Troy

Thanks for sharing this @CDBurns

The following is a report on the clicks from Facebook, based upon a post I make about my book club database. This was over a 2 day period, The first day resulted in about 940 clicks on my link; the rest were on second day. As you can see, the average time on the website is quite respectable and pages views are good, because the content on the landing page is very thin right now, there is nothing to read. Book clubs can check to see if their club is in the database: http://aalbc.org/bookclubs/ Two page views are expected because once you get to the website you then have to select the state your book club is in, which results in a 2nd page view. Now some out there is saying, "See Troy, despite all your bitchin' and moanin' about how useless Facebook is, this is an example of how good it is." If I were an internet novice, I could see how this might be a compelling argument. But the reality is Facebook did not do this, people did. This is exactly the same thing people did before Facebook was invented. The difference today is that we no longer capitalize on our efforts, Facebook does. And that is the problem. Plus, I have never gotten this much traffic from a paid Facebook promotion--not even close. Facebook simply can not do for us, what we can do for ourselves.

My record remains unbroken. Ta-Nehisi did go on to win the award last night. Of the 40 longlisted titles 9 were written by African American authors. That is more Black authors than were nominated during the first quarter century of the awards, which started in 1950. To be fair the first 25 years did not recognize so many titles. Still 9 is a record number of Black authors recognized by these awards.

Ta-Nehisi is a big time author now, and really does not have to do these types of things. Good to see Brothers continue to be supportive.

I'm familiar with a case where an author generated clicks from Facebook at an even hire rate. Over a 2 day period (3,200 one day and 2,200 a week later) there were 5,400 clicks on a link, for a single book, going straight to Amazon. But here is the kicker; there were only 3 books sold! Now that deifies logic! On a BAD month across my entire website I convert 4% of people I send to Amazon. Normally it is double that. So if I send 5,400 people to Amazon I expect to sell at least 200 books. Again, the "people" who clicked this link went straight to Amazon, so I have not idea how long the were on the site or what they did, but I do know they brought books at an alarmingly LOW rate--two orders of magnitude lower than normal! Needless to say this raised all kinds of red flags on the nature of those clicks. Like your case this was organic (free) reach from Facebook. I only previusly looked at the quality of my paid promotions. It never occurred to me to examine the quality of Facebook's organic reach. I have a a post on Facebook that generated 1,000 visitors in one day this early last week (the post I mentioned above with 17K people reached). I'm going to definitely look into that when i get a second. If I see the same type of activity (or lack of it), I'm going to share the data with a journalist, there definitely is a story here. Put you images on google drive and I'll grab them from there

You know Shirely I have a LinkedIn account and have never seriously considered using it for professional networks and I have thousands of connection as well. Maybe I'll begin working LinkedIn in earnest. Chris I actually just got back from Facebook and typed the reach in the comments section on all of my posts over the last month on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/aalbcfanpage/ You might find that interesting. There is a direct correlation between the number of people sharing a post and the number of people reached. My most popular post last month reached over 17,400 people; 176 people shared it. For my page If a post is shared by a handful of people it may get seen by close to 1,000 people otherwise it hangs around the 150 to 200. Which is a pretty crappy 1% considering worked to get my fan base to well over 20,000. We already know this results in very little traffic back to the site.

@Shirley Gale I'm pleased that you took the comments as intended. Indeed your response is refreshing. I think others will benefit from your contributions and spirit on this discussion forums.

Interestingly, most of my friends and family are not active on Facebook. We may have accounts but we are not all that active. I have a cousin that uses FB to promote a business like myself, but neither of use get any engagement (I mean zero), from family. I get some engagement from friends, but those friends are connected to me through the industry. But that lack of engagement is just on social media. In the physical world there is more support, but even then it is far from universal. I would not have a business if I depended solely on family and friends. My family and friends, like most of America, does not read very much so this is not unexpected. Cynique, you are probably right about women really liking those type of posts. Honestly it is for this reason I sometimes contemplate that I'm not the best face for AALBC.com. I really think a middle aged, with a southern sensibility, the type of person to write and enjoy these types of posts that just get on my nerves would be idea. Do you all think this matters or it me? These irritating posts are almost enough to get me off Facebook for good. I keep saying I'm done with even logging into social media with the roll out of the new website, but we will see. Plus, I don't think I can develop a platform where readers and writers interact if I'm doing that on Facebook. I'm also going to build out a portion of the website for books clubs. I'm actually pretty excited about this prospect it is like going back to my roots so to speak - Maybe I'll even relaunch our online book club. I just need someone to pick the books and moderate the discussions... I'm definitely gonna do that (any lurkers out there wanna volunteer?).

These type of Facebook posts just work my nerves! They usually are right at the top of my wall when I login to Facebook to check my messages, so I can't avoid seeing them. I hate these types of message and ones where people boast about their children. I don't even really know the person whose message this is, so it shouldn't even bother me, but it does. I know Facebook is not beyond experimenting with manipulating people's moods, and they sure know how to get under my skin. I see one of these types of posts most days, which seems unlikely to occur naturally given the behavior of my actually friends. Maybe it bugs me because I'm just not the type of person to go around talking about how great my marriage or family is. To me those kinds of things don't need expressing unless it is a wedding or something, as these things are usually apparent from casual observation. My 25th anniversary is in 3 weeks. I just would never occur to be to go onto Facebook to write something like this. Besides who is this message for? My wife knows how I feel about her. My close friends and family also have a pretty good idea. As far as everyone else concerned, I don't think they really care. So what is the goal of the people who write these thing--other than to feed some internal selfish need? Still this really should not irk me at all. Maybe its that I get to avoid people who talk like this in the real world, but am forced to tolerate these bores on Facebook. Maybe I just really need to cut the 5 minutes a day I spend on Facebook out all together. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood. Maybe this upgrade has me behind the PC too much :-) I dunno....

Nov. 9, 2015 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Lois Smyth, Baton Rouge Area Foundation, lsmyth@braf.org, (225) 387-6126 Susan Polowczuk, Zehnder Communications, susanp@z-comm.com, (225) 448-0760 T. Geronimo Johnson Wins 9th Annual Gaines Award Award Honors Literary Legend Ernest Gaines BATON ROUGE, La. – “Welcome to Braggsville” by T. Geronimo Johnson has been selected as winner of the 2015 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. Now in its ninth year, the Gaines Award is a nationally acclaimed $10,000 prize created by donors of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. The award recognizes outstanding work from rising African-American fiction writers while honoring Gaines’ extraordinary contribution to the literary world. Previous winners of the Ernest J. Gaines award include Attica Locke for “The Cutting Season,” Stephanie Powell Watts for “We Are Taking Only What We Need” and Dinaw Mengestu for “How to Read the Air.” Award ceremonies take place at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 21 at the Manship Theatre in downtown Baton Rouge. Johnson will read excerpts from his winning novel. The ceremony is free and open to the public, although reservations are requested at rsvp@braf.org. Johnson is a New Orleans native who lives in Berkeley, California, and serves as visiting professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He earned a master’s degree in fine arts from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a master’s in language, literacy and culture from the University of California, Berkeley. He previously held the Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University and the Iowa Arts Fellowship at the University of Iowa. In addition, Johnson has taught writing at Arizona State University, the University of Iowa, UC Berkeley, Western Michigan University and Stanford. His first novel, “Hold it ’til it Hurts,” was a finalist for the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. “Welcome to Braggsville” offers a socially provocative and dark comedy about four UC Berkeley students who stage a protest during a Civil War reenactment in rural Georgia. In his review, Los Angeles Times book critic David L. Ulin says Johnson is “a terrific storyteller, and he moves fluidly from past to present, place to place. In the end, no one is right and everyone is – or perhaps it’s the other way around.” Due to the exceptional quality of this year’s entries, Gaines Award judges short-listed two books – “The Sellout” by Paul Beatty and “The Turner House” by Angela Flournoy. The national panel of judges for the 2015 Gaines Award are: Thomas Beller, award-winning author and journalist; Anthony Grooms, a critically acclaimed author and creative writing professor at Kennesaw State University; renowned author Elizabeth Nunez, professor of English at Hunter College-City University of New York; Francine Prose, author of more than 20 books, including “Blue Angel,” a nominee for the 2000 National Book Award; and Patricia Towers, former features editor for O, The Oprah Magazine and a founding editor of Vanity Fair magazine. About Ernest Gaines Ernest Gaines, a native of Louisiana’s Pointe Coupee Parish and a literary legend, is a 2013 recipient of the National Medal of Arts, a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation’s Genius Grant, a recipient of the National Humanities Medal and a member of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Last year marked the 40th anniversary of publication of his critically acclaimed novel “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” which was adapted into a made-for-TV movie that won nine Emmy awards. His novel “A Lesson Before Dying” published in 1993 won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. About BRAF The Baton Rouge Area Foundation is one of the Gulf Coast region’s largest community foundations. Winner of the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ 2011 Award for Outstanding Foundation, BRAF connects donors to projects and nonprofit groups, along with investing in and managing community projects. For more information, visit BRAF.org. ###

Yeah it is a really nice looking cover. The cover alone should sell some books. I just added this to our database: http://aalbc.org/books/bookinfo.php?isbn13=9781515081548 Starr, does Amazon still prevent the books they publish from being made available via other book sellers (it is not in Ingram's database)? I'm considering adding code to display a buy link only to Amazon for createspace published books (I listed your book under your company's name.)

Now that is really interesting Cynqiue I was not aware that the poem was famous, and I see my recollection of exact lines were faulty, but I was recalling something from grade school over 40 years ago. Still the essence of the lesson persisted after so many years. Now Chris I think Dr. Suess should be taken seriously. I enjoyed his work as a kid, but it was not until I began reading his work to my own children, many years later, that I realized that his poetry was more than just silly rhymes and drawings of weird looking people. He was relaying important messages. His poem about the Lorax should be read by some of the people running the country. But I understand that you are not equating Dr, Suess with Vincent Millay's work. Millay's work is clearly intended for someone who has lived a little. Those four lines are deep My candle burns at both ends It will not last the night But ah my foes and oh my friends It gives a lovely light There is just so much in there thanks for sharing that Cynique... Chris do you think raps artist know anything about poetry, should they? RaKim used internal rhyme and people thought he was a lyrical genius.

@CDBurns, that was very generous of you to offer such a detailed critique. Your point, "...it can scare a person into not posting" is actually important too, because it is an issue. There are some that are really very sensitive and would be hurt and discouraged by an unsolicited critique--no matter how well intentioned it was. I too tried to moderate my comments to Shirley, even though I was pretty sure the line I posted needed to be changed, she may have just posting her piece to share and was not interested in commentary. I also held back on too much commentary myself because I simply don't know that much about the technical aspects of poetry. But I again, I liked the spirit of what Shirley wrote. And @Shirley Gale you know I appreciate you sharing here so thanks again. Chris why is the inverted syntax a big deal--even if the reason is to get the end rhyme? One of the rhymes I reminder from grade school goes like this; If you hear from a panther, Don't anther The teacher explained that the spelling of anther (rather than answer), was an example of "poetic license." If you can change the spelling of words to achieve a rhyme why not the "Yoda-Like" syntax?

Cynique, making a donation to a local organization fighting black-on-black crime is the least Spike could do. Any idea what the size of the donation was? Honestly, I had not considered the perspective of the a Chicagoans, who were personally touched by violence there. After thinking a bit more deeply about it; maybe this is not the time for a pimped out Samuel L Jackson, sexy babes, and jokes, but rather, a time for some serious reflection on what to do about the situation in Chitown and in other cities. We all know Amazon, like Spike (IMHO), is solely interested in making money. But I will reserve complete judgement until the unlikely time I see the film. Actually when it becomes available for streaming on Amazon I'll check it out.

I have to set up the profiles on the new website. You can attached your photo in an email and sent it to me t troy@aalbc.com, You can also reply by adding your photo here. Just click the link next to the paper clip where is says "choose files..." (or you can just drag and drop the files there).

@Shirley Gale, I just visited the SCBWI's website. It has a well defined niche, and I like the site's content. The boards are smart and very interesting. I found a conversation about Facebook; "Does Facebook Help Authors Sell Books?" That article was viewed 1,120 times since September. The article pointed to an article on Digital Book Worlds's site, "Why Facebook Cannot Help You Sell Books." Which I read and commented on (a tactic I use to drive traffic to my articles ). There was nothing written in the article or comments that Chris and I have not already discussed here. So why does a like the SCWI's boards get more activity? Well there are a lot of reasons, but the fundamental reason is that The SCWI is supported by their community. We (Black authors) simply do not support our own. It pains me to say this, but I've been in this space for almost 20 years. Of course there are many supportive authors, but not nearly enough. Now it would seem illogical for an author not to support an entity, like AALBC.com, whose sole purpose is to advocate for them and their work. But, sadly this is the reality, not just for this site, but many others like mine, most of whom have failed to survive.

"Chi-Raq is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago's Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world." Man times have really changed. I have heard nothing about this movie. Other than news reports about Amazon making movies. I do recall a teaser on NPR about the film being controversial -- but that is it. At anyrate, the trailer has piqued my interest in the film. It looks like vintage Spike/Dickerson work. But I need Spike to subscribe to my eNewsletter, or something, before I go see this film...that is not a petty as it might sound. I think a sex strike would result in more violence not less

Hickson where will you be filming this?

Shirley your feedback is welcome. I listen to it all. It is like editing your own writing something you just can't see things because you are too close to it. Right now I'm trying to decide on the color of the menu and the background color. I like both colors, but I'm not sure they are complementary. I plan on building out the book club portion of the website. It will become a big portion of who I service moving forward. As far as commenters, yeah it too bad there is not more participation. But I'll keep this section of the site up, because when I first started there was no one here :-) So while supporting social media is the big thing now, I think there will be a time for sites like AALBC.com's forums, again, in the future.

Sure @Shirley Gale, send me the video. If it is on Youtube or Video simply paste the URL of the video in a message it will automatically embed here. If you have written books the books ISBN's here and I'll create a page for you on the new website

I definitely agree about the topic of the book. Perhaps I'll write a proposal and pitch the idea to a couple of agents, otherwise I'll sell publish. I agree about a CMS--that is what I'm building, the canned one from Wordpress, is too limiting for what I want to do. So I'm building my own database, cms and html pages. Sure this is much harder, but it is FAR more powerful, as I hope is demonstrated when I'm done. The cool thing is I really enjoy the challenge of doing it--even the bit about making is a viable business. I just hope to make as much money selling books (promoting the beauty and diversity of our culture through books and film) as you do sell sneakers. Thanks for your support @CDBurns (btw how are you alerted when I tag you with the "@" symbol before your name?, this is a new feature from the recent upgrade).

Yes I was aware of the 3rd book from Sista Soulja (I have not finished migrating her content to the new site). This book did not get any promotion or buzz either. This, I'm sure is a lack of advertising on both the publishers and authors side. Plus there are just simply few platforms that would be including to cover this book several of the indie platform and Black Expressions Book Club have shut down. Are you, by any chance, the "Literary Marie," of the site that I linked to above?

Yeah that was not a connection I would have immediately made, because MK's book Buck is the memoir of a kid growing up homeless in the street of a "Killadephia," PA ghetto. You would enjoy these lectures.

Those studies on the brain have already been done :-) Fundamentally, we Sapiens create stories to make sense of the world. In the content of writing, we know what we intended to write, so that is what we actually read--even if it is not on the page. This is the reason getting an editor when you publish a book is necessary, it is very difficult to edit your own work--especially while you are writing it. It is also why poetry is so interesting because the form lends itself for people to create stores; the writer could never have possibly intended.

I agree about people being tired of getting used. Man I have to say while I do make time for family, and my teaching, right about now that is about all I have made time for lately. The website redesign had pretty much consumed me over that last month. I rarely go to the gym. I get up early too, but I really try to spend at least 6 hours in bed (I probably need at least 7). I probably spend about 12 hours a day behind the P.C.--fully engaged and interested in what I'm doing. So the 12 hours feels like 12 minutes. The downside is that sitting in front a PC can't be good for you from a health perspective, so I'm looking forward to returning to a more normal life style. After the site redesign I'm going to finally write a book too--I just have to think about what people might want to read about... BTW Chris your domain christopherdburns.com now points to your page on the new website.