Troy

This was a young white male who shot up a Black church. This mass murder has been labeled a "hate crime." There are many people who believe white folks are gearing up and initiating a race war. There are others who believe Christians are under assault and are being persecuted. #BlackTwitter is a blaze with jokes: "I'm not afraid of Al-Qaeda, I'm afraid of Al-Cracka" Needless to say it is a horrific event.

No problem man. Hopeful I'll inspire one or two to contribute. If I was thinking I could have included it the eNewsletter I just mailed. Yeah Amazon dominates online transactions, in the same way Facebook/Twitter dominates online conversations (at least for Black folks). Lets us know when the shoes are ready.

Hi Chevdove, I appreciate your thoughtful and nuanced response. I have to admit I had not previously considered your viewpoint. I guess the reason is much of what I've read on social media has been very shallow of dealt with making jokes about the situation. Other than this conversation, I did engage in one other, on Facebook (I rarely contribute my opinions on social media--I save that for independent websites). A woman observed that it was mostly men that was defending Rachel. Of course, it being social media, she did not give me any insight into why she felt that way. Perhaps she feels the same way you do... Chevdove, if you don't mind me asking, would you pass the "brown bag test?" Perhaps there is something to the impressions of Black Men versus Black women. I'd be willing to go further and bet there is an additional level of complexity wherein the complexion of the Black woman also informs here impression of Rachel. I a VERY low percentage of dark skinned Black women as no love for Rachel. Thanks for contributing!

Yeah I guess that is the appeal of companies like simplesite--it is simple and the price sounds reasonable. Wordpress has been around for so long and the majority of websites use wordpress I just assume it is relatively easy to use, but I guess it is not really that easy to use--even though it is free. I added your blog to our directory: http://aalbc.it/cdbblog, so start bloggin' :-) You had a problem with the Blogging software here too? It should be much easier to use now, but simplesite looks more flexible.

Check out a rare opportunity to support a Black Owned Athletic Shoe Company through KIckstarter

It is worth studying (and probably has been ) the online behavior of people hiding behind the cloak of an avatar and this who make themselves plain visible. I think the differences depend on the person. For good, bad, or indifferent I have always posted as myself. Sure sometimes I write something extreme for effect or write a position I don't personally completely believe as I play devils advocate. But in general, I'm probably more honest online that I am off, because I have the liberty of expressing myself more freely here than I can in the real world simply because I'm not standing across from someone judging, or not even really listening to what I'm saying. As for a Rachel, I suspect she will be in a better position post-debacle. As you know, in this twisted culture of ours her situation will bring fame and the money to go with it. She probably could not have planned it any better--Thanks Black Twitter.

Well it is June 12 and I'm short of, what I though was a conservative goal, of 200 bloggers. Almost a month ago I was at 168 today I'm at 182 and increase of 14 or roughly one new blog added every other day. The effort is not not dead, but not exactly going #AskRachel viral either. I'll email everyone on the list and look for ideas, maybe I'll start a secret forum here to exchange ideas and strategies to bolster everyone's efforts.

#AskRachel has over 1/2 a Million Tweets on Black Twitter, So is #RachelDolezal Imagine if we turned this creativity and intellectual capital into something useful, or just profitable for us, rather than Twitter.

Study: Whites Think Black People Feel Less Pain NPR, JULY 11, 2013 Racial disparities exist, but what causes them can be complicated. Harvard anthropology student Jason Silverstein says it has to do with a lack of empathy. Host Michel Michel Martin talks with Silverstein about a Slate article he wrote titled, 'I Don't Feel Your Pain.' Skin color affects ability to empathize with pain Health.com, May 27, 2010 "Pain empathy is basically feeling someone else's pain," says Carmen Green, M.D.,"This paper tells us that race plays a role in pain empathy." Ya Think?

There are over 291,000 tweets using the Hash Tag #RachelDolezal on Twitter as of this instant--Wow! I've read several of those tweets and some are indeed quite funny. I think I see the appeal of the so called Black Twittershpere now. It is like a continuous stream of funny comments on our culture. Rachel, in the content of our culture's peculiar stance on race, is such rich fodder for humor and satire, I guess this can go on for some time. Well at least until the next thing pops up. CNN's tweet was prominent, right at the top. I guess they must have paid for placement. That is one way to get readers, since reporting the news apparently no longer works. I too put my two cents into the fray in an effort to get people to come here, it worked bringing people to the site that might not have otherwise came. Even one person was moved to comment. But still, passively reading and laughing at the jokes on Twitter is for more appealing and requires much less effort than writing down your ideas and opening yourself up to judgment or criticism on a forum like this. I know there is still a place for discussion forums in the social media era, because there are many thriving communities elsewhere on the web. I just don't know of any run by Black folks that is not all about joking around. Still I won't become active on Black Twitter, you can call it a boycott of sorts. I think indie sites are important so I'll support them, rather than Twitter. I'm no going to invest a lot of effort, as I have in the past, trying to get others to do the same--because that is a waste of time. The prospect of actually have a Black owned Twitter, and why that might be empowering is largely lost on most folks.

Hi Guest and welcome to the forum. Walter White is quoted as saying; "My skin is white, my eyes are blue, my hair is blond. The traits of my race are nowhere visible upon me." Of white's 32 great-great-great grandparents, five were black and the other 27 were white. Is it any more of a lie for all of us to say that Walter White was Black when he presented as white and 85% of his ancestry is white? The only reason he was able to do it was because we allowed him to get away with it. Of course in the context of the times we know that lighter skinned black were deemed superior. It does not appears that the NAACP has changed much in this regard in 100 years... I ran my genealogy a few years ago and I have more white (European) ancestry that Walter White has Black ancestry. I also look like a Black man. However, using the same logic, I would be perfectly justified to call myself white. Of course that would be ludicrous because we live in a white racist/dominated society and Black people who do not look white do not get to call them selves white. For this reason, I'm not convinced that the one-drop rule not longer applies--even in 2015. The are numerous example of "Black" celebrities who in an attempt to define themselves beyond their physical appearance, were harshly criticized. Tiger Woods and Raven Symone come quickly to mind. I'd imagine people would lose their minds if President Obama decided to choose to fully embrace his whiteness can claim he was white... the one drop rule still applies. Should we diminish all the so called Black people to liars who "passed" to have a better life in a country hostile to Black people? I have no clue what this child's motivation is for claiming to be Black. I have no idea if she has a mental problem or not. What I do know if we are so harshly critical of Rachel for claiming to be Black when she is not, then we would run out of time condemning the countless other Black people who passed.

I guess I should offer my comments on Rachel Dolezal since I went through the effort of aggregating this content. Actually this took no effort because everyone was sharing the same stuff in the echo chamber that the WWW has become. "Race" is an arbitrary construct, made up by white folks as a mechanism to justify and legitimize the dehumanization Black folks. America's one drop rule makes it possible for anyone, regardless of physical appearance to be defined as Black. Conversely people with Black ancestry can indeed "pass as white," because of their physical appearance. Presumably, this is why the NAACP chapter in Spokane, WA had no problem electing Rachel as their leader. What makes Rachel any different, really, than Walter White (pictured below), who succeeded James Weldon Johnson, as executive secretary of the N.A.A.C.P.? A significant portion of so called white people in America have Black ancestry, perhaps more that Walter White who I've read is 5/32 Black. Look if a person like White is willing to give up white privilege, at a time when it truly was a benefit, and actively work to support Black people--God Bless him. I would not be surprised if we found a Black person in Rachel's ancestry; this is America. If we found that person would this this whole matter cease to be a "News" story? Would Black Twitter to back to goofing on Iggy Azalea's hair? Many think that Rachel has a mental problem. I'm inclined to agree; what blond haired, blued eyed woman, in their right mind would become a Black activist, rising to the ranks of running an chapter of the NAACP. Is there any other organization careening to irrelevancy faster than the NAACP?

I never heard of Rachel Dolezal before this morning. Esther's message was at the top of my Facebook wall when I went in to check my messages a few moments ago, so this was difficult to ignore. As a practice, I try to ignore the stuff on my wall; (1) much of it is stuff like this, and (2) I'm on a mission to support indie sites with my online activity. But this message interested me because Esther mentioned "Black Twitter." Black Twitter is a phenomenon I don't quite understand... at any rate, my daughter a recent marketing grad, told me I should take advantage of Black Twitter for my website. I asked her to tell me what to do it for me because, from my observations, I did not know what I could do, specifically, on Black Twitter, to help AALBC.com. So between Esther's comment and my daughter's recommendation, I decided to use this as an opportunity to check out "Black Twitter" again. #RachelDolezal was indeed the top trending item. Now I don't know if everyone on Twitter would see this or just the Black folks. I read a few comments and was led to Gawker article where I found the YouTube videos below. Now I appreciate Esther was not completely serious when she wrote that "...any reasonable and smart person..." would check out this story on Black Twitter. Again I checked out the story (one I have almost zero interest in) because I wanted to better understand Black Twitter. My conclusions regarding Black Twitter have remained unchanged, indeed have been reinforced. Black Twitter, despite the name, does not serve Black people. It helps enrich the likes of Twitter, and the so called news sources that propagate dumb shit like this.

We will be interviewing Jordan Davis's parents on Friday, if you have any question for them please post them below, we will try to work them into the interview. In 3 1⁄2 MINUTES, TEN BULLETS, two lives intersected and were forever altered. On Black Friday in 2012, two cars parked next to each other at a Florida gas station. A white middle-aged male and a black teenager exchanged angry words over the volume of the music in the boy’s car. A gun entered the exchange, and one of them was left dead. Michael Dunn fired 10 bullets at a car full of unarmed teenagers and then fled. Three of those bullets hit 17-year-old Jordan Davis, who died at the scene. Arrested the next day, Dunn claimed he shot in self-defense. Thus began the long journey of unraveling the truth. 3 1⁄2 MINUTES, TEN BULLETS follows that journey, reconstructing the night of the murder and revealing how hidden racial prejudice can result in tragedy. Directed by Marc Silver (Who is Dayani Cristal?), the documentary intercuts powerful exclusive footage from a riveting trial with intimate, observational scenes of Jordan’s parents, Ron and Lucy. We see firsthand how difficult it is for them to grapple with unimaginable loss while fighting for justice for their son. The film integrates police interrogation footage, prison phone recordings and interviews with the others at the scene that night. The result is a powerful story about the devastating effects of racial bias, and the search for justice within the judicial system. Rating:UnratedGenre:DocumentaryDirected By:Marc SilverWritten By:Marc SilverIn Theaters:Jun 19, 2015 LimitedRuntime:1 hr. 25 min.Participant Media - Official Site

Hi Harry no one, including myself, agrees with all of the Black authors profiled on the website. To ignore a Brother like Ben Carson, would be the same as ignoring Condi Rice, Colin Powell, or Clarence Thomas, simply because we might disagree with them. Harry, Ben Carson does not support white police murdering Black male. Nor would I ascribe most of the ideas you associated to him. There were many Black people who were disliked strongly; both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. where disliked by many Black people in their day. It is so much easier for us to dislike someone because of the, out of content sound bites, substituting for news, that we are bombarded by on social media. I'd never exclude someone from this site because I did not like his politics. In fact there are people on the website that I dislike personally, but I think their work is more important than my personal opinion of them as human beings. That said, I'm sure Ben will not get the Republican nomination for POTUS, so you have nothing to worry about ;-)

Well Emanuel these forums are very different today (chucks, the entire web is different). There are just a handful of regulars, and while lurkers still out number posters, there are less of them too. I'm hoping the fact that the site is now mobile friendly, and remains a superior platform for more substantive conversation, that the number of participants will begin to grow over time. I'm going to more actively promote the discussion forums moving forward. Have you ever tried to place an ad on Facebook with a call to action as you've description? Facebook is very restrictive on the amount of text you can place on an ad. Text can not take up more than 40% (I believe) of the space on the image. In general, call to actions are a good idea. Authors have an option to include a call to action both on the image itself and in the accompanying text. Emanuel do you want to experiment with you book on the homepage? Is there a call to action that you would like to add? We can see how that improves CTR. AALBC.com is a bookstore. When you go into a bookstore you know the books are for sale, the prices are generally not prominently shown unless there is a sale or something special happening. Ads on AALBC.com are analogous to lightbox displays, window placement, or promonent placement on a book store's shelf. These are all forms of paid advertisement. Customers don't mind this or even contemplate that these are paid placement. Now if you went into a bookstore and saw an advertisement for a washing machine you would probably be confused by what was happening, and perhaps put off by it--unless there was a legitimate tie-in to a book The same is true of advertising books on non-book sites, like social media. Despite all the special targeting, by geography, age, interests that you can do on social media, CTRs are still very low on social media (at least lower than AALBC.com), because, people are on social media to do what people do on social media. People are not on social media to shop for washing machines, or books.... If you wanna buy a book you go to a bookstore. Also, authors (anyone) can setup a free website and install a CMS like Wordpress or Joomla, and use Google Analytics for free now. It would take about 10 minutes to set everything up. I use http://domainsforauthors.com/ with my students each semester. If one wanted to register a domain name the total cost could be less than $1 per month. The problem is not the cost or effort of setting up a website, it is getting people to visit it. Despite all the hype about technology enabling individuals, technology has really just made it a lot easier for the largest corporations to manipulate us, sell to us, and to eliminate any competition individuals might pose.

I was tagged and asked to respond to this question on Facebook. Anyone who knows me, also knows I'm not a fan of content providers (bloggers, writers, journalists, etc) posting their content on Facebook. I've learned that doing this, over the long term, is a losing proposition. Today, too few of us understand this, and collectively we are worse off. Ultimately, I believe we will learn this lesson, but not before a lot of money and potential has been lost. Most importantly however, this type of text would be impossible to post on a Facebook comment and good luck trying to find it or share with with someone in the future, or someone who is not on Facebook. Ok, I'm stepping down from soapbox... I'm answering this question here, because it is important. I also believe other authors in the same situation or completely new to online advertising can benefit from my posting a response here rather than on Facebook. I also hope this will help authors who advertise their books online to more effectively gauge the success of their campaign--whether it is here on AALBC.com, on social media, or some other website. In an ideal world, before a book is published, one would determine whether there is indeed a market for the book, evaluate how much it would take to reach that market, and determine if the cost of reaching that market exceeds the expected revenue generated from that market. If the anticipated costs exceed the expected revenue, the book is not published. I doubt many authors, who publish their own books, think about the process in this fashion. I can tell because many authors I speak to exhaust their budgets producing the books, leaving nothing left for promotion or advertising. Read more about what make a commercially successful book. In the traditional publishing model, publishers would take a chance on a well written book, by an unknown author, because other successful books would subsidize these riskier titles. Of course we know books by African American writers rarely enjoyed this form of support, but that is an entirely different subject... While the self publishing revolution has increased the number of books in the marketplace, many, if not most, are commercially unviable. We all know simply publishing a book is not enough for it to sell. Advertising will help (see axiom #1 below) but it will not guarantee book sales, particularly for a commercially unviable book. For the sake of this discussion I'm ignoring whether a book should have been published and considering them as is. Axioms (concepts that should go without saying) Axiom #1: No one will buy your book, if they do not know it exists.Axiom #2: Unknown authors have to more aggressively market their books than celebrities and famous authors. There two major factors that determine the effectiveness of a online advertising campaign. Quality of the Underlying Product (the Author's Responsibility) For a book this will include; (1) the reputation and name recognition of the author; (2) the quality of the book cover or banner and; (3) the readers interest in the subject. In general, an advertisement for a book with an ugly cover, by an unknown author writing about a subject no one cares about will perform worse than a book with an attractive cover, by a well known author writing in a popular and timely genre or subject. Notice I did not mention anything about quality of writing. One can not determine the quality of a book's writing solely from the banner or book cover image. That information is best conveyed on the landing page; where readers who click an advertisement are sent. The landing page must continue to engage and sell the book to the potential reader. Readers should have access to a detailed description of the book, reviews from reputable sources, a book excerpt, information about the author and more. Needless to say, a link to purchase the book must be easy to find. The landing page can be your website (usually a good idea), or the site where the book can be immediately purchased. Quality of Website You Are Advertising On Websites that provide advertising can be gauged on; (1) the number of visitors; (2) their visitor demographics; (3) the types of and placement of advertisements available; and (4) the nature of the content provided by the site. The more traffic a website has the more opportunities they have to display your banner (a single display of an ad is called an impression). The more impressions a site can generate, the greater the potential it has to get visitors engage with an advertisement, most often this is measured by a visitor actually clicking on the advertisement and taking some action, like visiting the advertiser's website. The potential of a website to get a visitor to click an advertisement is a function of the 4 factors described above. The clicks a website is able to deliver is usually measured as a ratio of the number of clicks on an advertisement over the number of impressions delivered. The is called the click through ratio or CTR. For example, If an advertisement is displayed to 100 visitors and one of them click the advertisement, the CTR would be 1/100 of 1%. This would be considered a relatively high click through rate. Typically advertisers, like the guy who made the original Facebook post above, will compare different advertising campaigns, across different websites by comparing the cost per click (CPC). For example, lets say an author spent $100 on an a banner advertisement, and the ad was clicked by 100 people. The CPC for this ad would $1. Far too often, advertisers--even major publishers, do not evaluate or even examine this data. They can be swayed by websites that deliver a lot of impressions but generate few clicks. This could result from; (1) ads that are poorly placed on the website; (2) a poor match between the demographics of the website and the advertised product or; (3) the advertised product itself (as described in "Quality of the Underlying Product above"). Advertisers, who do not examine their advertising campaign statistics can also be fooled by a website's popularity. A site popularity does not automatically translate into clicks. What Makes AALBC.com Unique This is really where I finally begin to answer the question posed. All of the stuff I wrote above simply provides a context for my response. AALBC.com has a very narrow demographic, we have sold 10's of thousands of different titles on the starting with our first online book sale in December of 1997. We have the ability to place a wide variety of advertisements. Our large book cover ad type is unique industry. In fact Facebook rejects most book covers, as advertisements, because book covers often violate Facebook's text/image policy. While we can not come close to delivering the number of impressions a social media site like Facebook might, we kill them on CTR. A far higher percentage of our visitors will click our advertisements than will click an advertisement on Facebook. It is not uncommon for 10% of our visitors to click an advertisement, single digit CTRs are typical. On Facebook I've seen CTR of less 0.01%. People seem to have trained themselves to ignore Facebook ads--even those placed directly in our feeds. Facebook is also used by visitors you are using the Facebook mobile ap. These visitors are completely engrossed looking at friends photos, and are less likely to click on an ad which requires the browser to be launched, taking them away from their nephew's graduation pictures. There is an advertisement running on AALBC.com right now (I took the following screen shot as I'm writing this) which has 25,109 impresions. The CTR is 5.62%. You will also notice that the number of clicks is 1,410. This ad was sold for $449 for one month. If the ads stopped right now the cost per click would be less than 32 cents. Already this ad is more efficient than can be expected from most other platforms, but this add will be running for another 10 days and the cost per click will continue to go down, making it a very cost effective ad buy. Now that AALBC.com has sent 1,410 visitors to this author's website, it is the author's responsibility to close the sale. It is also the sites responsibility to look at conversions. They are called actions. Actions are also be looked at as a ratio of actions per click. Lets say that 10% of visitors to a website actually took an action like joining a mailing list or purchasing a book. Some authors may say well I made $5 for the 10% of visitors (141) who came the website. Therefore I made $256 on the advertisement (141 books and made $5 per sale or $705 less $449 spent on the ad). But this is just one way of looking at the effectiveness of an advertisement. Advertising build name recognition. There is value in having 1,400 visitor come to you site--even if they do not spend a penny. Perhaps they joined your mailing list and purchased 15 copies our your book, at a local bookstore, six months later because they discovered your work months earlier on AALBC.com. Often authors I work with don't have $449 to spend on promoting their book over a 30 day period, but I can work with you even if your annual budget is $449. Advertising on a site that actually cares about your product is important. Often I will rework a banner ad, provide recommendation for an authors landing page, and even work with authors on pricing, placement, bundling ads, barter and more. This is not a place where you upload your banner, input your credit card information and are forgotten, as an advertiser on AALBC.com you are building a relationship with AALBC.com and a community of readers. At the same time supporting a platform dedicated to supporting your work and the work of others like you. Drop me a line or post any questions who have below. Peace, Troy

FB Post: “Goodreads Ad: Yesterday, I pulled the plug on my Goodreads display ad for my novel. After a couple of months of using two different ads, there were only 10 clicks. I only paid for the clicks, not the views (which they say were lots). I bid between $1.00 and $2.00 per click. It was good to experience but I'd rather spend my ad money on AALBC and getting in readers' inboxes.” Question in Response: “What is AALBC like as far as pricing and visitors to their site actually making purchases?”

Like most magazine covers this has been "cleaned up" quite a bit. Still he does not look bad for a 65-year-old broad. People usually slow down to look at a car wreck. Even though we know we might see something grotesque, we do it anyway. Perhaps Bruce Jenner's life distracts us from all the more pressing and important issues that we should be dealing with. It gives us an opportunity to say, "my life may be jacked up but at least it is not as bad as Bruce's," meanwhile Vanity Fair sells a bazillion copies of this issue. Creflo Dollar got his 65 Million dollar private jet and the beat goes on....

This is an article written by sci-fi author by Ursula K. Le Guin. The following quotes are her opening and closing paragraphs. I understand Ursula's comments and in some ways agree with her. The only issue is that she seems to have completely ignored at least two major points which explains Amazon's success. Amazon makes it possible for anyone to publish a book We can argue over whether the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions now, of books self-published each year in ebook format, or on demand, are worthy of publication. I'm sure many will argue that most of these books are not very good. But every single author feels their book is worthy of publication and applaud companies like Amazon for making the production of their "baby" possible. Quality literature is incidental Authors are motivated by making bestsellers lists, movie deals, popularity, and money. Ursula argues that Amazon is motivated by profit, treating books as commodities; "...the only value of a book is its current salability." What she fails to realize is that many, if not most, author's motives are perfectly aligned with those of Amazon.Ursula is a elderly woman who probably wants things to be they way the used to be before Amazon came along. She is, judging by her numerous awards (Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, and more) a very talented writer. Just as important she has benefited from being part of the dominant culture. Her path to traditional publishing was relatively smooth, I'm sure. Besides, despite all the complaining about Amazon, I'm sure Ursula is not returning any of the money she is getting from Amazon. All that said, I did think massive, dominate corporations like Amazon, provide a tremendous benefit, but only to a relatively small number of people. Net-net, the vast majority of us do not benefit; I'd argue we are worse off. Sure we have cheap smart phones, but the manufacturing jobs are in Asia. We have low cost products in Walmart, but their worker don't make very much. People love Facebook, but that comes at the expense of all the other websites that are dying. If Ursula is so concerned about Amazon's dominance, she can lead the way by boycotting Amazon, and removing her books from the website. Needless to say that will never happen.

If anyone would like a high resolution version of this year's group shot (or any of the previous Black Pack Party Group shots), let me know. I'm thinking about charging a reasonable fee to raise funds to support the 10th anniversary party in Chicago coming in 2016. Of course corporate sponsors are welcomed and we will be able to offer an attractive package in return. Email me troy@aalbc.com if you are interested in the high resolution photos or in being a sponsor.

Hey Cynique, I see you adjusted to the new software without missing a beat. I'm not sure what happened to everyone's avatar. The account I set up manually, via Twitter and Facebook remain intact. Perhaps some of your friends would like to share there thought about your book with me. I can cobble them together as a "crowd sourced" book club review. Let me know what you think? Funny, I generally read everything Morrison writes but I not thought to read this one. After reading your review I'll decide.

Thanks Chris, I'm still working on more customizations. I'm hoping more people will participate as a result of the redesign, and being completely optimized for mobile devices. I did not see the two books you mentioned. and I still don't the WEB Reader--I guess you have to know the cover huh?

Author Emanuel Carpenter shared most of these points on facebook and asked me to comment. Since I'm not a fan of supporting social media with free content, I'm responding to E's comments here. I've also shared my opinion on the PW website. As web site and publication PW is extremely important--even to Black books. Indie Bookstores: There are many indie bookstores thriving across the country, so it comes to as no surprise to me that the ABA membership is growing. It is the Black owned indie stores that are struggling. As far as the overall number of store increasing I would really need to see the list and understand what the ABA consider a "bookstore." The last time I looked at their list of stores, I found a number of errors including the inclusion of the Hueman bookstore in Harlem which closed a few years ago. eBook sales: I noticed this trend and reported a leveling off of ebook sales on AALBC.com a couple of years ago. I think the novelty of eBooks has worn off. Now that quality eBooks have begun to be priced more rationally, the cost difference is not as significant. I've owned several eBook readers none of which I use today, because I prefer reading physical books. Besides, sometimes you just want to OWN a hard covered book, and proudly display it in your home. You never really "own" anything stored in the cloud. China: China dominated the convention. Their massive pavilion was the first thing you saw when you entered the convention. It was kinda weird at first, almost like walking into an unfamiliar space before recognizing you are in the right place. Most talked about books: The two books I talked the most about where Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel & Grau, September 8, 2015) and Grant Park by Leonard Pitts, Jr. (Agate Bolden, October 13, 2015). I'm also looking for news titles from Just Us Books. I attended an interesting panel called "Word-Of-Mouth Gone Digital! - Building New Online Communities of Readers." There was a woman on the panel. Who worked for suvudu.com (panel shown below in cell phone shot). [original image lost] The site is run by Penguin/Random but touts itself as providing a platform for science fiction and fantasy fans to discover books and authors --regardless of the publisher. This made no sense to me, so I asked, "How does the publisher justify the allocation of resources and expenses to promote the work of a competitor?" The response is best summarized by quote from the Suvudu's representative's response "...a rising tide lifts all boats." Now that sounds great, and is what I truly believe, but I KNOW corporations don't operate that way. Another another woman, from Tumblr, stepped in and explained that all of the data Penguin/Random collects is very valuable. I was sitting in the second row, so she could see I appreciated a little honesty, and she went on to explain that were are at an industry event, what else are if it is not to provide information. Again, like most of BEA (save the humongous Chinese pavilion), the panelists and the attendees (photo below) were all white. It was also interesting that this particular room was full of women (my bald head deliberately left in the short for contrast). Of course there is a reason for the lack of men, but that is a completely different conversation. [original image lost] But imagine being a white woman attending a event that full of Black men. Would that woman feel welcomed and comfortable? Would she be friends with anyone there--would they even want to be her friend? Would her children go to the same schools, belong to the same organizations, or worship at the same churches. Would she look forward to hanging out at one of the numerous after parties, later that evening, with free food and drinks. Or would the Brothers simply look at her and wonder what the heck is she doing in here? I did not spend a lot of time at BEA this year. Partially because I have less time and money, but mainly because BEA, has become a sea of whiteness. There used to be a lot of programming and exhibitors that would be of particular interest to Black folks, but publishing, never known for hiring many Blacks, has become virtually all white in 2015. The following images are courtesy of BEA's press room, and are reflective of the attendees and participants. This again is one of the reasons we host the Black Pack Party every year during BEA. Sadly, it is the only opportunity to see more than a handful of Black faces in one place--even in a convention center filled with thousands of people. Occasionally, someone would suggest that it would be racist to have a gathering and call it the "White Pack Party;" so why then is it not racist to have a gathering called the "Black Pack?" Only someone from the dominant culture would think that question makes sense. If you look at the attendees of any of the big parties held during BEA by publishers, "White Pack," would be an appropriate description. This has been the reality, in mainstream publishing for so long, adding the adjective "white" would be redundant and superfluous. A sea of whiteness that far exceeds the population distribution is the accepted, perhaps desired, norm for publishing. I'll leave it up to you to decide if that is racist.