Troy

“A bit more that two hundred years ago, outside a city called Charleston South Carolina, a girl and her mother picked blackberries from the plantation garden.” How lovely... The book, A Fine Dessert: Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treat, by Emily Jenkins is another example of a book where the horrors of slavery are completely ignored. Another children reading this might think being enslaved forever was an idyllic existence. I know it is bad as far is it goes for Black children's books, but because I primarily focus on book written by Black people I largely missed the titles that white folks write for themselves. Reading this stuff is it any wonder why white folks say that we are better off having been enslaved rather that remaining in Africa. It is 1816 or 2016?

Check this shit out! "This month, Scholastic Press is proud to publish a picture book entitled A Birthday Cake for George Washington, by Ramin Ganeshram, with illustrations by Vanessa Brantley-Newton. With the recent controversy surrounding the publication of A Fine Dessert, a picture book by Emily Jenkins and illustrated by Sophie Blackall, including this thought-provoking essay from Kirkus comparing these two books in particular, I felt it important to share my view that while there are similarities between A Birthday Cake for George Washington and A Fine Dessert (both books celebrate the making of a dessert with a parent and child), the two books are vastly different. The topic of slavery is one that must be handled with the utmost care, especially in the form of visual depictions, historical references, dialogue, and characterizations in books for young readers. In A Birthday Cake for George Washington the lives of enslaved people ― and the complex inequities of their bondage ― play a key role in the narrative. Through carefully curated research, A Birthday Cake for George Washington presents an important slice of American history. It is based on the true story of Hercules, the president’s cook. Hercules was one of over 300 African Americans enslaved by George and Martha Washington. Even though he was a slave, everyone knew and admired Hercules ― especially the president!" (more: http://oomscholasticblog.com/post/proud-slice-history?linkId=20148698) --Andrea Davis Pinkney, VP and executive editor, Scholastic Trade Publishing Andrea, is an award winning children's book author and is proud of this book!? You don't have to be white to be culturally insensitive or behave in a racist fashion against Black people. I now notice that there was some angry reaction on social media.

Chris our impotence is appalling and pathetic! Here is a reaction I got on Twitter.

“How could they smile? How could they be anything but unrelentingly miserable... How could they be proud to bake a cake for George Washington? “The answers to those questions are complex because human nature is complex. Bizarrely and yes, disturbingly, there were some enslaved people who had a better quality of life than others and ‘close’ relationships with those who enslaved them. But they were smart enough to use those ‘advantages’ to improve their lives.” --Ganeshram, the author From the book's description on Scholastic's (the publisher of this fiction from an alternative universe) Website: Everyone is buzzing about the president's birthday! Especially George Washington's servants, who scurry around the kitchen preparing to make this the best celebration ever. Oh, how George Washington loves his cake! And, oh, how he depends on Hercules, his head chef, to make it for him. Hercules, a slave, takes great pride in baking the president's cake. But this year there is one problem — they are out of sugar. This story, told in the voice of Delia, Hercules's young daughter, is based on real events, and underscores the loving exchange between a very determined father and his eager daughter, who are faced with an unspoken, bittersweet reality. No matter how delicious the president's cake turns out to be, Delia and Papa will not taste the sweetness of freedom. New York Times food writer Ramin Ganeshram and acclaimed illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton serve up a slice of history in a picture book narrative that will surely satisfy. Heavens to Betsy! as I've lamented many times before this is what happens when you don't control your narrative. Sure they are scurrying about 'cause ole George would skin his niggers if they did not obey. I chose the word "skin" because it is that language George Washington herself used when talking about his enslaved people. Here is a quotes: “Charlotte I Guess will be reported Sick this week I Gave her a Whiping on Saturday & I find She dont intend to work in order I suppose to be even with Me When I was Culling out the River hogs she sent by Muddy hole David requesting I would Give her a Spear rib as She Long’d for it this I knew to be false and thought it to be a piece of impudence in her which She has a Great Share of I did not send it but on Saturday I sent one to each of the Women at the Qu[arte]r of Course She had one with the rest but She I fancy watch’d me home & as soon as I got in the house brings the Spear rib & thro’s down at the Door (affronted I suppose at my not sending it on Thursday) told me indeed She wanted none of my Meat & was in Short very impudent I took a hickory Switch which I rode with & Gave her a very Good Whiping She certainly could come for nothing else, On Monday Morning Mrs Ehlers informed me She had sent her work but Charlotte had sent it back I went to the Qur & Gave a little more but I believe She has not done any thing yet under a pretence of her finger receiving a blow & was Swelld She threatens me very much with informing Lady Washington when She comes home & says She has not been whipd for 14 Years past, but I fully expect I shall have to Give her some More of it before She will behave herself for I am determined to lower her Spirit or Skin her Back.” —Washington’s farm manager Anthony Whitting In response George Washington wrote, “Your treatment of Charlotte was very proper—and if she, or any other—of the Servants will not do their duty by fair means—or are impertinent, correction (as the only alternative) must be administered.” Scholastic is "pulling" the book according to a Guardian article. It however is still on shelves and available for purchase from all the major on-line retailers. It is currently a #1 Bestseller on Amazon. If anyones need a children's book written about them, it is the defiant Charlotte who gave Washington's overseer so much grief. Would we publish it? Would we buy it. Happy MLK Day

If anyone is on the fence about this offer, I've sweetened the deal! Not only is the large book ad a good deal already, but I'll also give authors a FREE author profile if they purchase the Large Book Cover Ad.

Paul, your account has been approved. If you post using your account you will no longer has to wait for me to approve it before it shows up.

Well you have come to the right place. Lets start with A Good Day to Print. You can rest assured if they can't give you a competitive price they let you know. This company is run by the W. Paul Coates founder of Black Classic Press. Oh yeah when you have founder printer post the cover and ISBN so that we can add you to our database: http://aalbc.org/authors/authors.php

If I have a university or corporate co-sign that might be a good idea. Getting people to read such a book would take all of my available time and money. I already sacrifice too much running AALBC.com.

I purchased $4 worth of tickets for the $900M and $2 worth of tickets for the $1.5B dollar lottery. I did not win a cent. You are basically purchasing a dream, a possibility that your life can take a turn for the better. It is no wonder lottery booths proliferate in poor neighborhoods. I wonder if the constant playing, and hoping, that inevitably ends in losing, if we would be better off having not played at all. Is the hope, then the loss, better than not having the hoped at all? I'd imagine it would be more constructive to place our bets on something with a more realistics opportunity to win, like the craps table in a casino. Better still, image if we took the money wasted on lottery tickets and used it to build something. Humm, I think I have a better chance at hitting the Power Ball.

Sorry for the late notice Image Credit: Illustration by Mshindo Kuumba. Black Comic Book Festival Logo by Alex Batchelor. The Schomburg Center’s 4th Annual Black Comic Book Festival TODAY Saturday, January 16 10AM - 7PM Free and Open to the Public The Schomburg Center's 4th Annual Black Comic Book Festival celebrates the rich tradition of black comix in a full day event featuring panel discussions, film screenings, hands-on workshops and exhibit tables with premiere black comic artists from across the country. Join us and check out the mind-blowing afrofutrism art and design exhibition Unveiling Visions: The Alchemy of the Black Imagination curated by John Jennings and Reynaldo Anderson. AGENDA: http://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2016/01/16/4th-annual-black-comic-book-festival REGISTER: Free Admission. Fun for all ages! Register through https://www.eventbrite.com/e/4th-annual-black-comic-book-festival-registration-19966098137 ORGANIZERS: The Schomburg Center's Black Comic Book Festival is presented by: Deirdre Hollman, Schomburg Education & Junior Scholars Program in collaboration with: Jerry Craft, Mama's Boyz and John Jennings, SUNY Buffalo/Black Kirby #blackcomicbookfestnyc Stay connected with SCHOMBURG EDUCATION! Web: www.schomburgcenter.org/education

@CDBurns, that is precisely my point. But one important difference remains, the Chinese people understand their situation and know who to fight to correct it. We, Black folks, don't have that benefit. In fact, we are the most ardent supporters of those controlling our voices.

The American Booksellers Association Chimes in; ABFE Free Speech Report, vol. 2, no. 1, January 2016 ABA Extremely Concerned About Hong Kong Booksellers The American Booksellers Association issued a statement on January 7 expressing “extreme concern” over the fate of five employees of a Hong Kong publisher and its bookstore who have apparently been taken into custody by Chinese authorities and brought to the Chinese mainland. The men are employees of Mighty Current, which is well-known for publishing books critical of the Chinese government. “If it is true that these men have been kidnapped, the Chinese have grossly violated the pledge they made to maintain freedom of the press when they took over Hong Kong in 1997,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher. The ABA statement calls on the Chinese government to explain the disappearance of the booksellers and to release them immediately if it is holding them. It also urges the United States government to investigate the case. The ABA was joined by the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild, the European & International Booksellers Federation, and PEN American Center in issuing the statement. Who will speak up for and defend Black book sellers in America? I'm growing tired trying... admittedly I'm in a bad mood this morning.

From the Economist “…the alleged abduction since October of five Hong Kong residents by the Chinese authorities has cast a dark shadow. Three vanished in mainland China and one in Thailand. The disappearance on December 30th of the fifth man, Lee Bo, has caused particular alarm. He appears to have been snatched from Hong Kong itself and spirited across the border to the mainland, without his travel documents or any record of his leaving. His fate remains unknown. Like the other four, he was associated with a publisher and bookshop specialising in one of Hong Kong’s more esoteric niche businesses: scurrilous tales of intrigue, infighting, corruption and sex among China’s Communist leaders. A forthcoming title purports to uncover the love life of President Xi Jinping. Many have assumed that the Communist Party’s displeasure with the firm’s output explains the mysterious disappearances. China has not denied it.” Can you image bookseller being abducted in the U.S. for selling books critical of Obama. China already filters the web, all in an attempt to control what get out through censorship. China could be less thuggish, and become more sophisticated, by taking a page from America's playbook: Simply create an environment where booksellers can't make it, and have corporations create filter bubbles to control who and what is heard. This might sound like a conspiracy theory, until you look around and see who controls the Black voice in the media, and when you consider how few, and the condition of, Black bookstores in America.

The $1 per day is excellent, but bang for buck, the large book cover is even better. Here’s why: The book cover image is very large. I have not seen another website that displays book cover images so big—no one, who visits AALBC.com, can miss seeing these large book covers. The images appears on virtually every single AALBC.com webpage. Which means the book covers will be seen far more frequently that the $1 per day advertisements, which only appear on a few pages. Click through ratios of 1% or more are typical. 1% is a very high click through ratio, and means 1 out of every 100 visitors who sees the large book cover will click it. The large book cover ads will also be displayed on our development site (aalbc.org) which is already getting 10% of AALBC.com's traffic. I appreciate more budget conscious advertisers may balk, at least initially, at the $249 price point, which explains the popularity of the $1 per day advertisements. So while this ad is a bit more that $7 per day, you ad will be seen at least 100 times more frequently. The Large Book Cover as is simply a more effective ad type, provided you have an respectable looking book cover. In fact, for this reason, the Large Book Cover will be the primary ad type I will focus on the new version of AALBC.com. How to Think About the Large Book Cover Advertisement (AALBC.com ad placment in general) The Large Book Cover ad is analogous to a book being prominently displayed in a book store’s window, table or shelf (the type of placement for which publishers compensate the bookseller). If the cover is poorly done, or describes an uninteresting subject, readers browsing in the store will simply pass that book for a more visually appealing and interesting looking one. People do judge, books by their covers. Now if a potential reader clicks the book cover, the landing page (the web page the reader is sent to when they click a the book’s cover) is also very important. Will it turn the reader off or peak their interest? Will the read be assaulted by the author’s favorite music as soon as the page is loaded or will they be provided with an compelling book synopsis, video or special offer? Will the reader, who is interested in buying the book, have to hunt for the buy button, or be provided with only one option to purchase the book? Most often AALBC.com advertisers send readers to Amazon, particularly if they are interested in sales. This is a common strategy for popular authors, whose readers will buy their books as soon as they know a new one is available. However, a new author is often better served by directing readers to their website, where a much more compelling experience can be provided for the reader than can be provided on Amazon’s website. Of course the challenge here is creating a website the provides this experience... which is whole 'nother article. Finally, while book sales are an important measure of the success of an advertising campaign, branding and developing name recognition is just as important. Any writer or publisher in this business for the long haul has to get their name and books in front as many people as possible. One simply can not develop name recognition through at 32 day even on a site like AALBC.com. Building a brand is part of a long term strategy which should include traditional marketing technique as well. Obviously I think an AALBC.com should be part of the mix for anyone interested in reaching readers of Black literature. Large Book Cover from AALBC.com, LLC

I liked Jimmy Carter. He was probably the most righteous person to hold the office. Hillary is probably the most qualified person to hold the office out of the motley cast of characters on both sides. But keep in mind this is the same process that has a Donald Trump a leading candidate going in the Iowa Caucuses... I'm still voting for Bernie.

I like the NAPW's site Shirley. Can you email me a link that shows you book's cover. If you like, you can give me access to you Google Analytics account that will give me the ability to directly compare performance of both ads. This will also be useful for me to have another data point to compare the effectiveness of my advertisements as well. Just go to the Admin section, click user management, then add my email address troy@aalbc.com

Hi Cynique I got you email and replied. Let me make sure the email went out.

Funny I drove to Galveston beach once and it would have never occurred to me that it was a Black neighborhood. What was most striking was the flood damage which seemingly escaped media attention. Shirley what is NAPW? I would like to check out the site and the treatment of your advertisement. Besides sales keep in mind you advertise for branding. So that people know your product. Someone may by your product next year, because they keep seeing your ad and they need to buy some Black mermaid stuff for Xmas. As far as converting visitors. Set up a focus group. Get a few folks to visit your website and ask them if they would buy your product and and what the experience was like. Ideally find someone who would be interested in the product. Try to address any issues they have to improve the purchasing experience. Consider Google analytics, you can see how many people came to your site and which page they visited next. That would tell you where you problems are. If they are not going to the buy page after visiting your homepage page. One thing you definitely need is a call to action. A "buy" button or something that says this is how you buy the book. Right now you have to hunt around for make the purchase.

Yeah i is the year of the white woman Though they are really struggling getting Cosby thrown into jail The prospect of Hillary in the whitehouse still irks me a bit. what kind of country can we have father/son and husband/wife combination become president. The clinton did so much damage the first time around I don't know if I can take another 8 years of clintons. And before anyone asks think; NAFTA, Repeal of Glass Steagall, Mandatory minimum sentencing laws, sex scandals, etc...

A few days ago a friend came across an article in a local magazine, WhereItzAt Magazine. In the magazine was an article, “In defense of Black Bookstores,” which addressed the loss of Black bookstores and why it matters. Of course this is an issue I've covered extensively. Indeed, I have published a directory of Black owned bookstores for as long as I have run this site. My current coverage of Black owned bookstores is probably the most extensive coverage available on the web today. So it should go without saying that I applaud WhereItzAt Magazine's coverage of this important issue. My friend took a photo of the article (shown below) and shared it with me, because my website was mentioned, in the last paragraph, as a resource where one my find a list of Black owned bookstores. Of course I was interested in sharing this article, but I decided to look for an online version which would make it possible for other to more easily read. I found the article, but noticed that the online version did not mention AALBC.com at all?! This just struck me as simply dumb. Why would the website not mention and link to an online resource for Black bookstores--the very thing they are purporting to support? This started as a post on this forum, but I decided to make a blog post of it. You may read the entire article here

@harry brown it was not a critique, just an observation. I do like to see you react to posts though. Chris now that you lay it out like that it almost looks like it is obvious. None of those films interested me, which may be why I did not consider those film when contemplating Star Wars appealing to white females. More striking however is that Star Trek bucks the trend by not highlighting a white woman, but the TV series had powerful white women including Seven-of-Nine and Captain Janeway. They could have added nurse Chapel to the reboot. Once thing Star Trek left out of the rebooted films, that was present in the series, were the moral dilemmas they addressed. The films have none of that--they are just straight up action. Unless they get deeper, I'll probably bore of this film series too.

I watched the third Star Wars recently I think it was Return of the the Sith, but is was the film that preceded this film in the sequence that the event occurred in the star wars universe (as opposed to the order the films were released). It had been so long since I watched this film it was like the first time seeing it. In any case, the film was essential the same formula as the most recently released film, so from that perspective I see that the film was quite good. It just turns out I'm not a big fan of this particular saga. I also watched the latest installment of the Terminator films recently. I actually liked the terminator more than I liked the last Star Wars and i would not rave over the last terminator film. I think Star Trek pretty much owns the sci-fi action genre. Star Trek will never gross as much as Star Wars, but Star Wars is designed to have broader appeal. Do Do you think the pandering to white women that Marlon talks about regarding writers would be too much of a stretch to apply here, given the white female heroine?

Hi @richardmurray, unfortunately all of the ads are sold out. It looks like there are available positions on the website because I have not received the book covers from all of the authors. Actually, the Edit 1st advertisement, at the top of the homepage, is an inhouse ad. I can reclaim the position which would free up another spot, so if you are interested in it please click this link: http://mkt.com/aalbc/aalbc-com-book-on-homepage-special In reality, can simply add another row of books, In fact more book covers on the homepage many actually help. One might think too many books on the page on the homepage would gradually reduce the effectiveness of the ads. But I know that the click through rates tend to be more a function of the book (cover design, subject as related by the title and the author's name recognition), rather than the number of books on the page or even the book's position. On the new website's homepage there will be much less text as images seem to drive engagement (images are clicked more than the article descriptions).

Actually we have Black owned book distributors. Perhaps one of the most prominent here in the north east is run by Brother Nati, Afrikan World Distributors. I assume he is still active. There are/were others including A&B and Culture Plus who used to keep the street vendors humming. But Black book distributors were hurt badly as Black book stores closed and laws for street vending changed. Indeed, the whole Black book economy was hurt, which is why I devote so much time trying to help readers and authors appreciate this and explain why it matters... Of course getting Ingram to distribute your books is not nearly as difficult as it once was. I have an Iplus account and I rarely encounter a book that Ingram does not stock. Setting up the businesses and getting distribution is not really our problem. I know I sound like a broken record here but our problem is lack of support. We have to break down and support the Black book ecosystem. It means, for example, going out your way to buy an book on a site like Shirley's, paying a premium, and waiting three weeks to get the book. This is the process of investing in the businesses that support you, and our culture. In time Shirley will improve, but without the support she will never get started. This same is true for an AALBC.com... Now if you are happy looking a white mermaids then go to Amazon and by your books there. You'll get the book tomorrow, it will be shipped for free, and the price of the book itself will certainly be lower. Amazon, propped up by Wall Street, can take a loss on books indefinitely. Black sellers don't don't have this luxury, we have to sell products at a profit otherwise we go out of business. Worse still most authors will explicitly tell readers to got buy their book at Amazon. They rarely suggest a Black independent book seller by name. I've videoed authors, for free, to promote their work and they will say, on camera, "You can buy my book at Amazon.com." I used to have to remind them that AALBC.com sells books too. @Shirley Gale, it would be interesting to know how many Black authors were published through Authonomy. I'd be surprised if it was very many. If you know of any please let me know about them.

Cynique I have not idea what changed regarding adding images. The developers of this application push out upgrades every 5 minutes. Del, man I can't find the site again to post a link. Once I do I'll post it in a new thread and tag you.