to place ads within the content as this increases clicks on the ads and on the other they manage to find something wrong with a page I actively work to ensure ads do not dominate. It turns out my problem was the mobile version of the website. I've designed the pages to take all of the ads on the right hand side of the page and move them below the content on mobile displays. In order for the ads to be seen on a mobile device, one has to scroll past the page's content. So it seems absurd that this would make Google think my ads are more prominent that the content. Please note, the mobile optimized version of the website was created to comply with one of Google's SEO rules, but, again, that is another subject. I explained to a Google employee that I thought this was overreach on Google's part and that anyone looking at the mobile version of the page could not reasonably conclude I was making the ads more prominent than the content itself. The employee remained mute on this point. But it was true, if you scrolled to the bottom of the page you could indeed see two Google ads at the same time, depending upon the ad rotation; so I deleted one of the ads to comply. Usually months, even years, go by between violation warnings from Google, but two in the span of a week gives me the impression Google is getting more aggressive. I'm just glad I was not on vacation to return home to find my site was banned from serving Google ad for not addressing their warnings. In an ideal world, I would not be dependent upon Google for advertising, but frankly they are the only game in town, that provides a meaningful source of revenue for sites like mine. So it turns out that jumping through Google's hoops is worth the effort. If I were perfectly honest, my site is actually better as a result of doing what Google suggests particularly as it pertains to SEO. Hopefully I won't have to hear from Google again any time soon.

Yeah Facebook is executing brilliantly. Paying content producers had to come eventually, still this is a relatively small payment to The New York Times. If I were running the paper I would not publish on Facebook for a mere 3 million. Still, small business are left holding the bag, having to pay to reach the fans they have attracted on Facebook. In contrast, Youtube still pays content producers. I get a check from Google, for my Youtube videos, every month and have for years. It is not a big check, but it is something. Everytime I log onto Facebook they have their hand out asking me to pay to promote a post that they have identified is interesting to readers.

Hi @Sheryl that's simple; it is based upon sales generated by AALBC.com since 1998. I'm actually still inserting book information, particularly for some of the older titles, so this list will evolve over time. The information is being complied from sales of well over over 10,000 different titles sold over a period of almost 18 years. Some publisher imprints have more titles based upon their sheer size and the popularity of their authors. Of course AALBC.com is just one website, so our sales are skewed to by books we promote, books of our sponsors and supporters, or books that resonate with our audience. When I first started compiling this data I ran a report which showed more than 2/3's of the most popular books read by African American readers are published by just 3 conglomerates and two of those were headquartered outside the United States. This data was compiled on the now defunct Power List sites, but I have very similar info on AALBC.com and look forward to reporting in this information and showing who is really behind Black books. As an aside, I want to review how I'm counting bestsellers for publishers. When I count them for authors I count the number of times their book has made the list. So if an author has one book that made the best sellers list 10 times; the authors is a "10 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Author." For publishers I think I want to count the number of distinct titles that have made the list. So if they have one book that has made the list 10 times I'm considering counting the book once rather than 10 times, then ranking the publishers based upon the number of bestselling books (as opposed to the number of times their books have appeared on a list) What do you all think?

For Immediate Release Media Contact: Deborah Heard June 16, 2016 Info@hurstonwright.org 202-248-5051 Ernest J. Gaines and Junot Díaz to Receive 2016 Legacy Awards Nominees Named for Debut Fiction, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation will present the 2016 Legacy Awards on Friday, October 21st at the historic Washington Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C. Receiving the North Star Award -- the foundation's highest honor for career accomplishment and inspiration to the writing community -- is Ernest J. Gaines, the award-winning author of A Lesson Before Dying. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Junot Díaz will receive the Ella Baker Award, which recognizes writers for work that advances social justice. Gaines has received numerous awards, including the Presidential National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2012. Other honors include the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Louisiana Humanist of the Year and a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Fellowship. In 2000, he was made a Chevalier (Knight) of the French Order of Arts and Letters. Gaines serves as writer-in-residence emeritus at University of Louisiana at Lafayette (formerly University of Southwestern Louisiana). Many of Gaines' works are taught in schools and are celebrated in the canon of world literature. Some of his most-read are The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittmanand A Gathering of Old Men. Díaz is the author of the critically acclaimed Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is a co-founder of Voices of Our Nation Arts (VONA) workshop and advocates for writers of color. He also is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Fellowship, PEN/Malamud Award, Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship and PEN/O. Henry Award. The evening will culminate in the announcement of the winners of the juried awards in the categories of debut fiction, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry before an audience of more than 200 literary stars and representatives of the publishing industry, media, arts, politics, and academia. The 2016 Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards continue the foundation's tradition of recognizing literary excellence by writers from the United States as well as the international Black writing community. Winners of the Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers, under the sponsorship of Amistad books, a division of Harper Collins Publishers, also will be honored. Visit www.hurstonwright.org for event details and ticket information. . The Nominees for the 2016 Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards are: Debut Fiction Mourner's Bench by Sanderia Faye (The University of Arkansas Press) The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson (Penguin Press) The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma (Little, Brown and Company) Fiction The Sellout by Paul Beatty (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) The Turner House by Angela Flournoy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) Delicious Foods by James Hannaham (Little, Brown and Company) Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson (William Morrow) Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) The Lost Child by Caryl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Nonfiction The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander (Grand Central Publishing) Confronting Black Jacobins: The United States, the Haitian Revolution, and the Origins of the Dominican Republic by Gerald Horne (Monthly Review Press) Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga by Pamela Newkirk (Amistad) Where Everybody Looks Like Me: At the Crossroads of America's Black Colleges and Culture by Ron Stodghill (Amistad) Infectious Madness: The Surprising Science of How We "Catch" Mental Illnessby Harriet A. Washington (Little, Brown and Company) The Beast Side: Living and Dying While Black in America by D. Watkins (Hot Books/Skyhorse Publishing) Poetry Honest Engine by Kyle Dargan (The University of Georgia Press) Forest Primeval by Vievee Francis (TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press) Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay (University of Pittsburgh Press) How to Be Drawn by Terrance Hayes (Penguin Books) It Seems Like a Mighty Long Time by Angela Jackson (TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press) Voyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste Lewis (Alfred A. Knopf) The judges: Debut Fiction - Mitchell S. Jackson, Laila Lalami and Nelly Rosario Fiction - Jeffery Renard Allen, April Mosolino and Nancy Rawles Nonfiction - Charles E. Cobb Jr., Natalie Hopkinson and Lawrence P. Jackson Poetry - Amaud Jamaul Johnson, Evie Shockley and Patricia Smith About the Hurston/Wright Foundation: The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation was founded in 1990 in Washington, D.C., and is dedicated to discovering, mentoring and honoring Black writers. The foundation was co-founded by award-winning author Marita Golden and bibliophile/cultural activist Clyde McElvene. Through workshops for adult writers and teens, master classes, and readings, the organization preserves the voices of Black writers in the world literary canon, serves as a community for writers, and continues a tradition of literary excellence in storytelling established by its namesakes. The Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers was the first program of the foundation to support emerging Black writers early in their careers. The Legacy Awards, introduced in 2001, honors the best in Black literature in America and around the globe. For more information about the Hurston/Wright Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, go to www.hurstonwright.org.

Book and Major Motion Picture Coming: Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly:

Photo: of Walter Mosley and Paul Coates. Coates presented the award to Mosley during the 70th anniversary gala. MWA Announces the 2016 Edgar® Award Winners Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce the winners of the 2016 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2015. The Edgar® Awards were presented to the winners at our 70th Gala Banquet, April 28, 2016 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City. GRAND MASTER Walter Mosley BEST NOVEL Let Me Die in His Footsteps by Lori Roy (Penguin Random House – Dutton) BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove Atlantic – Grove Press) BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney (HarperCollin Publishers – William Morrow) BEST FACT CRIME Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully by Allen Kurzweil (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper) BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins Publishers-HarperCollins) BEST SHORT STORY “Obits” – Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster – Scribner) BEST JUVENILE Footer Davis Probably is Crazy by Susan Vaught (Simon & Schuster – Paula Wiseman Books) BEST YOUNG ADULT A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis (HarperCollins Publishers – Katherine Tegen Books) BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY “Gently with the Women” – George Gently, Teleplay by Peter Flannery (Acorn TV) ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD “Chung Ling Soo’s Greatest Trick” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Russell W. Johnson (Dell Magazines) RAVEN AWARDS Margaret Kinsman Sisters in Crime ELLERY QUEEN AWARD Janet Rudolph, Founder of Mystery Readers International * * * * * * THE SIMON & SCHUSTER – MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD Little Pretty Things by Lori Rader-Day (Prometheus Books – Seventh Street Books)

I participated in the 2nd annual fair in 2008 and it is hard to believe it is now 10 years old. I can't wait to get back! NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release June 20, 2016 TURNING 10! Renowned Leimert Park Village Book Fair Gears Up For 10th Anniversary Celebration With Headliners, Crowd Pleasers and Fan Favorites LOS ANGELES – “Voted One of LA’s Five Best Annual Book Festivals,” the renowned Leimert Park Village Book Fair (LPVBF) invites those who love reading, literature, learning and fun to the 10th anniversary celebration on Saturday, August 20, 2016 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the outdoor promenade of the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza (BHCP), located at 3650 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in LA. This year, the book fair will be held outdoors, and luckily, it rarely rains in Southern California! Thousands are expected to flock once again to this family-oriented festival held in the heart of Leimert Park, the epicenter of the Los Angeles area African American arts, intellectual and literary scene. LPVBF will celebrate its 10th anniversary with an exciting and eclectic mix of authors, scholars, poets, television personalities, and celebrities. The book fair will present a line up of headliners and crowd pleasers, fan favorites of voracious readers and of book clubs around the country. This tribute to reading and literature will be punctuated by music, laughter, intellectual engagement and celebrity authors, signing their impressive works of literature. "This year marks our 10th anniversary," said Cynthia Exum, founder and executive director of the LPVBF. “We wanted to step things up a notch to commemorate this milestone; so, we are hosting city-wide special events, called ‘BookEnd’ events with our community partners.” She added, “There will be concerts, film screenings, celebrity readings, panel discussions, reading parties and more to help us celebrate our theme of ‘Turning 10!’” In 2007, with a vision of staging a world-class book fair in Leimert Park, Exum invested her own money, and that of a few friends, into what has become one of the nation’s best gathering of authors, scholars, entertainers and educators. Her commitment to the book fair was acknowledged when she received public support from the City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, LA Department of Cultural Affairs as well as sponsors, community organizations and enthused merchants in Leimert Park Village, including Eso Won Books, one of LA’s premier African American-owned bookstores.With the support of these partners and supporters, she built a high-quality cultural event, and the people came! Now considered one of the premier literary events on the West Coast, the LPVFB continues to be free to the public, and expected to draw more than 10,000 people, with more than 150 authors, writers, storytellers, poets, spoken word performers, vendors and exhibitors. Enjoying unprecedented growth, in 2013, the book fair was re-located to the spacious Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza -- a beautiful historic venue, located in the Leimert Park area. For Exum, the impetus for the start of the book fair began as a tribute to her late grandmother who read the Bible daily and kept stacks of National Geographic magazines around the house – as well as to her late sister who regularly received books from Exum, while serving time at the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF). “Having books in the home inspired a love of reading for me,” explained Exum. “As a child, by flipping the pages of a book, I could go anywhere in the world, and dream the dreams of the person I wanted to be.” Exum has taken the book fair on the road this year, hosting two community reading programs in collaboration with the Los Angeles Public Library (the Washington Irving Branch), the National Endowment for the Arts, and the LA Department of Cultural Affairs. In memory of her sister, she plans to organize a pop-up book fair at a women’s prison to offer inmates not only a lifeline; but hopefully instill a love of learning through reading. Perhaps, taking a cue from media mogul Oprah Winfrey, Exum eventually wants to expand her book fair and literacy programs internationally to Africa. Today, the LPVBF has become a much-anticipated cultural tradition in the LA area. “We are pleased to support this pre-eminent literary organization, which hosts some of our greatest scholars, historians, established artists as well as emerging authors, providing a unique platform for them to connect with the community,” added Dr. Bernard W. and Shirley Kinsey, chairpersons of the LPVBF. “The event is a beautiful testament that our community loves reading and the literary arts, and we’re so proud to be apart of this special celebration.” PAST PARTICIPANTS In the past nine years, the book fair has hosted a steadfast stellar lineup of authors, poets, celebrity authors, speakers and artists, including Pulitzer Prize winners Isabel Wilkerson and Douglas A. Blackmon; prominent literary figure Ishmael Reed; New York Times best seller Eric Jerome Dickey; poet/activist Nikki Giovanni and poet/playwright Sonia Sanchez; Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr.; along with award-winning actors like Victoria Rowell (The Young and the Restless”); Hill Harper (“CSI: NY”); Todd Bridges (Diff’rent Stokes); Isaiah Washington (“Grey’s Anatomy”); and reality stars NeNe Leakes ("Real Housewives of Atlanta”); writer reality star Demetria Lucas D’Oyley (“Blood, Sweat & Heels”) and Award Winning Film Director Ava DuVernay (“Selma”) – just to name a few. Also, throughout during its tenure, world-renowned visual artists, such as Charles Bibbs, Michael Massenburg, Synthia Saint James and Varnette P. Honeywood have lent their talents to creating official LPVBF posters to commemorate the event. For a complete list of previous celebrity participants, please visit www.leimertparkbookfair.com ABOUT THE LEIMERT PARK VILLAGE BOOK FAIR The LPVBF is produced by Exum and Associates in collaboration with the City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs; and Capri Capital Partners of Baldwin Hills Crenshaw. Philanthropists and art historians Dr. Bernard W. and Shirley Kinsey serve as the book fair’s chairpersons, leading the fund-raising efforts and increasing the book fair’s brand awareness in the corporate community. The Kinseys are one of the most admired and respected couples in Los Angeles. They are known for their collection of African-American art, books and manuscripts that document and tell the remarkable story of African Americans triumphs and struggles from 1632 to the present. The Kinsey Collection: “Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey” has been on a national tour and seen by millions. Cynthia Exum, an alumnus of the prestigious California State Senate Fellows program, holds a Master of Arts from UCLA’s School of Urban Planning and Public Policy. She founded Exum-Casey and Associates, a public affairs and events management firm in 2005. Exum is also the co-author of “Images of America: Leimert Park,” with Maty Guiza-Leimert -- the wife of Walter H. Leimert, whose grandfather developed the area in 1927. The mission of LPVBF is to promote, encourage and advocate literacy, education and the love of reading throughout the Greater Los Angeles areas. LPVBF is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization dedicated to producing year-round educational programming, as well as to the presentation of events in collaboration with our partners, in addition to the annual summer fair for which the organization is named. For more information, visit www.leimertparkbookfair.com. With the backing of partners and supporters, Exum built a high-quality cultural event, and the people came! WANT TO GO? Leimert Park Village Book Fair Saturday, August 20, 2016 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Baldwin Hills Crenshaw (BHC) - courtyard plaza, located at 3650 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in LA The event is free and open to the public. The Leimert Park Village Book Fair will feature iconoclast interviews, booksignings, workshops, panel discussions, poetry readings, stage performances, musical entertainment and a variety of activities for the whole family. Visit us at www.leimertparkbookfair.com. “Voted One of LA’s Five Best Annual Book Festivals” http://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/california/articles/la-s-5-best-annual-book-festivals/

Facebook Inc. has inked contracts with nearly 140 media companies and celebrities to create videos for its nascent live-streaming service, as the social network positions itself to cash in on a lucrative advertising market it has yet to tap—and keep its 1.65 billion monthly users engaged. The company has agreed to make payments to video creators totaling more than $50 million, according to a document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Its partners include established media outfits like CNN and the New York Times; digital publishers like Vox Media, Tastemade, Mashable and the Huffington Post; and celebrities including Kevin Hart, Gordon Ramsay, Deepak Chopra and NFL quarterback Russell Wilson. The value of individual contracts varies widely, with 17 worth more than $1 million, according to the document. The highest-paid publisher is BuzzFeed, slated to receive $3.05 million for broadcasting live between March 2016 and March 2017. Just behind BuzzFeed is the New York Times, which is to receive $3.03 million for a 12-month deal. CNN is third, with a $2.5 million contract. [Kevin Hart $600K] (Read the complete story at The Wall Street Journal, 22 June 2016) Now the Wall Street Journal did mention whether this would be good, bad, or indifferent for any of the parties concerned. Judging by the popularity of the videos Facebook is already streaming I have not hope this will benefit readers, as Facebook optimizes this content for revenue generation. It is already telling that a Buzzfeed commands for for their content the venerable New York Times. Will this put more pressure on the NTY too become more like Buzzfeed so that they can earn more from Facebook? How will the effect resource allocation at the NY Times. Wil they can a few more journalist so they can hire a few kids to make stupid videos like the one described below: The potential power of Facebook’s platform has been evident in early experiments. In April, two BuzzFeed employees streamed a Facebook Live video showing them placing rubber bands around a watermelon until it exploded. It was Facebook’s most-watched live video, until it was beaten out by Facebook user Candace Payne, who in May filmed herself in her car, laughing uproariously over a noise-making Chewbacca mask. {sigh}