Troy

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}

Still no word from Amazon or Google...

The Top 100 Publisher Imprints Selling Black Books It is really interesting to me to look at this report. There is a lot of information in here, and as I continue with the website upgrade I'll continue to share even more information and put some of this data in context. But the main benefit is that as I compile book club reading lists, bestseller lists, awards, reviews and more I'll be even better able to identify quality books readers will enjoy I'm just getting started...

Thanks Bridgette, but it is not likely I'll get a chance to read the whole book. As you might image, I get books everyday so it is no reflection on your work. I will however definitely look at it and certainly recommend it to readers looking for these types of books. I can also assure you the book will not go to waste.

My mother always talked about this even when I was a kid. She told me no matter what i do never let them put anything in your hand. She also said we would not recognize the seasons... Congrats on the book @Author Bridgette L Collins

More than 2,400 authors profiled, as AALBC.com website upgrade continues. When I first started AALBC.com website upgrade I hoped to have everything completed by March to coincide with our 18th anniversary, but as I designed and implemented the newly designed content management system, I finding I'm introducing far more content than I'm migrating. So the whole upgrade will probably take a year to complete. For you project managers out there this is classic case scope creep, but it all good as I'm doing things with the site I could not have imaged when I started. I'm also discovering tons of great writers and books.

Cynique I agree. I'm sure Pioneer has heard of the Maury Show and the white family dysfunction that is paraded in continuous loop. ,The distinction I was trying to make was that even white privilege has a component of class, which we tend to overlook. I think the kid in Sandford got off because he was rich, sure being white helped but his class mattered most. The judge could not put him away because he saw himself.

Hi Mel, I'm sure I see the same thing you see. Since they copied the page completely along with the code, I'm able to prevent them from displaying the content on their website by preventing that specific rogue domain from displaying content served from my website. I'm afraid if I got rid of too much Amazon would not have enough to go on.

My money was, literally, on Cleveland :-)

"...the problem is being a good husband" LOL Amen to that Brother! Seriously I can one be a good father while being a poor husband? So can I conclude, based upon what you wrote that you do not consider Christianity to be a "Good" religion? Pioneer I don't think you can call for the implementation of rites of passage and freedom at the same time. Rites of passages require that you buy into a hold system of rules or behavioral norms that are adopted and enforce before you can be called a adult. What happens when you disagree with the rules? You see what I mean? If you want a well behaved society where people don;t make babies they can;t take care of you have to give up on the fantasy of complete freedom. Cynique I think Pioneer has a point when he talks about the differences between white kids and Black ones, but I think he is mixing class with race. Think about the rich, white, Stanford University athlete that recently raped an incapacitated girl behind a dumpster. He essentially got a pass. You and I both know a Black boy (of any class) would have been buried beneath the jail. If it was a poor white guy from the nearest trailer park (which I'd image would have to be pretty far from Stanford's campus), he would be doing serious time too. Rich white boys operate in a different world than everyone else.

Actually the site is still up; I inadvertently picked up the period when creating the hyperlink. Here is the correct URL http://noturmomsfish.com/ At this point the site is serving my ads with my ad code, so any revenue should flow to me, but again that is for right now. Tomorrow the site could serve malware and victims might assume it is me. Again I don't really know what the ultimate motives of these people are, but it can't be good. Another problem is that I have linked to the domain and have visited the site several times. Lets assume I had not taken the actions of reporting the site to Amazon and Google, and that this was replicated against hundreds or thousands of other domains; this could be a great to generate traffic and backlinks to a new domain. I've seen similar scheme work. Those affiliate sites only work for the people selling them and they definitely degrade the web, fortunately Google deals with these sites quite effectively.

I couple of days ago I noticed a newly created domain has copied my site: http://aalbc.com. The offending site, created last week, is http://noturmomsfish.com. I noticed this because it is generating a large number of requests for my ads. Some may argue that this is a good thing because my content and ads are being is being displayed in more places and I'm generating more ad views which means more money. Actually this is the exact opposite of good. On may 18th one page on this site generated over 17,000 ad views. This type of activity, left unchecked could get me dropped from Google's Advertising network, which would materially impact my business. Besides, I can't have another site spoofing my content; this is bad for branding, it is terrible for SEO, besides I have no idea what the ultimate intentions are of the people who set this up, but I'm pretty confident they are not good. The software developer for my ad server Renegade Internet provided these tips. I'm sharing them here because the World Wide Web is like the Wild Wild West there are no rules that are not unbroken and there is no one responsible for ensure people work together. This is why I'm always writing about the importance of working together. This kind of thing happens all of the time, to varying degrees. In fact a few years ago a very large site wn.com apparent business model was to copy content from other website and serve a ton of ads. They only copied excerpts and even linked back to the source, but they did not generate their own content. This site copied countless pages of content from my site. The worse part was that they were beating me in search results on my own content! Which cost me real money for a many months. Ultimately after getting beat up by webmasters like myself Google updated their algorithm and essentially put these site types of sites out of business, but at the same time I also believe they hurt Black newspaper sites because they all rely heavily on wire services that all the other uses which makes these sites carbon copies of each other. But again I digress... So how do I stop this from happening? Contact the website owner Sent them a cease and desist letter. You can usually find the website's owner by doing a whois lookup. In my case the web owner has hidden their contact information privacy protected, (no surprise there) Contact hosting company and asked them to take down the site because it was hosting stolen/copyrighted material. In my case the web hist is Amazon. Now this is surprising because I full expected a non-american company. A company like Amazon is very likely to take care of matters like they provide a form for reporting abusive website they host: https://aws.amazon.com/forms/report-abuse Report the offending site to Google and request that they remove this site from their index. Google provides information on how to report malicious websites here: https://support.google.com/legal/answer/3110420?rd=1 In my case the site is too new to have been indexed by Google's search engines. But I'll report them nonetheless and hopefully preempt and potential damages. I also stopped my advertisements from being displayed on bogus domain to prevent my website from running afould of Google Advertising Network policies. There are no guarantees here and I'll let you know how I make out.

Pioneer when you were "very religious" your religion did not mandate abstinence from sex outside of marriage? I hate to read about the bad experiences some of the men you know have had been fathers. Do you think there should be a law against people bring children into the world if they are not financially independent themselves? @Pioneer1, it is probably a good time for you to adopt; seems like you'd be a very decent father.

Well to be clear while I recognize how lists attract visitors; I'm not interested in building list solely for that reason, and I'm definitely not interested in creating lists for the sake of having people click through multiple pages to see each item on a list--I hate sites that do that. (I'm not suggesting that you were saying this Chris, I'm clarify this for other readers who may not know this) I use list in the in the content of aggregating information about books. For example take a look at the page for Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming, you'll see that the book has been recognized in a variety of ways, bestsellers lists, awards, book club reading lists I think this is where the real value lies it helps readers find good books. I actually was not familiar with UPROXX until now. Honestly I'm not interested in replicating their model--though I can see why it would be much more lucrative than what I'm doing. You'll notice the site is much harder to navigate due to the prominence and positioning of ads.

Post the video here when you get a chance Chris. I still have not had a chance to watch the video from the Uber conversation, maybe I grab a notebook and watch these in one shot. I forgot to mention the other reason I'm hopeful is that more and more people are coming to this conclusion on their own, and I have seen immediate benefits; we just have not reached a tipping point. I'd image the situation is similar in the Sneaker and Music business huh? How do you keep track of some many different industries?

This morning I was researching the 2016 Wheatley Book Awards on the Harlem Book Fair’s website and saw a big “Web-Stat Traffic Analysis” button at the bottom of the page, intrigued, I checked it out. The chart above shows the top 10 sources of traffic to the Harlem Book Fair’s website. As you can see AALBC.com has provided the Harlem Book Fair with almost 7% of all of their traffic for 2016, more than all of their social media combined. The chart shows that, on average, I’m sending just under 3 visitors a day to their site. That might not sound like a lot, but if AALBC.com disappeared today, the Harlem Book Fair site would immediately lose 7% of their traffic. This is EXACTLY why are our websites struggle. Multiply this effect across all of the other Black book sites that have closed and previously sent traffic to the Harlem Book Fair’s site, and it becomes clear how this lost traffic adds up. The refferal traffic lost to sites like The Harlem Book and AALBC.com has been significant. Yesterday, I shared a graph that shows how my referral traffic has dropped from 12% in 2014 to 3% in 2016. But it gets worse... It is not just that fact that we have FEWER Black websites who would potentially link to our sites. The ones that remain simply do not link to each other as much as they used to. I noticed this trend a few years ago and have written about it to the point of exhaustion. Many of the these sites, particularly the larger ones, have brought into the myth propagated by corporations that linking other websites is bad for one’s website. For course the alternative solution these corporations have offered is to actively participate and buy advertising on their platforms—otherwise known as social media marketing. Today virtually all of the sites, including the Harlem Book Fair’s site, that have stopped linking to other Black sites now, enthusiastically, link to social media sites. I have failed to see a single instance where, and no one has ever demonstrated that, the traffic lost from referrals from other websites has been made up by social media. Unfortunately this point fails to resonate with people because; they have completely bought into the social media hype, they have no historical perspective from which to draw, or they have simply not looked at their own web site’s traffic over time. It is also worth pointing out that the exchange of links between the Harlem Book Fair’s site and AALBC.com is not an equal exchange on any level: AALBC.com has gotten more visitors, in one day, than the Harlem Book Fair has gotten all year. The benefit is derived when all sites, large and small, are engaged in the activity of linking to each other. If that was not depressing enough... Why did I stop covering the Harlem Book Fair’s activities? Honestly, it is because of a lack of reciprocation. If you run a search for AALBC.com on the Harlem Book Fair’s website you get NOTHING in return. However run a search for the Harlem Book Fair on AALBC.com and you get over 400 results! When I attend the Harlem Book Fair, shoot video, post the award winning books, and much more; this takes time, money, and energy. I did this because I enjoyed the fair and it provided great content for the website. But there many other events I can enjoy and generate content from AND receive the needed reciprocation—a simple link to my site will do. In today’s environment I have to be more conscious and strategic about the events I choose to invest my time in. Finally there is hope! Linking to other websites works adds value to your website. I’m not saying link to any site without discretion. What I’m saying is don’t let some corporation stop you from linking to another website, because you think it will hurt your search engine rankings or will send visitors away from your site. When someone visits AALBC.com and discovers another website they enjoy; I have provided a valueable service and most likely earned a repeat visitor. As a result, I have always linked to other sites I think are valuable—even if they never return the favor. In the case of the Harlem Book Fair, I used to share information on the Wheatley Awards, but stopped in 2013; my efforts were better directed to other activities. However, my new website design allows me to more easily add lists of books, so I decided to begin sharing the Wheatley Awards again. The value proposition in providing information about these award winning books to my visitors is worth the lack of reciprocation. Plus the web would be a less rich place if the Harlem Book Fair’s site went away or migrated to Facebook. Please link to other sites you find valuable, not just because it makes the World Wide Web a better experience, but because it will make your site more valuable which is critical to your site’s survival over the long term.

The problem with the so called Bullssit interviws that Obama does with comedians is that they will NEVER ask a tough questions; certainly nothing of importance to the African-American community. It may be smugness, considering his preference for Ivy League educated cabinet member, but it could be part of a brilliant strategy to remain above reproach, for the Black masses have no interest in challenging Obama on any level. Indeed, anyone who does is vilified. Instead of amping up Jimmy Fallon's ratings and having his ego stroked, Obama could have granted The Chicago Defender preferred access which would have bolstered the paper's profile and instead of struggling it could have grown as a direct result of Obama's support. A small price to pay consider the support the paper supplied candidate Obama. While I did not know about Ebony, the writing was on the wall for for sometime. I'm glad they found a buyer sparing us the pain of witnessing a their slow death. I have not hope that the publication will be of relevance to the Black community--indeed when was it last? On a brighter note I did learn about a Black owned newspaper today out of St Louis, called, The St. Louis Evening Whirl and has been around, family owned for almost 80 years!

Interestingly it is not just the Black media Obama blowing off These are quotes from a Washington Post article. “Remarkably, Post news reporters haven’t been able to interview the president since late 2009. Think about that. The Post is, after all, perhaps the leading news outlet on national government and politics, with no in-depth, on-the-record access to the president of the United States for almost all of his two terms.” “After early promises to be the most transparent administration in history, this has been one of the most secretive. And in certain ways, one of the most elusive. It’s also been one of the most punitive toward whistleblowers and leakers who want to bring light to wrongdoing they have observed from inside powerful institutions.” I know die-hard Obama supports ain't tryin' to hear any of this, but this stuff is important. We can't be surprised when people are so easily radicalized against the United States, when our own country won't even tell us how many civilians are being killed in the bazillion drone strikes we execute.

Thanks @CDBurns This discussion forum, in general, is not a major driver of traffic to his site. I think it should be, and could be, but for now social media owns that space. That said, two popular pages on this site for May (shown below) are here on the forums. Over 1,500 people who visited "The 10 Best Damn Websites Period" post and spent on average 6 minutes of the page. Even though there is not much conversation on these pages they are read frequently. The overall driver to the site is content related to books. The lists are very popular including the various bestsellers lists, children book lists, etc. These pages are far more popular than anything on the discussion forums. The articles I've written about the clousre of bookstores are very popular: http://aalbc.com/blog/index.php/2014/03/31/54-black-owned-bookstores-remain-america/index.html Even through this article was written over two years ago, it consistently bring at least a thousand readers a month often many more. But other sites link to this article and as discussed referral traffic is a key to our collective survival, though it is a tool few of us use.

Marc, man I guess you are right. But there is no denying that Obama courted the Black media initially; even appearing at the NNPA conference. Did you read his quote above? It seems much of the media was focused on Obama's marginalization of Tavis Smiley, when in reality he was indeed marginalizing the Black establishment, choosing to curry favor with those who appealed to the masses the Al Sharptons and Tom Joyners, people who were never, ever gonna hold Obama accountable. Several in the Black media, I'm talking about professional journalists, have already told me Obama has been the least transparent president they have dealt with! Why these very same newspapers don't write articles about this an explain way is beyond me. Perhaps they are too afraid to anger the few readers thay have left, or ever wors,e bear the brunt of Obama wrath.

I'm not sure if the graph on the right is legible, but it depicts the source of AALBC.com's traffic for the three month periods, May 2016, May 2015, and May 2014. For each of these periods more than 90% of my traffic comes from three sources Organic Search (visitors who arrive at the site as a result of a query on a search engine), Direct Traffic (visitor entering a URL directly or clicking a bookmark), and Referral Traffic from other websites. I picked May because it is a typical month, not the busiest month, usually February (Black History) and November (holiday shopping), nor the slowest month usually July (vacation time). While I'm not sharing my specific numbers, just percentages, the information should still be useful. AALBC.com's Website traffic has also steadily increased and improved on virtually every single metric. The website's upgrade which has been ongoing for the past 6 month, and will probably take a year to complete, has resulted in an anticipated improvement in engagement, based upon the average number of pages views, per visit. The number of pages viewed per visit more than doubled since 2014. This is on top of an increase in the number of overall visitors which continues to grow each year; up 108% from 2013, 80% from 2014, and 68% from 2015 for the month of May. Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) has held steady at roughly 3% the past year I've greatly reduced the amount of time I spend engaging directly on social media--limiting my activity to posting links usually directly from the page I'm sharing, without visiting the social media site. So it is good to see that a tremendous reduction of time spent on social media has had no adverse impact on the traffic generated from social media. In fact, because website traffic is up overall that 3% actually an increase in visitors (all organic) from social media during the periods measured. The vast majority of social media referral come from Facebook, Twitter is a distant 2nd and all the others including Google+ and Pinterest are negligible sources of traffic to AALBC.com Referral traffic (visitors directed by hyperlink on other sites), as a function of percent of total traffic has declined steadily over the past three years dropping from approximately 12% to 3% of overall traffic. Referral traffic tends to be the highest quality traffic, visitors referred from other sites tend to stay on the site longer and view more websites than any other source. Sadly, the decline of referral traffic is due to a few reasons; (1) a decrease in the number of websites that historically linked to AALBC.com; (2) the trend of larger sites not to link to other websites; and (3) a trend toward Facebook away from standalone websites as one primary web presence. All of these problems feed on each other making the others worse. I've actually invested years trying to change this trend; obviously with little impact. All I can do is continue to link to other websites and continue to fight, because as referral traffic dries up, we all becoming increasingly dependent upon corporate website for traffic—which comes at a much higher cost. I'm sharing this information to potentially help other webmasters by giving them another website to which they can compare their stats and ideally, figure out ways to improve their traffic.