Troy

Hi @olayinkatheauthor, I removed the racists posts. I wrote about this problem here.

First I'd like to thank everyone who reported the most recent spam attack. A troll has made it his (mostly likely a young white guy, if I were to profile), mission to trash our forum here with extremely vulgar, obscene and racist photos. This particular troll is pretty aggressive and determined. They have spammed the board on more than one occasion. In the most recent case, they created multiple accounts then spammed the board in what I will call a cluster attack. This resulted in hundreds of vulgar images appearing across multiple conversations simultaneously. Some of the accounts were active, but lying dormant, long before the attack before this attack. One account belong to the aptly named "Unkle Ruckus" had to be banned because he shared the vulgar message in an unrelated conversation. The spammers also waited until I was likely asleep before launching their attack, so the posts were on the forum for 7 hours before I removed them. Spamming trolls have always been a problem on this board, I guess it is the nature of the beast for forums where Black people are trying to do something positive. The software this discussion forum uses monitors email and ip addresses for known spammers, so much of this crap is prevented right off the bat, but a sufficiently determined spammer can get around these measures and unfortunately cause great damage including bringing the board down. Fortunately, the software for this forum makes it trivial to remove these images and prevent the same accounts from causing further damage. So while this episode is over, it will definitely be repeated. I work to make sure these efforts are thwarted before you even become aware of it. One poster who warned me alerted me about the spam (a good thing) wrote; "Someone has posted vulgar images as a reply in this thread. I urge you to delete the thread as it not good for the reputation of my business. Please do it as soon as possible." The person had only made one post on the forum and they did actually removed it. This is fine and I understand, but this comment really irked me: Does this person think that these maliciously racist and vulgar images do not hurt MY BUSINESS? Do they think that I would not remove the images as soon as possible? Sheesh! The lack of empathy and self-centeredness of some people know no bounds. One of my websites, the previous home of this discussion forum, thumperscorners.com, was banned from carrying Google ads because of similar types of images that I was simply was unable to easily find and remove. My inability to easily remove spam was one of the main reasons I had to abandon the platform. I took the time to explain this to help posters and people who read these forums without posting (affectionately known as "lurkers") that I appreciate you coming here and I hope these episodes to not discourage you from continuing to visit the website. I'm doing my best to prevent and remove this type of garbage from defacing what we are doing here. Peace, Troy

If you are in Brooklyn on Friday you can screen this film for free at Medgar Evers College (New York City's - defacto HBCU)

I'll correct the eNewsletter when I archive the Newsletter on my Blog. Just post the photo you'd like me to use here. I can also update your profile's image as well: http://aalbc.org/authors/author.php?author_name=Connie+Bradley. Just make sure the image is not too small. I can always make the photo smaller, but I can't make it bigger without hurting the quality.

Cynique, yes they are both African. While it is great to see African women score big with book deals; African-American women continue to be marginalized. African writers are actually more than the flavor of the month, they actually becoming quite dominant. Chimamanda is another example. Chimi is a brilliant writer, but we have brilliant writers in America too. If Random House is paying these two authors over 2 million dollars in advances, not counting the spend in advertising and promotion, you best believe this comes at the expense of other authors who will not get deals or who will get smaller advances--who do you think those authors will be? You could give 20 other authors advances large enough for them to live on for a year or two. But I guess these guys figure it is better to focus on two books rather than 20. But the trade off is fewer stories being told. The merger of Penguin and Random House has resulted in a massive publisher, owned by a German corporation, that operates, in manner that might seem odd to one that loves literature, but makes perfect sense to an oligarchist.

I actually thought about this when I shared your commentary in my eNewsletter this afternoon. I had no clue what you meant, and just chalked it up to my own density. I figured smarter people than I would get it.

@richardmurray, it is interesting your would say that. I'm sure Cynique welcomes anything you have to say here. But to your point I usually do both. I'll typically comment on the page of the op-ed. If I think it is an interesting subject I'll bring it here to comment on further. I link from here to the op-ed piece, but not the other way around, unless I have content here that advances the conversation. BTW was the remaining blog problem ever resolved I made two upgrades since you pointed out the residual problem.

Definitely. I know plenty of folks who can't turn off work-mode. Many successful authors I'm sure are successful because of that trait. It may not be fair to call it "work-mode," as it is their natural state, their nature. If you try to change it you'd be someone else, and probably be less happy. Enjoy!

The benefit of the shares is that they expand your reach beyond what Facebook provides organically and the leads generated by those shares are MUCH higher quality that anything Facebook can provide with an advertisement. I'd rather have 10 shares than 10,000 Facebook ad provided impressions (no exaggeration). Of course you are still left with the problem of people leaving the platform. But If I can get 10 clicks or my own I can get 50 through 10 people who share. Which is better than what I'd get with 10,000 paid impressions.

This was the same company that ran Black Expression Book Club. Carol Mackey was the editor. They also co-sponsored our 4th Black Pack Party.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG PARTNERS WITH BOOK OF THE MONTH As December Guest Judge, Goldberg selects The Magician’s Lie By: Greer Macallister NEW YORK -- DECEMBER 1, 2015 -- Book of the Month announced today that Whoopi Goldberg will serve as its December Guest Judge. The Oscar-winning actress has selected Greer Macallister’s debut book The Magician’s Lie to share with Book of the Month members. The book is one of five new titles featured by Book of the Month’s panel of Judges for December. Goldberg is one of the very few artists in history to have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards, and is widely recognized for her humanitarian efforts. She is also a bestselling author, having published 11 books for children and adults alike. Goldberg commented, “Books take you to places you never think you’re going to get to…Books have the power to change the way you see yourself, and the way you see the world.” Goldberg’s video interview in which she discusses the role of reading in her life and career, can be found here, and Goldberg’s video discussion of The Magician’s Lie can be found here. Book of the Month said in a statement: “We are thrilled to have Whoopi Goldberg join us as Book of the Month’s December Guest Judge. She is a great performer and artist with a true passion for reading. Just like Whoopi, her book selection will entertain and surprise her fans, who are among our club members.” Greer Macallister, author of The Magician’s Lie, said: "I was blown away to hear that my debut novel was selected for the honor of Book of the Month, and blown away all over again when I heard who had selected it -- Whoopi Goldberg, an amazingly versatile talent and a creative force whose work I've admired for years." The Magician’s Lie introduces readers to the Amazing Arden, the most famous female illusionist in the 20th Century, who stands accused of her husband’s murder. Macallister’s novel is filled with mystery, intrigue and an incredible attention to historical details. The book was originally published in January 2015 by Sourcebooks. Book of the Month’s other December Selections include: Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker (Judge: Stephen Marche), Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell (Judge: Liberty Hardy), The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende (Judge: Bill Goldstein) and What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan (Judge: Kim Hubbard). More information on these titles can be found here. Book of the Month’s previous Guest Judges include Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik and TIME magazine’s Joel Stein. Book of the Month will announce its January Guest Judge on January 1, 2016. About Book of the Month Book of the Month offers readers an easy and entertaining way to discover great new books. Each month, the club’s Judges select five exceptional titles, and members choose which one of the five they want to receive as their Book of the Month. Founded in 1926, “America’s first book club” has served millions of readers for nearly 90 years. For more information see bookofthemonth.com. Book of the Month® and Book of the Month Club® are registered trademarks of Bookspan LLC. Unauthorized use prohibited. All rights reserved. About Bookspan Bookspan, LLC operates more than a dozen online book clubs, including Book of the Month, The Literary Guild, and Doubleday Book Club. For more information see bookspan.com. # # #

Yeah that would be a great idea. But sometimes I just like to get out of work mode and just kick it. This is one of those times. I wish you could make it.

Yeah the mustard gold color is growing on me too. I definitely prefer it to the gray I'm currently using. I just updated my Blog (wordpress) to fit the color scheme too. I actually had to write custom css to do change the menu colors. Fortunately the background color as an option for the theme. I'm also seeing that "sharing" on Facebook is actually helpful. Sharing leads to more clickthroughs than likes or even comments. If people actually like your content they really should "share" it. Liking it does nothing. I'll take 10 "shares" over 50 "likes" anytime.

If you are in the New York City area, on December 3rd, please come join us!

I actually have not done anything with the homepage since I ripped out the slider. When I load different videos on each page load I actually use my adserver to do this (just as if I have banner ads in rotation). I would not write a script from scratch to do this, but find something online and modify it if necessary. If I were using wordpress, I would just search for a plugin to do it. The traction on my subscription request dropped to zero today. I'm going to start a newsletter which I can hopefully email tomorrow and make an appeal for subscribers in it. That should help over the next week or so. Thanks for add the Ta-Nehisi video to your website.

Hi Guest, you can start by posting information about your book, right here, on this forum.

Sister Souljah has a new (relatively new) book out, A Moment of Silence. Has any one read this one, or even heard about it? I get a bunch of books from Simon & Schuster, but I didn't even know this book was out until last week--which is surprising given the relative celebrity of the authors and the popularity of her first book, The Coldest Winter Ever.

"All Fridays Matter" It seems like the corporate driven frenzy to start spending for Christmas starts before we can get through with Halloween. It is crazy the whole purpose of Chirstmas being a religious holiday has been completely obscured by "the suits." Today Amazon sent me two emails before 5:00 a.m. to remind me of the deals available for Cyber Monday--It is still November!. Since I pretty much have everything I need right now and I don't have any "mad money," Cyber Monday is pretty much a non-event for me. As a book seller, it definitely makes no difference as books are discounted all year round, and there is no really no urgency for people to buy books today--even as Christmas gifts. As a retailer, one reason I have to join the Cyber Monday fray is to get in front of consumers before they spend all their money with someone else. I'm concerned about selling books all year round, so I focus on that, rather than the seasonal spikes around Christmas, Black History month, etc. That said, this might be an interesting book for those of you with more than a passing interest in African American Literature.

I still have to migrate most of the content for all of these authors, but it will give you a sense of the scope of the project. This is about a 90% increase in the number of authors profiled on the current website. Check out the list of profiled authors on our development website: ...and I'm just getting started

Man just use my graphic. This is the formation of the http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?gl=CA&hl=en&add_user=aalbc (just replace your channel name on the end) All the user has to do is confirm. This URL would not post on Facebook so I shortened it to http://aalbc.it/authorvids As of a few moments ago it was clicked 63 times and I have 46 new subscribers. I'll share it again tomorrow. I still need 343 new subscribers (assuming I don't lose any).

For y'all not from the New York City area "BX" means The Bronx, New York. @Street Line Video these look pretty interesting. In the flick below one of the characters is names "Troy" At any rate, I subscribed to your channel. Please subscribe to the channels here too. Right now there are only two listed.: I'll check out the movies on a regular TV later. How long did they take to make?

Yep that is all it takes Cynique. I setup up the URL so that it actually subscribes you--all you have to do is confirm. I got 35 subscribers so far. I guess that is not too bad for a lazy sunday afternoon. I'm going to request the same via my eNewsletter and will be disappointed if I don't get the remaining 300 or so before the end of the year

Thanks man. I was already subscribed to your channel. Imagine if everyone who saw this did what you just did. That is our power, if we choose to use it.

I need your help. Please take a few seconds to subscribe to my YouTube channel This won’t cost you anything; I simply need to add an additional 389 subscribers to enable paid content on our YouTube channel. Thanks. Needless to say I'll be more than happy to return the favor if needed.

@Kwinine Harper I'm sure you are absolutely right. I just finished Diane's book. Part of the problem are the people she surrounded herself by (of course environment plays a factor here). She was not exactly an angel smoking weed, fighting, dating a big time drug dealer--even shooting at someone They also tried to get her to take a plea deal, which she refused to do. So she turned down a 3 to 5 year offer, and took her chances at trial, with an inexperienced attorney, and ended up being sentenced to 40 years to life! Diane refused to cop a plea to something she did not do. That takes a ton of courage.