Troy

I live in NY City and there are simply not as many street vendors moving books as there once was. I understand the laws changed making it harder for street vendor to vend on the street, as you mentioned a Black owned distributor, who supplied many of the street vendors shut down. Then you know all of the controversy surrounding Carl Weber dumping books onto the street vendor market, way below retail, which effectively eliminated author royalties... Again I don't have data around how books are sold. I just know there are fewer bookstores and many of the ones remaining are struggling. (BTW please mention the two stores that you currently work with, other authors reading these can benefit from the information.) I also go into B&N's across the country and they simply do not stock a variety of Black authors and definitely no indie authors. Borders was a much better chain for Black authors, but you know what happened to them. I also know target and Costco and other retailers sell Black books, but again you will not find many different book. The library market has some potential, but getting into that market, while easier than in the past, is still tough--particularly as an indie author. The reason I mention Amazon and facebook is because this is what I see day in and day out--literally everyday. There is also a trend for authors toward suing Facebook as their only presence on the web. Most authors behave as if Black book sellers don't exist and using direct reader to buy on Amazon. Direct selling is perhaps the best way for an indie authors to sell books, but most simply don't have the skill or desire to do this. I've seen authors like Nikki Turner sell books like no other, she is a machine, but few people are like her. Many of the authors in the street lit space were successful because they are great salespeople, Wahida Clark, Relentless Aaron, J.M. Benjamin, etc,. On the commercial fiction side this skill can not be discounted NY Times bestselling author Omar Tyree back in the 90's was the hardest working author I had ever seen. Kwame Alexander, who just won a Newbery award the highest honor in children's literature was a worked hard on the promotion side too. Authors like Reshonda Tate Billingsley, Victoria Christopher Murray and many other grind, day in and day out. What do authors who are not great sales people (the majority) do? How do the great writers among this bunch get discovered? Honestly this is a gap that an AALBC.com can easily fill, but even I'm resource contrained and can only do so much. We need more booksellers recommending books online and off--the auhtor can only do so much on their own. @TheroneShellman, regarding other sites not lasting, don't remain mute. Say what is on your mind. I don't want to make the same mistake, otherwise I might be able to shed some insight.

Wangechi Mutu (artist), Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (writer), Chimamanda Adichie (writer), Wangechi Mutu (artist), Kerry James Marshall (artist), Sammy Baloj (artist) and Taiye Selasi (writer) discuss how black people are misrepresented in today’s society and culture.

@Dr T, I'm not saying you can't link Facebook (though I'm obviously not a fan of this). I just think it is important for people link to their own sites or post the content here, and to understand why it is important. Below is Dr. T.'s excerpt: With the Champ's passing, this excerpt from the chapter "Muhammad Ali" takes on new poignancy for me: ...as mentioned, (my brother) Calvin had a personal and professional association with Muhammad Ali. Calvin had a business relationship with Ali’s manager and met Ali through that connection. One day Calvin called me from Vegas, ostensibly to check in on me and see how I was progressing... Dorey answered and handed me the phone, “Calvin is on the phone.” “Yo man,” I said. “How are you feeling?” The voice on the other end was very soft-spoken, deliberate, and somewhat halting. It was not Calvin but was very familiar sounding. “This is Muhammad Ali.” I damn near fell out of my chair. My mind was racing trying to determine what I should say to arguably the most well-known man in the world. If I was standing, I’m sure my knees would be knocking. I responded, “Hi.” How profound! For the next few minutes I listened intently as Muhammad Ali spoke. To be honest, I could barely make out what he said. Although in 1985 Ali looked vibrant and healthy—still “pretty” as he would so often refer to himself whenever a microphone was stuck in his face—there is no question he was already starting to noticeably deteriorate in terms of verbalization; despite the fact that he was cognitively sharp. Ali was so soft spoken and difficult to hear his every word, that I wasn’t sure when he was about to conclude. I sensed he was coming to the end of his comments by a subtle change in his inflection. So, my mind started racing with how I should articulate my honor, gratitude and sincere appreciation to Ali for calling me and wishing me well. Then he said something that I will hold onto for the rest of my life; it was the only thing I can quote verbatim from his difficult to comprehend, very soft-spoken, slightly slurred words. “I will pray for you..." (read additional excerpts from White Man’s Disease here)

Well Cynique, as many typos as I make I'm not about to go after Therone on that one . One could argue "whole new renaissance" is redundant, but this just a discussion forum and the expectation for editing is an issue only when there is a loss of clarity. Therone is an accomplished author and has been profiled on AALBC.com for more than a deacde, but I understand the point you are making... @TheroneShellman, thanks for coming by and sharing your thoughts on this subject. I can't speak to arts in general, but I can speak to Black books. I started running AALBC.com in 1997. Since then I've been a keen observer of what I call the “Black Book Ecosystem.” During this almost 19 year period I've seen Black books and authors really surge in popularity. Many independent authors (a term I prefer to self-published), were able to ride the wave of this expansion, due to enhancements in technology which dramatically lowered the cost of producing and selling book. When you got started in 2003 The Black Book Ecosystem had not yet peaked, and was still on the come up. In fact, the most notable writers, benefiting from this surge like, Ashley and JaQuavis, and Wahida Clark were largely unknown. Vickie Stringer's Triple Crown Productions was really just getting started pubbing Kwan's Gangsta, Stringer's own, Let That Be the Reason and Nikki Turner's Project Chick. Carl Weber's Urban Books and 50 Cent's G-Unit Books (both owned by Simon and Schuster) were brand new or had not yet started. Of course that is just the urban fictions genre, novels in romance, "chic-lit", sci-fi, and commercial fiction benefited a great deal. Today the landscape is very different, since 2003 we have lost a couple hundred Black owned bookstores, and we have lost many Black book websites. Black authors are not getting book deals in the same numbers, as a decade ago, and those that did, are getting smaller advances. Many authors have simply stopped publishing, have published independently, or have turned to small indie presses, none of which provide advances which help subsidize the careers of a writers. Technologies like print on demand and digital books have made it possible for anyone to create a book. As a result, we have more books in the marketplace than ever before.. But this is not resulting in better books getting into the hands of readers, or increased profits for the authors. This has just been a windfall for purveyors of ebook publishing and POD services. I've already mentioned there are fewer book stores and book sites, but there is also MUCH less coverage of Black books in magazines and newspapers. As result, it is harder for books to find their audience. Meanwhile social media and Amazon have promised to make promotion of books much easier for authors, still the only real beneficiaries of these promises are Amazon and social media. In fact today, the vast majority of book sold are sold by Amazon. I don't have hard data on this, but where else are large numbers of Black book being purchased and sold? But, to your point, I believe the pendulum is beginning to swing in the other direction, back in our favor, and that Black literature is indeed in the dawn of new renaissance. This renaissance, like all the others, is driven by need. Writers are beginning to see that all of these technologies are not serving us the way they are currently being used. I also believe that people are beginning to see that going it alone is not working. We are starting to exploit technologies to our benefit and stricking alliances to leverage our collective strengths. This is the change in thinking we must make, from a business perspective, to continue to fuel this renaissance. So the quick answer is; "Yes, we are."

Hey Dr T. would you mind if I reposted your except here, rather than sending people to Facebook? Alternatively can you pots and your site and send people there. One of the missions of this site is to uplift independent websites.

Cynique, while Roots was an 8 hour epic, and Straight Outta Compton is just a two hour flick, a direct comparison may not be fair, but I easily enjoyed Roots more that SOC. Comparing it to the first version Roots may not be fair either, but if you try to make allowances for the superior technology the latest version was afforded; I still think the new version was far superior. Also given the freedom to know that this version was purely fictional I could turn the part of my brain that checks for the plausibility of situations, and just enjoy the film. I was really just enjoyed looking at the people. The men we handsome, and the women were fine. The cinematography at times was simply spectacular, the beautiful Black people, the colors, the landscape combined at times to be simply awesome. While I know Snoop Dogg was calling for a boycott, who else called for a one? I haven't even seen part four yet. No one else in my family is interested in watching Roots. Last night I watched, it on demand, while everyone else who was at home was watching the NBA finals. Since I have no dog in the race or money on the line. The outcome of the bball game is of very little interest to me, Admittedly, I saw no use in investing time in another version of Roots, when so many other stories need to be told. But I guess remakes are so much easier to make from a creative standpoint, because crafting a new story from scratch, even one based on history, is always more difficult. But the upside of doing something brand new is much greater.

Hey you are doing big things Fanita, so it is my pleasure. I'll drop you a line in a few.

Humm it could be a bug in the software. I've made two upgrades this week. I suspect when you shut down you machine or reboot it things will work normally. My deleting of posts should have nothing to do your ability to access the board. Also I have not restricted your access or anyone else's--just in case that crossed your mind Care take and let us know what you think about Roots.

@Pioneer1, the red letters definitely help. If I feel the need to quote a paragraph from a different poster, another conversation or even another source I indent the text. Of course their are other ways to accomplish the same thing. What really gets on my nerves is when Sara fully quotes a comment that immediately precedes her in the conversation--this is completely unnecessary and nonsensical. And yes inserting replies directly within a quoted, without differentiating the quoted text from her reply is very confusing and potentially misleading. I don't consider this type of posting a "style." It is just sloppy use of the platform and I'm not going to tolerate it any longer. So this is a rule I've chosen to implement and will enforce as I see fit. No one will be booted without warning, Sara has been warned, and she can decide to comply or not. It really is entirely up to her.

As I slowly plow through AALBC.com's upgrade I'm constantly discover just how much I don't know about Black literature and it is fascinating. Most of us know Richard Wright for his bestselling novel, Native Son. I did not know Native Son was turned into a film back in 1951 (the film is on YouTube). I also did not know how many novels Wright had published, when I created his page many years ago, I found a few, today during the update I found 19 different titles Wright that has published including not only novels but nonfiction and poetry. It is also hard to appreciate today, just how prominent and influential Wright was in his day, given the complete lack of attentions paid to his work. Maybe @Cynique can share her perspective since she was an eye witness to the period and Wright passed before I was even born.

Sara stop posting about quote, Pioneer's use of quoting is acceptable in this instance. I quote people from time to time. Your wholesale copying of other posts is the problem. I've tried to explain the difference to you, but you obviously don't get it or care. I moderate the forums, not you. So spare everyone the childish remarks and tattling--I will delete those too,

The following text was pulled from my facebook page. Technically the book was not directly mentioned in my eNewsletter, but it was indirectly mentioned as it is one of a set of selected books I've included in my list of up coming books. “Thank you to Troy Johnson for including The Gilded Years by Karin Tanabe in AALBC.com's June e-newsletter. It is a historical novel based on the true story of Anita Hemmings [pictured below]. Before you let "historical novel" turn you off, first know that Anita Hemmings was the first black woman to graduate from Vassar College in the 1890s. The Gilded Years, although a fictionalized account, truly captures the spirit of not only that time in our history but you'll find yourself rooting for Anita Hemmings, wanting her to cross the finish line - graduate from Vassar - before she's "found out." She put everything on the line to attend her dream school, which at the time did not admit black women. Yet, she did so by passing as a white woman, a decision that she and her family did not make lightly. For three years, the highly intellectual, multilingual Anita Hemmings kept her head in her books, made few to no friends, and focused on her goals, until her graduate year when she met her new roommate. Lottie was the girl on campus that everyone wanted as a friend. She came from a monied Manhattan family. She was fun. Lottie lived life her way and every girl admired her. She and Anita became fast friends - like sisters - until they got a little too close for comfort. Although Anita enjoyed her new life as Lottie's best friend, she risked losing everything she'd worked so hard for. With the turn of each page, you'll find yourself in fear for Anita, laughing with her as she and her friends enjoy the fruits of their senior year of college, and crying with her when she had to make hard decisions that involved her heart. The Gilded Years publishes on June 7. Please take it with you to the beach, on vacation, or wherever your travels take you over the coming months.” I think it is an interesting story, particularly in the context of the race conversations we have been having. @Pioneer1 what genetic test would you run to determine this sista's Blackness? Keep in mind her "whiteness" past muster with upper class white folks; arguably the most racist folks to exist.

LOL! Actually Chris did bring data into the mix. But i don't think it is personal with me... ah maybe it is, how could it not be? Cynique did you see the 2nd episode of Roots? Kunta escaped to fight with the British? If you read the research I shared you'll see that poor, under educated, Black men disproportionate serve in the military. As discussed it is a perfectly rational decision because options for these brother are very limited. Kunta's options were limited too so he was was anxious to fight for the British, at least until he saw how he and the others were being used. Some left, some stayed and died, and some survived and got their freedom. Is it really so different today?

Our latest newsletter - Great New Books, Bestsellers and More! Please share with other lovers of literature. https://madmimi.com/s/d137b7

Congrats on the new book ladies. I'm posting the cover below though I'd encourage readers to visit your website. I think the book cover design contest was an interesting idea. Was there any cost involved with setting that up? Also I'd encourage you to sign up for Amaon's affiliate program, have someone do it on your behalf, or simply use this URL http://amzn.to/1sqb6Rp when sending people to Amazon. Learn why this matters by reading this article.

Here is a research report that summarizes more formerly some of the points I've raised here written here: Who Joins the Military?: A Look at Race, Class, and Immigration Status, it is 23 pages long. It is an academic research paper so I don't expect most of y'all to read it but it if will give you some insight of where I'm coming from. If anyone wants to discuss it please start another conversation. Chris, I do know that there have been studies about the dangers in other occupations, I'm sure you seen the list that pop up every year saying which occupations are most dangerous. Solider is number 5 or 6 behind construction worker. But to your point (and others) not every person in the service is a "trigger puller," so roles outside of combat may be even safer than working as a teacher in an inner city neighborhood. But I think you understand where I'm coming from. Cynique I'm not sure why you are mystified after reading some of the posts which included statements like; "...I want to make sure AfroAmericans are WELL REPRESENTED inside the military," or "The military is still considered a great opportunity by most observers," or "My service has influenced me to say on many occasions that all kids should serve in some capacity," or "Such valuable and eye-opening experiences can never be overstated nor underestimated!" Now I appreciate I cherry picked lines, but they are completely in line with the sentiments of the complete statements. You say my statements were "awash in an undercurrent of negativity," I think this is more a reflection of your sentiments than of what I actually wrote. To be clear if you find a representative statement that I wrote that was awash in negativity I'll address it or admit that you might be right. Keep in mind that like most Black people I have too have family members that are ex or current military too, some have done very well for themselves others not so. But again my point is that in a country as wealthy as America we have to be able to provide better options, for Black men in particular, than jail, the military, some low wage job, or unemployment (maybe this is one of those statement awash in negativity?). Of course I realize Black men have the option of going to college and go, I also realize that Black people can enter the armed services and do well for themselves. Bu the reality is 17% of Black men actually get college degrees, while 33% can expect to spend some time in jail. Of course many of the incarcerated also have degrees but still the number speak for themselves. It is hard to determine with information I can find quickly if military service has any impact on the above. For example how many men avoided jail as a result of military service and how many men when to college as a result of military service and vice-versa (how many did not go to college or ended up in jail because of military service). Maybe the data has never been collected One last thought, at the risk of being too negative; we have surveys from Pew research which show the majority of Female veterans -- of all colors found the following: women veterans are more critical than their male counterparts of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—fully 63% say the Iraq war was not worth fighting and 54% say Afghanistan has not been worth it (compared with 47% and 39% of male veterans, respectively). Among the general public, by contrast, there are no significant differences by gender in the share who say the post-9/11 wars were not worth fighting. So while my primary focus has been on men, women, Black ones in particular need more support, and not to rain on everyone's parade, but did we even address the overwhelming incidence of rapes in the military?

@Xeon, that was very well put. A forum where everyone agreed with what I think would not be intellectually stimulating or very much fun. I fully appreciate many people do not like their ideas challenged. Most avoid this like the plague, which is what makes Facebook so popular, their algorithm is designed to show readers information that supports their world view, because it pulls folks in, which is far more profitable that letting people freely express themselves. But social media has the impact of narrowing people's world views, giving them the false impression that their beliefs are universally shared or that dissenting views that slip in are aberrational. I banned Igbo Girl because that poster was a troll Kola Boof was using. Some poster recognized Igbo Girl was a Kola Boof sock puppet, because of the writing style. I was able to determine this because of the IP address used. I only ban trolls. But as you observed I rarely exercise this option. Unkle Ruckus, and Celestial-something were the last two banned, but they really deserved it Sometimes trolls do not reveal themselves right away, so they can get away for while before banned, this is a consequence of allowing too much freedom. Xeon if your participation here is any indication, I can't image why you would be banned on a discussion forum. Contributions like yours are what enriches conversation--even through you are overly infatuated with the military

Sara the idea that you would pass on going to the library does not surprise me. Sara why hurls barbs at Harry? He said he mistyped--which is something we all do and he answered the question. Similarly why all the machinations over conceding that you were incorrect about the quoting of a single paragraph. You would not be the first person you was wrong about something. We all have been wrong. -------------------- Finally @Sara, and this is important: if you (or anyone else who makes a habit of it) persist on quoting full comments from other posters, I will simply delete them--unread. If I have to spend time deleting these too often, I will prevent the offending poster from post. Please stop doing it. Sorry for taking such extreme measures If I could stop people from doing this in software I would, but I can't so I have to resort to a brute force tactic which I'm not a fan of. For example, there is absolutely no reason for you to fully quote Harry's post when you are entering the very next post. When you do this you clutter the board and make is harder for others to read it.

@Xeon, of course the question "Better than what?" makes sense to the statement, "I know a lot of Black men and women who did and most of them came out better." In fact, that question ALWAYS makes that most sense when someone say that something is better or worse. If you want to describe something as not making sense, lets look at your statement; "...people who generally serve in the military are better after they leave the military than when were prior to entering the service for the most obvious reasons." What is obvious about that? We have already discussed that people in the military suffer from PTSD, homelessness, suicide, all at rates higher than people who did not go into the military. Your statement makes no sense in light of these facts. Also how can you be so confident that if people did something else with their time, like go to college, learn a trade, or just get a job, that they would be worse off than if they went into the military? As Chris mentioned the negative outcomes of military service has to do with the job you are in and other factors. And as already stated there are of course people who come out better as a result of Military service, Chris is an example. However Chris' alternative was JAIL! I'd recommend anyone go into the military, every day of the week, if the option was jail. I have one simple question for you Xeon: Do you think that all young men and women should serve in the military? @Cynique, I'm not sure why you are accusing me of lecturing, and not anyone else, including yourself.. We are debating the issues and making arguments . But I think I get why you are so defensive of my critique of the military. I think you are receiving it as if I'm personally attacking all the men in your life who have served, I'm not doing that. Again, I'm not focusing on Individuals. I like Chris, and am glad he had a great experience, but I'm not going to judge the entire armed forces on his experience, any more than I would judge it on the experience of my father's, who was able to show his premature death was related to his military service. I'm also not sure why you use adjectives like "revolted" and "despised" in describing my feeling about the armed services. I did not use these words, nor do I feel this way. Indeed, I wrote that we NEED the military, because we do. I'm only advocating that we treat the people better than we currently do. But improving how we treat our military personnel will never improve if we all bury our heads in the sand and act like there aren't any problems that need correcting. I also believe that Black men, in particular, are presented with so few options that the military is often their only decent choice. I don't feel this should be the case either. So sure Cynique, that is the "world as it exists," but that does not mean we can't try to change it. @CDBurns, interestingly I went to a high school that had a class that taught us little life skills, like writing a checks, banks account, even how to buy a used car.

@CDBurns, when talking about the military, or anything for that matter, we have to separate individual experiences from that of the whole group. I don't doubt that you and many others have wonderful experiences in the military, but again those are just your opinions from your relatively narrow experience within the entire US Armed forces. Like the proverbial blind men describing an elephant your experience doesn't make you wrong or right they are your experiences, I'm not judging you on that. How can I? I'm not you. Even if I shared your identical experience in the military I would have come away with a completely different impression, because I'm not you. What I'm talking about is the US military in general, looking across the entire service. Now when you examine something with at such a high level, this has little to do with individual experiences. It is like taking the average height of 100 people: it is possible to calculate an average height that none of people actually have. That does not make the average height value useless because no one is that height. So while there homelessness is higher for ex military personnel, than the general population, that does not mean you will be homeless if you join the military. But the fact there is a higher propensity toward homelessness for the group is not a good thing, but you've suggested some causes that might be perfectly plausible At the end of the day we need a military, but my problem is that I think we use it recklessly and spend too much money on it. I also know the military industry complex is driving the spend because it is lucrative. I seem to remember reading we spend more than the next 20 countries -- why? I also don't like the fact that too many Black kids find the military is their only option. I do know other Brothers my age that were given the choice between jail and the Military (one came out the Military and ended up in jail). I don't think they give Brother that option anymore; cause locking Blackmen up is now lucrative too. . Finally I mentioned indoctrination, because since you've gone through it, it is harder for you to see things the way someone who has not gone through it. Do you see my point? You are naturally less likely to be critical of the Military because you are part of it even was only 8 years. As for Cynique, her motivation for being so uncyniquely defensive of the military and roping you into this conversation is less obvious. I suspect it is a generational thing you know the folks old enough to remember WWII. Knew what it was like to come together as a nation and fight Hitler, the Japanese c=and communism. Rationing food and metal, women working the jobs men left behind, all that stuff the greatest generation is know for--I dunno Cynique what is it?

Sara, I see you have trouble understanding the nature of the web and hyper links. I cited the publication, which means if you want to read the article you have to go to the library or something (again everything is not on the web), the hyperlink was to Herb Boyd page so that you would know who he is. I wrote I was done, I slipped up LOL I removed the quote you pasted from instagram, which was broken was i the process and needlessly copied. I will continue to delete unnecessarily quoted content you past from your posts as I discovered them. If you don't like it sorry. I watched the episode too. Of course it was much better produced than the original and did a much better job of depicting the humanity of the Africans, while in Africa. The people were beautiful.

@Pioneer1 (I like the new avatar), man I can drink dairy and eat ice all day long and I'm in my 50's now what? Also people from other parts of African are also able to digest lactose. Again skin color is genetically determined (ignoring environmental factors), but as we've written numerous times; skin color is insufficient to to determine what you understand as race. I'd bet most of the genetic variation we observe in human is due more to environment (geography, available food supply, climate, etc). Cultures come and go too quickly to have much of an influence on our genetics.

If Snoop did not do a lot of cussing it probably would not have been shared a bazillion times. I was doing a search to trying to find the start time for Roots and the video popped up. Honestly, I'm a little disappointed in myself for contributing the the echo chamber that has become the social media fueled internet. Snoops video was almost 9,000 times and hour over the last 10 hours! If Snoop was really a "real Nigga," he'd stop enriching Mark and his boys at Facebook and help uplift some Black owned websites. Humm... I think I'll add this comment to the 12 hundred other ones.

Apparently Snoop D O double G agrees. It looks like I missed the first episode, it started an hour ago here...

"Courlander's 1978 suit was successful and proved that eighty-one passages from Roots were copied from Courlander's 1967 book, The African, which subsequently led to decreased scholarly interest in Haley." --Herb Boyd, "Plagiarism and the Roots Suits," First World 2, no. 3 (1979): 31–33, 31–32. Seems I'm not the only one less interested in Haley's work. If white people selling the book and making another miniseries if is enough to validate Haley's literary merit for you great and if that put me in the minority even better. Half a million dollars, in 1978, is cheap to you?! My God woman... I'm done here.