Troy

Cynique, if you click the link you should be presented with a webpage that looks like the screen shot below. If you do not see a prompt for you to subscribe you may already be subscribed. If so, thanks, if not thanks for tryng. And thanks for your support!

If you are ready this and are not subscribed to the AALBC.com YouTube channel you have may make up for it by subscribing now. YouTube, for now anyway, is one of the remaining (perhaps the only) major social networking platforms that still gives you a financial reward in return for the content your contribute to their platform and they provide a service to you without trying to completely cannibalize your website's traffic. If you subscribe to my YouTube channel you will help me spread the word about Black literature. Your support matters. Promoting Black literature has always been a grassroots effort; it is not done by corporations but by people you and me.

There are 31,392 others who have joined the campaign; a negligible portion of the Facebook user community. It is surprisingly difficult not to use Facebook. Someone is always telling me about something funny or cute they saw on someones wall. As I gather information about authors much of the information I'm finding in Google queries point to Facebook. I actually have to consciously avoid using Facebook. I also have a bunch of other social media platforms that automatically post to Facebook. I have not tried to stop this type of sharing. I'll just be satisfied with not logging onto he application or visiting the website. I also use my Facebook account to log into websites, like this one. I will start using my Twitter account to log into this discussion forum. I also deleted the social media aps from from my cell phone--all of them, not just Facebook. Interestingly, there has been a 50% increase in my referral traffic from Facebook in the two weeks I've stopped visiting the website. But keep in mind my referral traffic from Facebook is down 63% compared to 4 years ago when I had 4 times the number of friends/fans/followers/subscribers (whatever they are now called). This is another reason I'm considering abandoning Facebook for business purposes. Despite more frequent posting and and MANY more friends I'm getting less traffic from Facebook. I will most likely continue the automated posts as that does generate traffic, and business, with negligible effort.

Jeron, I have to assume the folks at Johnson Publications, responsible for publishing Jet magazine, did all of what you suggested. I assume they felt something was indeed broken so they are attempting to fix it. I would also assume sales at the newsstands were declining. I actually wanted to buy the last issue and i could not think of a single place, in Harlem, where I could by the magazine. I know Pathmark (a local supermarket) sells magazines at the check the out stand, but I did not feel like trekking over there. They used to have magazine and newspaper stands, but those went the way of the Blacksmith... I will check out the Jet Application. You get to use it for 30 days for free if you get a code the Jet website: http://www.jetmag.com/jet-digital-registration/

Cynique did you get a chance to read the article on Payton's Blog? Also "Hip-Hop," in this context, has been co-opted; becoming a meaningless marketing term like "R&B" which doesn't clearly describe musical genre. So you can call the tune R&B and young person would call the same tune hip-hop. The bottom line is so much of the so called "hip-hop" music is taken from music created by actual musicians--something we are all accustomed to at this point. But the problem here is that Pharrell won't even acknowledge this fact.

Brother Leroy Baylor Co-host of The Communicators The Black management of WHCR has been told by the heads of City College and the CUNY system to take The Communicators off WHCR-90.3FM immediately. This is due to the false charge of antisemitism . I and the show have been portrayed as antisemitism in an ongoing campaign beginning formerly in 2006. It has increased since Minister Farrakhan appeared on The Communicators when Libya was invaded. It is a campaign to defame my name and character. The onslaught of charges of antisemitism relate to any time I mention Minister Farrkahan's name and The Final Call newspaper and articles within it. For example, this is no joke, one complaint said that I mentioned Dr Shabazz's obituary appearing in The Final Call. Dr Shabazz was the premier math educator who produced more Black PHD holders in math than any other educator. He was one of us and served Black students regardless of religion. Any mention of The Final Call is antisemitic because, according to the writer, this newspaper is antisemitic and features an ad for the book, "The Secret Relationship of Blacks and Jews." Another antisemitic charge points to our mentioning that Professor Griff was coming to Harlem. We make announcements based on the information value to listeners and to serve the Black organizers who bring forums to Black people. When we interviewed Minister Farrakhan, the complaint said that he was on WHCR ranting for 45 minutes. It was an interview. No rants. Clear, deliberate answers to our questions. Based on what I was allowed to see, the complaints are from a team of Caucasians who say they are not Jewish but want to defend Jewish people. These individuals have software to transcribe the shows we do and then forward to the Chancellor of CUNY the comments they say are antisemitic. When the Chancellor looks at this, he thinks the whole two-hour show is dedicated to antisemitic rants. Meanwhile, we have produced for the Harlem Community outstanding shows that no one else bothers to bring to Black people. We are not concerned with Jewish people. Fact is, we interview more Caucasians on The Communicators than WNYC (so-called liberal) interviews Blacks. Another tactic of this team is to call guests whom we have had on The Communicators, telling them they should not appear again. This speaks of an operation as opposed to individuals complaining. We are reminded of the Anti-Defamation League spying on Harlemites Elombe Brath and Kermit Eady. This surveillance was exposed several years ago by a white police officer on the West Coast. The ADL was transferring this surveillance of the late Elombe Brath (and his contacts) to South Africa's apartheid regime which was torturing and killing Black freedom fighters while portraying them as terrorists. Another most important fact is that I am a follower of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and a supporter of Brother Minister Farrakhan. Their teachings and The Holy Quran guide us to respecting all peoples. Imagine doing a talk show with a vendetta against Jewish people or Christians and inviting Jews and Christians to be guests on the show. WABC radio and WOR radio in New York seldom feature any Black guests and every day are relentless in blaming everything imaginable on a Black man named, Obama. What is pathetic about this situation that forces WHCR's Black management to take The Communicators off the air is that the heads of CUNY and City College have avoided the fact that these charges of antisemitism have no basis at all except someones do not like Minister Farrakhan, The Final Call and intelligent Black men and women. It is indeed a lynching. A low-tech lynching on a campus of higher learning. A white woman says rape and the negro is beat, stripped and strung up. NEXT! Amazing, it's 2014 and Dred Scott as usual. This email is not a beg to be on the air. We can never beg "educators of high institutions" for the right to inform and educate Black people of Harlem with the programming that has made The Communicators one of the most popular Black talk shows in New York City. It is a lesson for Muslims that The Final Call is hated by the slavemaster's children because of its valuable in getting knowledge to our people. Remember the point made by Mr. Muhammad in "Message To The BlackMan In America." He quotes a slave owner saying, "they had almost closed the light of knowledge entering the minds of Black people." This aim has always been a part of this society, witness Black babies entering their schools and coming out dumb as can be. Witness our college students spending their grants on "remedial" classes. The effort to get us off the air should speak for itself and prompt Black people to read every issue of The Final Call and collect every dvd of Brother Minister Farrakhan. We fight with knowledge. CAST TRUTH AT FALSEHOOD TILL YOU KNOCK ITS BRAINS OUT.

8th Annual Leimert Park Village Book Fair Saturday, Aug. 9, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, 3650 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Los Angeles, CA

"And to those of you who say I know nothing about Hiphop, if “Blurred Lines” is Hiphop, I don’t want to know anything about it. So let me officially go on record now and say that I hate Hiphop. There are certain artists who claim Hiphop that I dig, but Hiphop as a whole is wack. It’s a parasitic culture that preys on real musicians for its livelihood. I may not know anything about Hiphop, but I don’t have to. Without real artists and musicians like me, you’d have nothing to steal. I know enough about it all to know that." Nicholas Payton in, "An Open Letter To Pharrell Williams (Blurred Lines Vol. 3)" where he castigates Pharrell over his unwillingness to knowledge that he stole Marvin Gaye's tune, ‘Got to Give It Up.’ Payton goes on to quote Robin Thicke: “Pharrell and I were in the studio and I told him that one of my favorite songs of all time was Marvin Gaye’s ‘Got to Give It Up.’ I was like, ‘Damn, we should make something like that, something with that groove.’ Then he started playing a little something and we literally wrote the song in about a half hour and recorded it.” Now the Mashup https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZNA8ExCdZA Read Payton's article he has the vocabulary to articulates what I find lacking in so called hip-hop music.

The Baltimore African American Book Festival will take place October 11, 2014, from 10am to 5pm, at the Enoch Pratt Central Library, 400 Cathedral St Baltimore MD 21201. Scheduled speakers include; Trice Hickman, author of new novel Troublemaker; Sherri Booker, winner of an NAACP Image Award for her memoir Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner City Funeral Home; Nikki Woods, senior producer of the “Tom Joyner Morning Show” and author of the AALBC.com #1 bestseller, Easier Said Than Done ; Ella Curry, Owner of EDC Creations; and AALBC.com’s Founder, Troy Johnson.

Hi TaylorMadePub, first I have to apologize I deleted one of your posts. It appeared to be a duplicate post, but I just noticed this post did not have you book covers, so I reposted them below. I've seen a lot of book trailers in my day, in fact I used to run a Best Book Trailer Book Trailer Contest These two trailers rank at the top. The production value is much higher than most I've seen. The other cool thing is that the people on book covers match the actors in the trailers which, surprisingly, is unusual. I also like the excerpt, from the novel in the trailer a combination of imagery and a sampling of the prose. Excellent.

Dr. Ben Carson is certainly a brilliant surgeon. I would assume, as a medical doctor, that he knows much more abut Obama's help care plan than I do. I also trust that Carson is giving his honest opinion and not simply making statement purely for political gain -- though his hyperbolic statement that "Obamacare" it is the worst thing since slavery calls into question Carson's political motives and my trust in his statements.

Hidden Colors 3 is out now: It is so odd that I just learned today (July 29, 2014) that the producer and director of this film Tariq Nasheed is also a NY Times Best selling author. I first learned about the first Hidden Colors documentary film in a Black owned independent bookstore in Virgina, Positive Vibes. I asked the Brother who was showing me around the store. What was the best selling thing they had. He showed me the Hidden Colors DVD; which I purchased. The DVD had been out for over a year (I posted information above at that time). I can't help but think that 10 years ago I would not have missed, the fact this Brother had a NY Times bestselling book or even the popularity of the Hidden Colors documentary. Despite our so called interconnectedness with social media, there really has been a great reduction in the amount of useful information being propagated online over years. I just noticed Tariq was discussed on our discussion forums back in 2008. I was not part of that conversation. I also see that Emmanuel said he was reading Tariq's bestseller, back in 2004. So I guess there was opportunities for me to learn about Tariq's work here on my own website.

Cynique, the answer to your question is never. I don't expect it to happen. I've spoken to too many Black professionals, for example, who are all-in as far as social media is concerned. Part of the problem is that many of these Brothers and Sisters work for corporations, so the sensibilities are very different. I worked in corporate America for over 2 decades--I get it. I don't think the war mongers running the country are crazy enough to go to "war" with a Russia. Who would America get to risk their lives in an armed battle with Russia? This "war" would be drones, bombs and terrorism. If that is the type of conflict Pioneer is suggesting then it may have already started.

Win copy of Walter Mosley’s New eBook, Jack Strong: A Story of Life after Life The rules are simple; Follow the link from our eNewsletter to this page (contest starts AFTER the eNewsletter is emailed). Create an account on our discussion forum (if you don't already have one), by clicking this link or the green Create Account button on the upper right hand side of this page. Finally, reply to this post by typing, "I want Walter's eBook Jack Strong." That's it! The prize is Walter Mosley’s New eBook, Jack Strong: A Story of Life after Life provided courtesy of Open Road Media Only current subscribers to the AALBC.com eNewsletter are eligible to win (you must have received our July 29th eNewsletter announcing the contest). The contest will close one week after the emailing was sent or when the first five (validated) entries have been submitted--whichever comes first. I will confirm the valid entries, here, on this discussion forum. Once five validated entries have been submitted (or one week has passed), I will close the contest and send each contestant their eBook The winners will be confirmed here. Good luck!

An the winner is: Winner you may email me troy@aalbc.com to claim your prize.

Needless to say, I hope you are wrong Pioneer. I don't think we can win an engagement between Russia and China without rendering the planet uninhabitable for all but the wealthiest people.

The people did not intervene because they were too busy posting videos to Facebook and photos to instagram...

Pioneer1 yes when you look at it that way you are right, but even the Vint Cerf (the guy who created the Internet) should not have envision the complete commercialization of the Internet. Del do you believe Big Brother is a natural consequent of humanity? I think it is a obviously a possible outcome but certainly not as inevitable as the creation of God. Cynque you have much more faith in the average citizen's ability to discern fiction from reality on Internet than I. As far as the Internet's (social media really, as that IS the Internet for the vast majority of us) ability to effect political change look how many people truly believe Twitter started revolutions throughout Africa. Look at all the people who thought Occupy would be driven through social media. Yes the old school tactics are far better that tweeting. It is not that those tactics failed us, it is just that we stopped using them. Of course a diverse population will come together and slay Big Brother. The global population, at the end of the day, is really not that diverse. Don't believe the ease at which we are manipulated and pitted against each other is because of deep inherent differences.

Jeron I edited your posts to include your book's covers. I also inked to your excerpts from a page I just created for you: http://aalbc.com/authors/jeron-mccall.html Please let me know when your website is ready and I will link to it from that page. Also, if you have a video and a head-shot I will post it on a page as well. Cynique is right, when it comes to an author keeping their ego in check. There are many reasons one would want to keep their books shorter, that have nothing to do with the readers tastes, attention span or intellect. In the general case shorter is better. Also everyone is not qualified to make a critique. An opinion, which everyone is entitled to, is not the same thing as a critique. A critic should know more, at lot more than the average person about what they are judging. Sometimes authors mistake a bookseller's unwillingness to carry a book as a negative critique of that book, when in reality they are making a business decision. It may make perfect sense for a person running a physical store to not invest a lot of time in a very long book, written an unknown author. Again the business decision of carrying a book is not that same as determine if a book has literary merit. In an ideal world that might be the case but in the real world it never works out that way. No one familiar with the industry believes that the best books always get published. Black folks know this more than most, self-published authors know this more than anyone. Sites like mine traditionally could take more time investigating unknown authors. In the good old days several people would have already read your excerpts and commented on them. Platforms for this type of exchange have virtually disappeared for Black books (one of many losses in the social media era). I discovered many excellent books here. People will discover definitely your books here, and it is possible someone will like them as well :-)

This contest is now over. The winner will be selected over on Sunday or Monday.

Hi Jeron, you are right the complaints leveled here do not apply to all bookstores. If you run a bookstore it is really hard not to piss off some at least a few indie authors. Why don't you post an excerpt of your book here? Also here is a short link you can use to send readers to Amazon: http://aalbc.it/jeronm To learn more about why links like this are important read an article I wrote last year about things writers should do to survive online: http://aalbc.it/writersmustdo Welcome to the discussion forum :-)

I recently published Kam's review of the new indie film Sucka 4 Luv. No after posted the review I went Twitter to share the link and let those involved with the film review. Sometimes if a celebrity retweets the message the review will get a bump in traffic (if you donlt already know traffic means revenue). So I go looking for a twitter account to tag on my message and run a Twitter search on Sucka 4 Luv and came across a Twitter account, @sucka4luv2 that had such a disgusting pornographic banner image that I won't even link to it. But if you can track it down it you like. The crazy thing is that I come across porn all the time with what one would think is a pretty innocuous search.

Speaking about the "Power in the Age of the Feudal Internet." I read article but one of the comments seem to state the problem more clearly--at least to me anyway: This isn't about 'winning a battle' or 'war' this is about energy and human mediocrity. People have limited time and energy and will do the things that require the least energy and take the least amount of thinking because they already have stress coming from every which way in their own lives through work, relationships, finances, etc. They are desperate for someone to look after them and take care of them so they don't have to think or work, or expend energy. It's the nature of capitalism to exploit this aspect of the masses for maximum profit and normalize their crimes by buying up and transforming the law to legalize their criminality, you're not 'In the middle' you're just as stupid as the masses. To get a middle class required two world wars and the cold war, everyone seems to forget that. It didn't come from the 'job creators' or the 'wealthy'. We needed the radicals to push society forward towards a more humane society. The people in the middle are sheep to the slaughter. Besides, it seems to me most people are completely oblivious of and don't care about the corporate take over of the Internet. This issue only means something to a minority of people old enough to have been involved enough with the Internet in the early days--old enough to have appreciated the promise it held and old enough to understand how it has changed so radically for the worse. I don't see anything changing online (or off-line) for the better unless something radical happens. But even I don't really have the stomach for invoking the radical change needed to make thing better for everyone. Perhaps I'm too comfortable, to lazy or too concerned with my own situation... So I attempt to utilize the tools of the masters to communicate the problems; which is a fatally flawed tactic as the owners of the net control what is seen online. The Internet will continue to come under complete control of a few corporations and people will not see this as a problem until it is much too late to do anything about it. Anyone who thinks the Internet will ever be a tool for starting meaningful social change will be disappointed.

Yes this was a terribly tragic event... Hearing the brother complain about how he was being treated by the police resonates completely. I have never had the misfortune of being physically mistreated handled by the police but I have been stopped cursed out and given thousands of dollars in questionable and simply wrong tickets over the years. In a perverse way I feel lucky has I have never been arrested or given a beat down, like many of my peers have. On a lighter note the young men from my neighborhood who were railroaded and convicted for raping a white woman have been award millions by a NYC court.