Troy

Man I hear you but Amazon's business model is as brilliant that a crack dealer's; they are both gansta. Amazon unbeknownst to me is actually strong arming publishers--bit-h slappin' them in submission. For a stark contrast you should watch 60 Minutes coverage of Amazon then you will appreciate how the mass helps Amazon. 60 minutes by contrast was "Di*k Ridding" Bezos. It was hard to believe this was the same 60 Minutes that used to bum rush people exposing folks... For my newest website we are using MahoganyBooks as our bookseller. I'm glad to do this because I recognize the problem Amazon poses. I also understand I'm losing sales as a result, because we (Black folks) will overwhelmingly buy from Amazon before buying from a MaghoganyBooks. I pray this will not always the case and I'm fighting to ensure that it is not. See the "value" Amazon provides is an illusion, much like the value of aforementioned drug dealer, cigarette manufacturer or Ponsi-scheme operator. What little short-term value anyone obtains comes at the high cost paid by someone else--often the person themselves. We are too blinded by our own perceived gain to see the collective loss. The argument that authors can now get their books published, when they could not do so when major housed dominated, falls flat. You see most self-published books don't make any money. However, Amazon makes money on EVERY self-published book --whether is sells or not. Indeed Amazon doesn't even care if the books sells--they generate revenue from the book's production costs, paid by the author. If the book does sell a few copies they get a piece of whatever you make. Today a self-published author really can't do anything with their book without Amazon's hand is in their pockets. At least traditional publishers used to assumed the financial risk of publishing a book.

I hear you Chris. Funding the smaller kickstarter projects is the move. Giving someone who has the resources to pay a couple thousands dollar a ticket to watch the NY Knicks, courtside, each game, seems to defy the spirit and purpose of Kickstarter. Also, after running AALBC.com for so long I also noticed that it is the people with the least resources that provide the most support. The wealthy rarely do. I can give you countless sickening examples. As a result, I only support people in my position or with less. I also noticed, just today, after contributing $5 to a local magazine, African Voices on Indiegogo, that I have failed to receive most of the Perks I was promised for much larger contributions... If one of the Spike Lee's of the world decides to return my support and support AALBC.com then I'll consider changing my position of giving money to the wealthy. See the subject really is not off topic; this is exactly why I can't continue to enrich Facebook by posting content and engaging others on their platform without getting anything in return. It makes so little sense to continue to enrich Facebook at our collective expense. I'm looking forward to reading your article.

In 1995, in Chicago, Bezos manned an Amazon booth at the annual conclave of the publishing industry, which is now called BookExpo America. Roger Doeren, from a Kansas City store called Rainy Day Books, was stopped short by Amazon’s sign: “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore.” Approaching Bezos, he asked, “Where is Earth’s biggest bookstore?” “Cyberspace,” Bezos replied. “We started a Web site last year. Who are your suppliers?” “Ingram, and Baker & Taylor.” “Ours, too. What’s your database?” “ ‘Books in Print.’ ” “Ours, too. So what makes you Earth’s biggest?” “We have the most affiliate links”—a form of online advertising. Doeren considered this, then asked, “What’s your business model?” Bezos said that Amazon intended to sell books as a way of gathering data on affluent, educated shoppers. The books would be priced close to cost, in order to increase sales volume. After collecting data on millions of customers, Amazon could figure out how to sell everything else dirt cheap on the Internet. (Amazon says that its original business plan “contemplated only books.”) Afterward, Doeren told his partner at Rainy Day Books, Vivien Jennings, “I just met the world’s biggest snake-oil salesman. It’s going to be really bad for books.” Read the entire 12,000 word article in The New Yorker

You continue to work it man. The notice here has 10 times the views as a similar posts made the same day. The 7pm start time is not convenient for me but I'll try to pop in despite my aversion to FB :-)

Chris Twitter started trading publicly last year. Also I trust you are not taking the lack of support, from your inner circle, on Kickstarter personally. The folks most likely to generate successful campaigns are those who need it the least (think Spike Lee). These are also the same people who benefit the most from social media. Did you see that article I wrote about Twitter? Cynique, in reality, my target audience are not people with the "humdrum lives" you describe. Facebook can keep those folks; they are not well read, don't have substantive opinions, and are not very interesting to me. I'm most interested in people like the ones participating in this conversation; smart, with the ability to articulate a well formed opinion. I like people who willing to learn, people interested in perspectives other an their own and are not insulted when people disagree with them. What drew me to this site (speaking as a visitor now), was the wealth of books, ideas and personalities--they are fascinating to me. Cynique I would never have had an opportunity to encounter someone like you were it not for this website, and we certainly would have never crossed paths on Facebook. You can't have a conversation like this one on Facebook. Where people can post photos, videos and 500 word responses. But more important to me is that I'll be able to find this conversation in a week, a year and even a decade from now. Does anyone have any confidence that anything they post on Facebook to day will easily retrievable in a few months, let alone a few years... People exclaim Facebook is easier to use, but from an end user perspective the functionality is VERY limited, so it should be easier to use. Indeed it is designed for the masses so it HAS to be easy. The appeal to Facebook, like reality TV, or even porn is that it is shallow, appeals to baser emotions and is easy to consume. So of course it will appeal to many people and the marketers interested in selling to them. I know my target audience is small, but it is certainly large enough to support another ten AALBC.com's., but today we barely have one. Sure smart people go to Facebook for the occasional diversion, but increasingly they go there because they don't feel they have any options. My goal is to help content providers (including writers) understand why investing so much time on Facebook is not in their self interest--if they hope for their websites to survive. I also want to work with them to raise awareness of our respective properties. I've been maintaining AALBC.com for almost 17 years, and I have been building websites for almost 20 years. I've also observed the internet, as it relates to content for Black people, since the world wide web was born, so I have confidence in my opinion. I do not think any other website interested in my type of audience can survive on their own over the longer term. If we fail we will continue to see a dramatic reduction in the number of sites providing meaningful content. In fact we won't need Google anymore because everything will be on Facebook, Amazon and Wikipeda.

I agree Richard, but Google's influence is strong. If Google keeps sending people to Wikipedia, people are not likely to change. Raising awareness is extremely difficult, as there are few platform that are willing to invest time and resources. You find more platforms interested in spreading word about Zane's tax issues, it is simply more lucrative.

I actually watched the film, but the point was lost on me. Satire generally offers social commentary usually in a humorous manner. This film did not accomplish the task. Steven Barnes wrote a book, Lions's Blood, in which the South was colonized by black Africans, and the North by Vikings, who sell abducted Celts and Franks to the Southerners. Thumper reviewed the book

Someone I know suggested that they should make a satirical documentary in which the native American slaughtered every European who set foot on these shores then show it in a predominately Black High school.

Post a link to your kickstarter here in a new post. You might also want to check out http://www.blackbloggersconnect.com basically it is a network of bloggers. I'm going to start using it more. Chris, in a few years all of this will be moot as Facebook will likely go the way of every other platform before it. People are already talking about Twitter is on a decline now...

First, thanks for responding here rather on Facebook Chris. Smart. I always post a summary of an article from AALBC.com on Facebook, but folks just reply on Facebook. The really frustrating thing is that comments reflect the fact that readers have not clicked through to read the full article and some of these folks are people who fused to post here regularly. I understand that an significant portion of activity, on Facebook, comes from a mobile device so leaving the FB mobile ap to go to the browser to read an web based article is not something a lot of folks do. When you sell through your own site you make more money. Of course. The problem is most customers only by from Amazon. Consider this, the other day I was looking for a replacement water filter for my coffee machine. I have been so conditioned to believe that Amazon has the best prices I look there first. The lowest price I saw on Amazon was $56 bucks. Times are hard so, I balked at a price which seemly to exceeded the cost of the coffee machine itself. So I looked around on other sites (imagine that!). Digging deep (going 3, 4 pages into search results) I found a company who sold the EXACT SAME water filter for $12.99! I thought something was wrong so I continued looking and found a couple of other companies with similar prices, so I ordered from one of them. The product arrive three days later ,tracked the entire way. If the Amazon price was say, $20 bucks, I would not have bothered to search further--and never discovered the $12.99 price. Today I would not buy ANYTHING online by only checking Amazon. In my world of books, specifically the Black book world, virtually everyone buys from Amazon--even when presented with superior alternatives. I'm collective data on this behavior now -- it is mind blowing! I related that story because I understand how people use the web. Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia and Amazon dominate because that is where Google sends folks. Something like 86% (I may not remember the exact stat. but it is a larger percentage) of people running a search do not go beyond the 1st page 94% do not go beyond the 2nd page. Smaller sites are only discovered in 2014 by the most most motivated. I know about some of these sites because I dig deep for book sites. But for book sites you have to go 20, 30 pages deep and even I don't have time for that. If you are a well known author, people can find you because people simply search on that authors name. If you are an unknown author--forget about it being discovered! This is why we need sites like mine and others--but we are losing visitors everyday. Social media can not pick up this slack. Raising awareness will be challenging. But I don't think we have much of a choice if we want to see the WWW become completely dominated by Social media, Amazon and Google. If you decide not to post the banner let me know what you dislike about the idea. Maybe I can adjust it. I need other to join. In much the same way people put hoodies on to support Trayvon. I'd like to see something similar-- but permanent. I know one aversion for some will be potential punishment by Facebook. But if you are not using FB;s platform, you have nothing to lose. But I'm not completely confident Facebook's influence is restricted to just their platform...

OK I found the group and signed up for membership. I will explore using buddypress on Huria Search. Also please use the code found on this page: http://huria.org/able/booklook-240.txt to update the Book Look Video on your website It will display a video thst is 240 pixels wide and will fit better on your website's template.

Hey Chris hold up on deleting your account I have another idea:

This idea is in reaction to CDBurns stating that he would be deleting his Facebook (FB) profile. His motivation was motivated by the fact that is was not working well for him. I’d actually planned to stop using FB myself, save for remote or automated updates, but then I started thinking why even bother with those updates, I should just cut the cord completely too. My motivation for cutting the "FB Cord" however is perhaps little different that CDBurn. I can get FB to drive traffic to my site. However over time I find myself dedicating more time on FB, joining groups, engaging with others, liking stuff, promoting posts and so forth, at the expense on AALBC.com. I'm enriching FB at AALBC.com's expense. Then I thought it would be a more profound statement to black out my Facebook Fanpage wall (using an image like the one below) I could then leave a link to a message on Huria Search (an independent, advertisement and social media free site, designed to promote other independent Black owned content providers), with a concise message explaining my reason for leaving Facebook and ask others join me. Ultimately, the goal will be to develop ways that we could use our own website to share and promote content in our own virtual social network, where each site keeps their individuality and profits from their content. I’m not even considering asking for the masses to give up Facebook (it will be hard enough getting content providers to do it). My focus is getting writers to stop posting content, opinions, ideas, stories, hosting groups or fanpages on Facebook. Instead use their own websites as their main platform and eliminate dependence on Facebook. I knew we were in trouble collectively when authors started saying "Follow Me on FaceBook and Like Me on Twitter" before mentioning their own websites, and they stopped mentioning other websites altogether. I’m fairly certain I’m going to proceed. What do you all think?

AALBC.com in partnership with MahoganyBooks regularly offers excellent books at prices lower than Amazon's! The price below is good until Sunday Feb 16th. Searching for Zion by Emily Raboteau OUR PRICE ONLY: $11.90 (List Price: $17.00, B&N & Amazon: $13.32) "A brilliant illustration of the ways in which race is an artificial construct that, like beauty, is often a matter of perspective."--"The Wall Street Journal" "Frank and expansive . . . Each impressionistic, deeply personal vignette is a building block, detailing [Raboteau's] far-flung search for 'home'--a 'promised land' that's as brick-and-mortar tangible as it is spiritually confirming."--"Chicago Tribune " A decade in the making, Emily Raboteau's" Searching for Zion" takes readers around the world on an unexpected adventure of faith. Both one woman's quest for a place to call "home" and an investigation into a people's search for the Promised Land, this landmark work of creative nonfiction is a trenchant inquiry into contemporary and historical ethnic displacement. At twenty-three, Raboteau traveled to Israel to visit her childhood best friend. While her friend appeared to have found a place to belong, Raboteau couldn't relate. As a biracial woman from a country still divided along racial lines, she'd never felt at home in America, unable to find her "Zion," which she defined as a metaphor for freedom. But in Israel, the Jewish Zion, Raboteau was surprised to discover black Jews. Inspired by their exodus, Raboteau sought out other black communities that had left home in search of a Promised Land. Her question for them is the same she asks herself: have you found the home you're looking for? On this ten-year journey back in time and across the globe, Raboteau visits Jamaica, Ethiopia, Ghana, and the American South to explore the complex and contradictory perspectives of Black Zionists. She talks to Rastafarians, African Hebrew Israelites, Evangelicals and Ethiopian Jews, and Katrina transplants from her own family, overturning our ideas of place and patriotism, and displacement and dispossession, in a disarmingly honest and refreshingly brave take on the pull of the story of Exodus.

The school is also the subject of a documentary film that follows two Black boys from kindergarten through 12th grade at the school. The entire film can be watched via Apple TV (the PBS station) or on line here. I found this film a bit long and a little frustrating to watch, simply because I'm just tired of hearing about these issue in 2014 when the problem is so damn obvious. One young man was not allowed to continue. Both were diagnosed with "learning disabilities." Maybe I'm a prude, but there was a scene in this film where two couples, all teenage students, were in bed with each other, apparently clothed, but under the covers. I found that scene troubling.

Dalton School Apologizes for Screening Slavery Satire By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZJAN. 30, 2014 The Dalton School, one of New York City’s most prestigious private schools, has apologized after screening a satirical movie about a world in which the South won the Civil War. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQNOAGlnG9g The film above was screened at a mostly white, most wealthy school in NY City's tony upper east side. Apparently the film was screened as a educational tool. I'm sure some white guy, completely obvious and insensitive to how the film would might be perceived, thought the film was funny and decided to share it with his peeps (students).

Chris can you provide the link to the "social network/buddy press" area on your site or explain how it works. Also why don't you hyperlink your signature here so that people can easily check out your website. AALBC.com has a domain authority in the 60's and Alexa rank in the low 100's and I don't do the "no follow" crap Google wants you to do, so AALBC.com is a still a good site to have a link from. I also noticed that the content served on your site, from AALBC.com does not fit the position. I can either resize it or give you new code to use. Let me know which you prefer. The Book Look video program, normally in that position, is scheduled to relaunch in March. Facebook Protest I've already committed to not using Facebook in 2014 but I had not considered removing my profile. Now that you mention it Chris, that is really what I need to do too. I'm thinking it would be even more effective to make a statement, a form of protest, by doing something like making our Facebook walls completely Black. Maybe include a single line of text explaining why maybe just the word "Freedom" or "visit my website" That might be a little corny, but I think a form of protest would be more effective than just quietly going away--especially if we can get enough people to do it. You know the same way many people used the "hoodie" to show support for Trayvon. This would be a protracted long term effort to show support for indie independent content producers. We could even all update our profiles will periodic updates, explaining what we are doing to help facilitate our collective independence. I know it will be hard to tear people away from Facebook, but if we can identify the people who recognize Facebook for what it is and show they how we can help them get readers, then maybe it can work. I don't care if I'm the only one doing it. This is what I'm going to do. Again if people want to use social to play games and talk to friends, that is cool, but we should not we as writers and content producers should not publishing any form of content on Facebook or engaging with each other or readers on Facebook without any form of compensation, control or ownership.

You all said a lot and I'll probably miss something but here is goes, addressing issues in no particular order: Webrings I liked the idea and was brainstorming a way to implement a modern day version of this with several other. The conversation petered out-- folks are in survival mode. A Portal for Writers This is a really good idea. I always thought it was a good idea. Here is my experience. Black people want to write for the HuffingtonPost. I know writers who scoffed at what say a QBR or BIBR would pay then to write an article, but then those same writers turn around and write for the HuffingtonPost for FREE. Many were disappointed when the property was sold netting millions for Ariana and zip for the writers. There are many websites that follow the examiner/huffpost model and some even pay writers a portion of the advertising revenue generated. There was one popular site (the name escapes me now) but Google killed it by pushing in down in search results -- I forgot the rational for the hit in ranking. I'll try to find the article. I will resurrect conversations around the idea. Thanks Chris. Zane Put on Blast Of course she should pay her taxes--I never disputed that. But that was not my point We live in a different world today public records can go viral quite easily. Perhaps this information should not be made public anymore. In reality, the information is only used by people interested in harming you or capitalizing off your hardship (as the Washington Post profited off the Zane information). When I first met Zane she allowed me to take her photo, but asked that I don't put it online and I had no problem respecting that. It was several years before she gave me permission to use her her photos. I didn't even know her full name until this week, it was not important to me. What is important was the words she put on paper--period. Today people share your personal problems as all over the internet and even updating our modern day World Book Encyclopedia in damn near real time with the info. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on this one. Yes I'm effected as an independent Yes I'm effected, we all are effected. Do you know, for example, most black children living in New York City have very little chance of getting a decent education? This is a really big deal, but since Black people have no voice the problem just festers. It is now generational--the parents don't appreciate what is happening to their children because it happened to them and their parents before them. They simply don't know any better. Big corporations have robbed us of our online voice right before our eyes . Younger folks or people with less experience online have no clue that the internet is getting jacked up, because they have nothing to compare it to. And older people have no platform to explain what is going on -- even if they did no one would care. In much the same way many Black students don't care they are not being educated. Chris and Cynique I appreciate your support over the years -- thank you.

Hey Demetrius (my middle name, I know Troy Demetrius, don't ask) You know I can;t let you get away by posting a link to Amazon without applying an affiliate code. Here is a much better link for you: http://amzn.to/darkhunger Check out this article, point #3 in particular, to learn why:

I know your question was rhetorical, but they have the awards shows to make money. People don't really protest anymore, they are still too comfortable or confused about who to level their complaints against.

Cynique, I was not clear. When I referenced "profile" I was really talking about of all one's contributions to Facebook, their posts, likes, group membership as well as the demographic information (age, marital status, education, profession, etc) they share. To further clarify, I think Facebook has a much better understanding of who were are that any person who has read everything you have ever posted on Facebook. You see, in addition to knowing what you have written, Facebook has the far more valuable information of what you ACTUAL DO on the platform, what you spend time reading, how long you spend on the platform and increasingly where you are physically when you do it. Again, I argue that a person can never know someone based up what they read on Facebook. I'd also argue than Facebook can't either, but they certainly have a MUCH better grasp of who you really are than any person can--and I'm sure much more than you would want revealed or made pubic. People so freely give up their privacy because they REALLY don't understand what is going on. Our government has abdicated their responsibility here, but the government serves due to the largess of corporations, so I guess they are doing what they are supposed to be doing...

Hey Chris can you post a direct link I can't find it. Man you are busy over there. I might check out the film Branded--I never even heard of it.

Look, this is not a fight about Zane. This is really a fight about the very nature of the web. When I first wrote about this, my article was titled, "What is Wrong with Goodreads and Wikipedia? Chris this IS the fight for "...promoting and fighting for literature and it's importance and relevance in society..." We have lost, and are losing, a great deal online--particularly as it pertains to Black books. Our voices have been almost completely squashed, what little we have is controlled by corporations who now decide what we see, who sees it and when. These corporations don't have our interest at heart and are increasingly hostile to us. Zane is just a recent, blatant, example. Of course these adverse changes extend across the entire media landscape, but the corporate control of the Web has just been so swift and complete. See ten years ago if you did a search on Zane you would easily find many sites with interviews, reviews of her books, discussion forums a talking about her work. AALBC.com, deservedly, would be in the top 3 of the search results. We'd reviewed several of Zane's books, had exclusive video of her, and she participated in these forums. Today the #1 result on a Google search on Zane is Wikipedia, where we learn more about her tax liability than her numerous literary accomplishments. As a result, websites, typically Black owned ones, who would have covered Zane, have disappeared unable to sufficiently monetize their websites because Google is busy propping up Wikipedia with scandalous content, multiple Amazon pages, and even their own content. AALBC.com is on the 2nd page today. Other websites, who are solely profit driven, then republish this scandalous information because they know it will drive traffic. As a result, we get less meaningful, uplifting content and more scandal. We all lose. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Part of what I've been trying to do is help people understand what is happening. But this is very difficult. The general public really does not understand Google's impact (driving traffic away from Black sites), people don't appreciate what is wrong with Wikipedia ), and of course everyone loves social media (controlling what we see to better sell of stuff) . I thought pointing out how all these massive corporations, from the Washington Post, to Google, Wikipedia and Amazon have piled on Zane in an aggressive and overt attempt to knock Zane down and diminish her brilliance. But it looks like I was wrong, I find it staggeringly outrageous that so few will advocate for our sister and even more will help tear her down. I think it is foolish to believe that just because someone is a celebrity means that their lives must now be an open book subject to the scrutiny and uninformed opinions of the masses -- when did this happen? Finally, and this is perhaps the biggest problem: We are so weak that we can't do anything about. We have too few conscious platforms.

DT, Zane is a regular person. I removed the tax information from Wikipedia and it was added back 28 minutes later. I looked at the editing history of the page and was very surprised by what I saw: Zane tax problems are going to stay on Zane's page if Wikipedia has anything to do with it. Look at the edit log: http://aalbc.it/wikifail2

Undeterred, a few hours later, DColeman added the information back to Zane's Wikpedia page, Also revealing Zane's real name in the process. JAllen removed the tax information again. Also posting the precaution: "Please refrain from making unconstructive edits to Wikipedia, as you did at Zane (author). Your edits appear to constitute vandalism and have been automatically reverted." Shortly after that Materialscientist, jumps into the fray reposting the tax information and chastizes JAllen for removing the tax information without providing an explanation. Again the reason for removing the information should be self evident, right? JAllen who is now being ganged up on by two people rips the tax information out for the 3rd time! OK so now it is three against one as a new person, Diiscool, puts the tax information back. Why do these folks feel so strongly that this information has to be on Wikipedia? JAllen, apparently feeling that no page for Zane is better than the overtly negative one the other Wikipedia editors obviously want launches the "nuclear option" and blanks out the entire page! Immediately, as if waiting around for a reaction from JAllen, ClueBot NG restored the blanked out page -- accusing JAllen of "possible vandalism"?! I suspect "ClueBot NG" is an automated process. So Now JAllen is not only combating several people hell bent on making sure that Tax info remains they also have to fight a automated processes as well. JAllen, after two days of trying makes no more attempts to rectify the problem. This afternoon, despite knowing "how they roll" at Wikipedia I also removed Zane's tax information using the following justification; "Zane's personal unresolved tax liability is irrelevant and does not belong in an encyclopedic reference of an author." I also added a link to my Zane Page IMDB is able to post a link to their website (Wikipedia link to IMDB) Less than 30 minutes later FRZE add the tax information back for the 5th time and removed my link to AALBC.com. Why is a link to IMDB OK, but not a link to AALBC.com again I welcome ideas? Well that is my latest dealing with Wikipedia. This is just one reason why I am not a fan. It looks like Zane tax info will remain. I find this outrageous. I also can not thing of a positive reason for the determination to keep the tax information on Wikipedia.