Authors Let AALBC.com Maintain Your Official Web Presence

[Troy]

Everyone who is a regular visitor to AALBC.com's forums knows I'm on a mission to help Black folks maintain control of some portion of the web--especially where our stories are concerned.

Currently, the majority of authors who email me information about their books do not have their own web site.  

This was not always the case.  Despite websites being easier and cheaper than ever to maintain, authors are increasingly not creating websites for themselves.  Obviously, the popularity of Amazon and Facebook is one of the reasons authors have begun using a Facebook or Amazon as their main web presence.  

Of the two, Amazon is far better than Facebook, if the author creates an Amazon Central Account (something I currently recommend that authors do). But Amazon is extremely limited in the features they provide for authors--you can't even add hyperlinks.  

Facebook is simply not a website, and I won't bore you explaining why.

The weaknesses of both, from the author's perspective, is that they are optimized to maximize their own revenue. Uplifting, empowering, and enriching the Black community--any community--is simply not part of their mission.

The features available on @CDBurns, AALBC.com page (http://ChrisDBurns.com) are simply not provided by Amazon or Facebook.  

In fact, I could provide so much more if I had more support from the authors I'm attempting to benefit.  It is an investment in our community.

Over the last ten years, we have lost an incredible number of Black-owned bookstores and Black book websites. Our prodigious engagement on Facebook has been a terrible substitute for what we've lost. 

But the main problem is that we have given the very control of our online culture to a handful of powerful corporations.

Join the fight against corporate dominance of the website and use AALBC.com as your primary web presence.

 

 

[CDBurns]

I'm adding this to the site asap. It's a great tool for authors who don't want to maintain their presence and hosting.

[Guest Elva D. Green]

Hi Troy, Can I transfer my site www.pininthetush.com to a permanent spot on AALBC? How? This is Elva Green, author of Eddie Green The Rise of an Early 1900s Black American Entertainment Pioneer.

[Troy]

Hi Elva, the process is pretty simple.  Your AALBC.com URL is https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Elva+Diane+Green

But this service is designed for authors who have no web presence or are using Facebook or Amazon as their primary web presence. Your site https://pininthetush.com/ is already a very nice looking, content rich site.  In this case, I would not recommend this particular service for you.  

But maybe I'm missing something; what specifically are you trying to accomplish?

 

[Elva D. Green]

I am probably the one missing something. This technology boggles my mind. I am trying to set up my site (pininthetush) or a site where  I can post speaking engagement dates, testimonials, reviews, links to my publisher on the landing page. Can I do that on my AALBC url?, which I just recently realized I had. Something like chopeclark.com's website (just an example).

I will look into finding a different "design" for the .com I now have. Thank you for taking the time to help me out here.