Troy

Just a few of the titles coming out later this year. Discover more: http://aalbc.it/bks14

It looks like, according to the New York Tiimes today, Rizzoli is being forced out of it's glamorous location

"One can never stop learning and to learn is, to grow." Once you do it is a wrap. Goines, along with Iceberg Slim are revered in the street lit community.

Yes he is still alive. It looks like he was sent to that Supermax prison in Colorado. He was given life, and then some, for the murder of a police officer that some how resulted when the officers were attempting to serve a warrant for a traffic violation. Being locked up in a super maximum security prison, for life, is torture. I have to believe a death sentence is preferable...

Richard I wish you were right. But it really is not that simple. Think Obama trying to push health care reform through strictly on the merits of the act: Should be a no brainier, right? But instead he has to deal with an opposing party that will stop at virtually nothing to see him and health care reform fail I've seen several terrific sites die because no one will buy books from them. Even my sites unit sales are down 19%, book sales even more. That does not even make sense?! But reasons are simple. How many times do you hear authors say follow me on twitter or like me on Facebook? Once you send people to Facebook they don't leave, they certainly are not buying books there. Some authors don't even have a website. Authors used to have links to sites they liked. But without a site, or a site that attracts visitors, sites like mine no longer get referrals from authors sites. We are programmed to promote entities that do serve us. We contribute to our own demise. Hey weren't we talking about PAWGs? PAWG discussions bring traffic, not dry lamenting over the state of the internet :-)

Kobo seems to be the preferred platform for indie booksellers, though onlydie hard supporters buy the Kobo eBooks. Everyone just buys from Amazon. It is like trying to get people to post on sites rather than Facebook. No one will really care until Amazon is the only place to buy books and Facebook is the internet.

Perhaps, Richard. The sales figures will tell the true story.

I have both a nook and Kindle (no a freebies, I paid for them). I don't use either right now. This does not count the additional eBook readers purchased as gifts. All in I may have purchased 5 ebook readers. I see no reason to ever by another dedicated eBook reader. Instead I'll just buy a tablet (maybe) for now my my cracked screen iPhone 4 is good enough. I also have all the eBook reader aps on my phone -- including the Kobo. I've never downed and read a Kobo book, has anyone? Overtime, I've discovered that I prefer the printed book. On the rare occasions when I feel the need to carry multiple books. I simply carry the multiple books. Sure it is cool to have hundreds, or thousands, of books at your disposal, but that is over-kill. One or two at my disposal is generally good enough for me. The only time I download ebooks now is if I want to check out some author I never heard of or if I want to take advantage of a freebie. Usually I never get to the free ebook and actually read it. I generally opt for the printed book I actual purchased or obtained from the publisher. I no longer keep most of my books donated them selling them or otherwise giving someone else the benefit of the books contents is a big deal.

Richardmurry, you are right but keep in mind the game is rigged against small sites in a way that it was not just a few years ago. I've written a lot about this over the last two years and will give folks another example in a different post. The only reason I have a chance in 2014 is that AALBC.com is old and big. Plus, I'm passionate about the subject, keep overhead low and have some technical skill. In 2014 I'm working on building community support for what I establishing more partnerships with like minded entities. Xeon, we have lost a lot over the last few years. In 17 years I rarely deleted posts. One time I had to delete posts from someone posting as a known journalist. Sometimes I would delete posts of people who just blatantly pirated complete articles from another indie sites. Occasionally I've had to delete images that were just too graphic, XXX in nature. Xeon, I've even been banned by Google for serving ads in the old Thumper's Corner, because it violated their "standards" I looked at the pages most Kola Boof's rants. But instead of removing the offending posts I removed the Google Ads. I HATED Google telling me what I could post, and preemptively banning the site. Sure I lost revenue, but keeping the site's freedom was more important. Now Kola Boof is doing her thing on Face book and no longer posts here. As Cynique would say, "...and so it goes." I simply do not believe in banning posters. If I want to go somewhere were no one disagrees with me I'll go to Facebook.

Amiri Baraka, former N.J. poet laureate and prolific author, dead at 79 Read more coverage AALBC.com mourns the loss of Amiri Baraka. Here is a short documentary we produced on his work. Baraka does not appear the the video, but it will help your appreciate the magnitude and scope of his work.

DT I think you've hit on something man. I think if you got a pro to do you cover design I'd be willing to bet your sales would improve dramatically. I like the premise, the price and length is right (I would avoid discount to $0 -- anybody can spend 99 cents).

Thanks Richard. Here is Yarboroughs song Take 'Yo Praise: Here is Fat Boy Slim's Version I have to admit he did a good job with the remix, of course all the soul has been removed but it is more danceable and he briefly exposed Yarbrough to a new audience.

Hi Cynique, yes there is a reason. Here is the long winded version :-) As you know I started working on AALBC.com back in October of 1997 it was not exactly the high point of African American Literature, there simply were not a lot of books written by or featuring Black characters and stories. I could easily keep up with all the Black books that were published back then. A few years later, there was a surge in the number of Black books being published. This was driven by the success of self published authors like E. Lynn Harris and Terry McMillian. Advances in technology was like pouring gasoline on a fire. The growth in the number of Black books literally exploded. For a time Black writers truly benefited. Today most of that benefit, and I mean financial benefit, accrues to a handful of large corporations. Black writers are, in my opinion, worse off collectively than they were in 1997. This is not hyperbole. Since writers are worse off readers are worse off as well. I have faith (hence the new profile photo), that this will change. But we have so far to go. First we have to really understand that no corporation has our best interest at heart--especially this ones profiting the most. The only way we will turn this around is to do what E. Lynn and Terry did back in the 1990's and that is do it ourselves. But McMillan and Harris had it easier in the 1990's, than we will have it moving forward, they did not have to compete against social media (the opiate of the masses) to garner readers. , There is absolutely nothing we can do on some social media platform that will benefit us collectively. Until people recognize this, and more importantly care, things will only get worse for Black writers, readers and Black culture. Reversing the trend will take effort, sacrifice, money and organization. This holiday season, I was looking at Maulana Karenga's Seven Principles of Kwanzaa and realized, for the first time, what they meant for Black people. I just thought of Kwanzaa as some replacement for Christmas, made up in the 1960's, by some uber-afro-centric dude. I was not until I got off the corporate plantation (working in corporate America) and begin working as an entrepreneur in the Black community that I realized that much of what ails could be quickly remedied by adhering to the principles of Kwanzaa. I changed my profile photo to the symbol for the 7th day of Kwanzaa Imani (Faith). I figured it would give me an opportunity to talk about these principals to anyone who asked what it meant. I saw this video for the first time the past weekend. Here H. Rap Brown (Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin) talks to Gil Nobel about way it will take to organize Black people. Interview is about 1/2 a century old, but could be given today and have even more relevance. Brown headed SNCC after Stokley Carmichael.

As I listen to Vaughan sing Snowbound I key my reply I see now why your videos do not embed directly. You are using the shorten URL which look more like this which is what you get when you select the sharing code in youtube. The best thing to do is simply copy the URL in the address bar at the top of your browser. The weather is pretty odd. December 22nd it hit 70 in NYC, obliterating the previous record by 8 degrees. Monday it as 55 degrees, which melted all the snow from a storm two days prior that dropped about 8 inches of snow. Today, we will likely break the record low which is 6 degrees. I can't even wrap my head around the Chitown weather multiple days of snow, -16 degree temperature and winter has just started! It will take a lot more than Sarah Vaughan ain't enough to pull me through that.

In I noticed there were hundreds of books that I've sold, over the last three years, through Amazon's affiliate program, for a penny! I, as the book seller, don't make any money (commissions on a $0.01 sale is $0.00) and the author does not make any extra money--that is assuming they made royalties off the book in the first place. I have to believe some of these books selling for a penny never made it into the marketplace. The the only entities who profit off of these sales are the shipping companies and Amazon. While the book costs one cent the shipping cost is usually $3.99, which is where the profit is generated. At any rate, I've listed below a few of most popular books that are selling for a penny, on AALBC.com. All of the books have made multiple appearances on AALBC.com bestsellers lists and are excellent reads. As far as I'm concerned if this model gets good books into the hands of readers that might not otherwise get to these books I'm all for it. There are enough people who pay full price and these secondary markets would not exist without them. Age Ain't Nothing but a Number: Black Women Explore Midlife Edited by Carleen Brice A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines One in a Million by Kimberla Lawson Roby Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns: Stories by J. California Cooper

I'm trying to better understand why eBook sales, relative to everything else, I sell, in particular physical books, has not shown any additional growth despite growing rapidly from nothing starting in 2009. The table below shows the average sales price of physical books and Kindle eBooks sold on AALBC.com. These figures do not include products "sold" for free (priced at $0). The range in prices for ebooks, during the three year period, was $0.79 to $29.99 and the range for physical books books sold was $0.01 to $133.99. As you can see the average price of eBooks has actually gone down each of the last two years (down 23% since 2011), while the average price of a physical book has gone up each year (up 15% since 2011). Now that the average eBook costs less than half of the price of a physical book, one would think eBook sales whould have continued to climb ever higher relative to physical books. Despite increasingly lower prices ebook sales have not grown relative to physical book sales. There is one other factor to consider my sales of the Kindle eReader is way down in 2013, compared to 2011. I suspect everyone who wants an eReader has one. Or if they want one they can't afford it in this economy despite Amazon's aggressive pricing (Kindle Fire starts at just $139 and the Kindle dedicated eReader is only 69 bucks). If you are wondering, as was I, what ebook is selling for three times the price of the average physical book, this is it (price subjects to change). This is the most expensive physical book sold. There were tons of physical books that sold for a penny I have shared the most popular ones in a different conversation.

Here is a summary of my relative book versus eBook sales from Amazon's affiliate program for 2009 through 2013. The graph does not reveal revenue generated or units sold, but it does show the mix of book, ebooks and other everything else sold, via the Amazon affiliate program, over the last 5 years. Interpret the graph this way, if I sold 100 products in 2009, 81 of them would have been books, one would have been an eBook and 18 would have been anything from a curling iron to a flash drive. You can see that eBooks, as a percentage of everything else sold, has not changed from 2012 to 2013. The explosive growth of ebooks relative to physical books, on AALBC.com, over the previous theee years has slowed dramatically. The literature I've read indicates that the same trend is true industry wide. Over all, the number of items sold was down 19% compared with 2012. Unfortunately revenues decreased more sharply as commissions on ebooks (often selling for 0.99 cents), dwarf commissions generated by physical books.

More from Facebook. It is so pathetic that I have to copy conversation from Facebook here so that I can maintain an archive of the conversation. Oh well... Guichard Cadet Publishing acquired too many middlemen (stakeholders) as we gained technological advances. Troy Johnson Guichard how so? Traditionally, in addition to the writer, you had the agent, publisher (marketing/promotions/advertising, editorial, design, accounting), printer, delivery, distributor, bookseller. In today's world, due to technological advances, the author can do everything, which is not working out in our favor. Guichard Cadet Let's use Amazon as the example since they're the ones that really shook up the industry. My first encounter with Amazon was around 1998...but it might have been as early as 1996. I used to operate La Caille Nous at the time. So, I was both a publisher of other writers and of my own writings. As the web became populated with websites, a lot online stores and publications sprung up, as well as marketers (reviewers, bookselling events, book clubs, etc...). Each of these individuals were working from a fee or percentage basis, none of them had done as the publisher or a brick & mortar store; in that, none had made a financial investment to receive profits from the book. A publisher was still grossing no more than 45% to 50% from each book sold to a distributor, large retailer or Amazon. Yet, each new stakeholder introduced a new cost into the selling (marketing) process of a book. The first to fall was the independent bookstore, the print reviewers, Borders, etc...These new stakeholders segmented the marketplace with most of their sales being channeled (un/knowingly) to sellers like Amazon, Wal-mart, etc... Troy Johnson I'm still really not clear on what you mean. But I will agree that Amazon shook up the industry it is one of the reasons I stopped selling books direct -- people just wanted the lowest price and really did not care about anything else. We are rapidly approaching a point where books will only be available online, from Amazon. Given our behavior it appears this is what most of us want--that is until Amazon starts to increase prices due to the lack of competition. Initially technology was an enabler, today technology is used a a means of controlling the vast majority of us. We used to have a choice. I'm on Facebook contributing content here for free not because I want to be here, but because this is where everyone is now. We enrich Facebook and Amazon at our own expense. Guichard Cadet As you know, Amazon and Facebook operate differently. FB is killing print advertising or independent online advertising. Amazon had a long-term plan though it was not obvious in the beginning, or they came up on it by accident. In the beginning, there was "Amazon Advantage" for small publishers. The cost was $45 per year and they handled everything except shipping. From there they created, this new costlier model for which and many other small publishers bailed. When they saw our initial response, Amazon turned to the Affiliate Model where anyone could sell a publisher's book...that was the beginning of the end. I still have that account but have never bothered to set it up though I have links to them on blogs, etc...It was at this time that many of the new stakeholders had a choice/chance to take a stand. Why affiliate with Amazon, when you already had a database of contacts with nearly all of the new independent Black presses and writers? For example, I still have my catalog of books. I still could use a tech-savvy person to restart, as can many of the former presses and writers who are still trying to make it happen. Imagine your company being the the exclusive online channel for dozens of independent presses...and Amazon having to contact your company to get our books. Troy Johnson Guichard, we both go way back. I still have your old page online: http://aalbc.com/writers/lacaille.htm (though I need to update it). Your idea is an excellent one and seemingly a no-brainer. Basically we have exclusive products that Amazon can not under cut because they don't have them. Here is the problem. Please will not buy from us. They will simply buy a different product from Amazon. I've been down this road before. Indeed I trying to execute on this strategy now with embarrassingly dismal results. We have a site called the Power List we research on African American reading habits and publish a bestsellers list each quarter, which is taking more time than I hoped to gain traction, but that is another story. At any rate after the second list we went with a Black book seller to fulfill online book sales. Guess how many people transacted after sending over 1,500 potential customers--zero. When I was using Amazon, B&N and Indiebound. 8% of the visitors converted (purchased books). All of the sales from Amazon-- from B&N or Indiebound. I could go on. But the issues are profound -- even this conversation would have taken place on my site today I serve at the largess of facebook, without compensation..

Comments from Facebook: Chris Burns It is a hard task both writing and reading. The author is correct, but the primary problem IS the large publishing house. They created a hierarchy in the publishing world. The process of publishing through traditional methods with a book that isn't Fifty Shades of provocative, or self help is becoming harder and if you literally don't know someone, even good work goes in the slush pile. It's very hard to build a career. Even if your writing shows growth and direction, without gaining access to publishing you are left trying to figure the world out. Self publishing is not a help when so many books are available and the person with the most time becomes the most successful. I keep telling myself to get dedicated to the business, but when there are only losses and no monetary benefits, it's hard to remain interested in the literary world. Claxton Graham Great points, Chris Burns. There are very few, if any, major houses today that even accept submissions unless they come through an agent. And although the proliferation of e-readers has made it much easier for writers to get their work published, it has also subjected readers to work that shouldn't have been published in the first place. Much as I'd love to pursue publishing a novel, you're right that it's darn near impossible to do so unless you know people int he business. It's disheartening. Melody Guy There are fewer places to sell books as well. No Borders, fewer indies, B&N closing locations. And that in turn affects what gets published. But I think there is a lot of opportunity in terms of writers being able to connect directly to the reader. But that is an investment of time and resources. Chris Burns Melody there in lies the problem, time and resources. If you have any sort of responsibilities it becomes very difficult to spend the time "networking" to get people to take a chance on your book. To advertise and then send copies to bookclubs or to publishers for getting published traditionally, it's expensive on both fronts. Like Claxton said, it's disheartening. I can't speak for others but in regard to my "writing career" I've been at it since 95. I even did what is consider correct: BA in English, MFA in Creative Writing, practiced my craft and studied... and ready voraciously. I even had an agent, but I have never really made a dent in this industry. Eventually I became a professor and then I stopped teaching and left the arts completely other than running the blog on a very part time basis. I know for a fact that my writing is good, but I could never catch a break and life got in the way. If you are self publishing it takes money, if you are submitting to publishers and agents, it takes money. I guess I'd like to end this on a positive note; some people are making a living and my inability to do so does not diminish the fact that some people are doing well.

This article is so on point. Needless to say, everything this writer points out as a problem is hyper-exaggerated in the Black community. I see a few indications that things may be turning around; (1) eBooks sales appears to be slowing down. for example, eBooks sales as a percentage of total books sales, on AALBC.com, for 2013 looks like it will be lower than 2012. I'm still compiling my information, but I've already read other articles suggesting that eBooks sales have flattened out; (2) readers may be suffering from social media fatigue, which will pick up as social media platforms ramp up on advertising, and readers realize that the “mirroring” of existing tastes hamper the discovery anything new (which the author writes about); (3) more complaining by people about the adverse impact of the domination of the book industry by a handful of corporations is raising awareness among readers which may prompt more action. But this is very little. In my opinion, the short term prospects, especially in the Black community, are grim. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I suspect things will get worse before the get better.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Reader The convergence of several trends leaves the book-buying public out in the cold. by Colin Robinson, co-publisher of OR Books. “TO read a novel is a difficult and complex art,” Virginia Woolf wrote in a 1925 essay, “How to Read a Book.” Today, with our powers of concentration atrophied by the staccato communication of the Internet and attention easily diverted to addictive entertainment on our phones and tablets, book-length reading is harder still. It’s not just more difficult to find the time and focus that a book demands. Longstanding allies of the reader, professionals who have traditionally provided guidance for those picking up a book, are disappearing fast. The broad, inclusive conversation around interesting titles that such experts helped facilitate is likewise dissipating. Reading, always a solitary affair, is increasingly a lonely one. A range of related factors have brought this to a head. Start with the publishing companies: Overall book sales have been anemic in recent years, declining 6 percent in the first half of 2013 alone. But the profits of publishers have remained largely intact; in the same period only one of what were then still the “big six” trade houses reported a decline on its bottom line. This is partly because of the higher margins on e-books. But it has also been achieved by publishers cutting costs, especially for mid-list titles. Read the rest of this article at the NY Times.

Wanda Coleman (Nov. 13, 1946 – Nov. 22, 2013) Often things get past me. I just learned today that Wanda Coleman passed. I share the news hear because she is definitely "An Author You Should Know" I'm sorry I never got the opportunity to meet Wanda in person. Just check out her work. As you can see she was only 67, which seems to so young...

Richard, while fiscal management is always important, every bookstore's situation is different. From my observations poor fiscal management does not explain the entire story when looking at the relative success of a bookstores in general and the demise of Black owned indie stores in particular. For example McNally Jackson was started by Sarah McNally who parents ran the largest book store chain in Canada, McNally Robinson (a photo of the inside of the one of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan stored is pictured below). As a result, New York City's McNally Jackson started with experience, resources, connections and expertise few other bookstores start with. As a result, the have room to experiment and take chances that others stores can not afford. The can also withstand deeper shocks the the economy that most other bookstores can't matter how well they are run. Rizzoli Bookstore is housed in an expensive piece of real estate, in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the country. It is beyond me how a bookstore can cover the overhead of even the physical plant. I see from their website they also run a publishing company so that may explain it but clearly. But clearly something else is going on to keep that bookstore running.