Troy

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.

Someone shared their favorite bookstore with me on Google+ Unfortunately this family owned store, Russo's Book in Bakersfield, CA will be closing at the end of this month.

All of these stores are located in New York City. Rizzoli Bookstore: “The Most Beautiful Bookstore in New York” this is their tag line, but you know what—I agree. The store is spectacular. It is located at 31 West 57th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, in New York City. After looking at the books in this store you truly understand why physical books can never go away. One of the joys of being in NYC is that I can walk there in under an hour, walking virtually the entire way through central park. The video, by the way, does not do the store justice. Strand Book Store, New York City's legendary home of 18 Miles of new, used and rare books. Since 1927. I'm often in this store—usually selling books nowadays but I often went to this store as a kid as there used book prices books I would not normally by accessible. This is one of those humongous bookstore that you can wander around it for hours. There was an article in the in my local paper which said this store made more money on December 23rd that any other day in it's 80 year history! They did not say how much. But trust me, I'm sure the figure was more than many other independent bookstores make in an entire year. McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince Street, New York City. McNally Jackson is the newest of the three stores mentioned and is less than 10 years old. Being relatively new it does not have the character of the first two stores I mentioned, but it is a solid bookstore with all the trappings of a modern store, a cafe, Wifi, etc. “Jackson,” is a Brother, who used to live across the street from me. It does no appear he is still associated with the store I could not find an official promotional video for McNally Jackson, like the other stores, so instead of using using someone else's video, I used one I shot during a reading Victor LaValle gave from his novel Big Machine back in 2009 I'm sure someone is wondering why I'm “Big Upping” these stores since they are not Black owned. Well I need a respite from griping about all the Black owned independent closing and struggling. Plus I feel like I'm the only one complaining and I need to talk about some positive things—it is good for the soul. This site is about books and each of these stores are all terrific in their own, unique ways. Besides as majority owned stores prosper I have to believe that bodes well for a well run Black owned store in the near future...right? I could have very easily did this for Washington D.C., one of my other favorite book cities in the country. What is your favorite bookstore? If it is Black owned please check to see if it is in my database -- if not I will add it.

I actually use Cash4books from time to time. There is even a cool app that allows you to scan the bar code of a book, with your cell phone, and see how much you will get for it as you compile the list of books you are sending in. They even pay for shipping the books. Of course the free shipping is built into the price they give you for the books. And I imagine the "extra"10% may be built into what they give you for the book as well, but I recommend the service if you can use a few extra bucks the service is certainly worth checking it out.

Really nice to read the perspective of someone who was here back then Xeon. I HAD to change the software I was using for the boards. It was so much work to keep the spammers away. Then the server would get full and crash the boards. These boards get spammed every day too but I can ban the poster and remove all the posts with a click of a mouse. Speaking of YouTube, I get some crazy, racist posts on my YouTube videos but I never complain about them and I very rarely delete any. It is really too bad Youtube tried to ban you. The whole process is completely arbitrary and needless to say skewed against free expression. Thanks for popping by.

"With a career in the performing arts that has spanned a lifetime the acclaimed singer, actress, poet, activist, television producer and author, Camille Yarbrough is an influential figure still producing. Not long ago, Yarbrough had a re-release of her album The Iron Pot Cooker, made into CD, for a new generation of fans anxious to get some of Yarbrough's music and wisdom in their souls. Along with release of her new CD came the title from Spin Magazine that Camille Yarbrough is "the foremother of hip hop" and rightfully so, for she's inspired a generation of poets and musicians through her lyrics and passion as a dramatic and poetic performer." --DuEwa M. Frazier Read more about NANA CAMILLE YARBROUGH

I'm also looking for the articles where this author is held responsible to shaming her entire race. 100K downloads!? DT Pollard I see an opportunity, man ;-)

Yes it is Monster Porn (no I'm not making this up). Cum For Bigfoot It began in December of 2011. A stay-at-home mother from Parker, Colo., Wade had no ambition to be a published author and no real writing experience other than a few attempts at historical romance in the mid-90s. But then, she says, "I got this crazy idea for a story." So she sat down and wrote the entire book — more of a novella, at just 12,000 words — in a matter of weeks. She never even considered trying to sell it to a mainstream publisher. Instead, she went directly to Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, an online platform for self-publishing with a 70% royalty rate for authors. (The average royalty percentage for authors with mainstream publishers is between 8 and 15%.) "Cum For Bigfoot" wasn't an overnight best-seller. "The first month, I think I made $5," Wade admits. But over the course of 2012, the book was downloaded well over 100,000 times. "And that was just Amazon," she says. "That's not counting iTunes or Barnes & Noble or any of the other places that sell self-published books." With no marketing muscle, no bookstore tours or print reviews or any of the publicity that most top authors use to sell books, she started bringing in staggering profits. During her best months, she says, she netted $30,000 or more. At worst, she'd bank around six grand — "nothing to complain about," she says. Read the entire article Read the full article: http://www.businessinsider.com/monster-porn-amazon-crackdown-sex-fantasy-bigfoot-2013-12#ixzz2ojgb5oJi

Cynique you are thinking of Lola Ogunnaike. She emailed me, way back when, and said she was being impersonated on the boards. No doubt Kola Boof was all over that conversation. But I can't prove anything. Oh and speaking about the "lascivious" photos posted by Kola -- Google dropped me from serving ads for a couple of weeks for the obscene photos she posted. I had to remove two or three before they let me serve ads again. But yeah those were the good old days :-) mosaicbooks, aw man the discussion forums are the exact opposite of editorial content (). If they reflected my views they would not be nearly as interesting. Besides the idea that you know what a PAWG is tells me something about your sensibilities. .

Technology and Falling Literacy Rates Are Writing an End to Black-Owned Bookstores by Frederick H. Lowe The number of African-American-owned bookstores has dropped significantly since the late 1970s and 1980s due to a variety of factors, including corporate control of the Internet, waning literacy and fiscal mismanagement. In the 1970s and 1980s, more than 1,000 black-owned bookstores were in business in the United States. Now only slightly more than 100, possibly 116 to 117, if that many, remain open, according to Troy Johnson, founder of the African American Literature Book Club (AALBC.com), which is based in New York. Read the whole article I'm glad when anyone brings this issue to the forefront.

From time to time I review the queries that drive traffic to the website. Once such query is for the term "PAWG." I was unfamiliar with the term and searched for it until I found my my site (an earlier version of Thumper's Corner) where I found this conversation: Black men do you ignore PAWGS? Cynique, I'd actually forgotten how wild y'all used to get I miss those days...before the corporate take over of the net. Can you image a conversation like that on, say, Facebook today? Assuming you got past the sensors and the prudes, it is still technically impossible because of the restrictions on what people are permitted to do social media. There is so much less freedom on social media today than there is on the broader internet. Somehow we are placated with only the "thumbs up" -- when so many of us really want to use a thumbs down, but we can't. Where else can you have a conversation in which a photo of a PAWG and Kathleen Cleaver are used?

Visit: http://www.putonblast.com, click the “Sign Up Now” button and select “POB! Main List (Arts & Activism)” box at the bottom of the form and be sure to put Troy Johnson or AALBC.com in the section that asks “How did you learn about us?” In return, AALBC.com will be shouted out to the POB (Put on Blast) Arts & Activism audience.

http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/documents/KwanzaaUsandtheWell-beingoftheWorld12-13-12.pdf

1,968 Winters Got up this morning feeling good & black Thinking black thoughts Did black things Played all my black records And minded my own black bidness Put on my best black clothes Walked out my black door And Lawd have mercy White Snow! --Jackie Earley http://voltagepoetry.com/2012/10/31/glenis-redmonds-exploring-the-imagistic-turn-in-jackie-earleys-1968-winters/ ...2,014 Winters Merry Christmas Everyone!

By the way, none of these video clips are educational or informative, in the least. They are entertainment, plain and simple.

"People are at the mercy of trends and cycles and are just along for the ride." This is so true. Al and Ann Laughing all the way to the bank... Cynique, I don't think I can think of two people more different than Sowell and Sharpton. I can completely understand why some Black folks, including Cornell West, have called Rev Al a sell out. It appears that he has become just that. But I suspect, the vast majority of us in Al's position would do the same thing in order to become a TV personality, have access to Obama and weild whatever power he can exert from his role as the leader of the National Action Network. Sowell does not seem to do much besides write articles which are not read by too many Black people. So on some level it is difficult to assess Sowell's impact on the Black community, relative to Rev. Al.

It hit 71 degrees here in the Big Apple yesterday, obliterating the previous record, for that date, by 8 degrees. Tomorrow snow is expected. The axis maybe tilting away from the sun, here in the northern hemisphere, but the thermometer did not get the memo.