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Help Select AALBC.com's New Bestselling Book Seal


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Recently, an author wrote me to confirm that she was an "AALBC.com Bestselling Author."  I assured her she was and directed her to her page.  (One of the benefits of the new site design is that this info is managed in real time and is so much easier to manage.)

She thanked me and told e she just wanted to be sure before she used the fact to promote her next book.  I told her I wish every AALBC.com Bestselling author share her insight and enthusiasm for the accomplishment.

We both reflected that AALBC.com is the only entity that maintains a regularly updated bestsellers list.  The is the 20th year I've maintained a list.  The first Bestsellers list was published in 1998.  Back in 1998, There was the Blackboard Bestsellers list, which was taken over by Essence who ran it for a few years, and dropped it a few years later. Black Expressions Book Club also had a bestsellers list, but all of these have been defunct for years.  I even worked with a few other booksellers to produce a brand new list called the Power List, but after 2 1/2 years and a failure to gain any real traction, we abandoned the project--it simply was not worth the extra effort required to maintain it.  

She suggested that I create an AALBC.com seal.  If was like a light went off and I said to myself--why did I not think of that sooner? In fact, I recall just prior to launching the Power List a publishing industry veteran suggested that I just do an AALBC.com bestsellers list.  I continued with the Power List simply because I wanted to try to leverage the collaboration of multiple sites.

Well, that is some of the history of Black Bestselling Books lists.  In fact, the story is far more interesting, but those are stories for another day.

These are the finalists for the AALBC.com Bestselling Book Seal
Please let me know which one(s) you like the most and why.  Personally, I like two of them, and two of them I'm not even considering.

aalbc-bestseller-logo.jpg

 

 

 

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In order, I like 1, 3. 6. 4, 2, and 5

I'm partial to blue and simplicity is elegant. 1 has a bold, standout element in the black BESTSELLER wording. 3 calls attention to AALBC and is very clean. 6 has that banner across it, which makes it seem more official. 

I hope this helps.

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It looks like I'll need to try to incorporate the best elements of each design. 

I really appreciate the feedback. You all raised issues I had not considered

I just placed these seal on the bestselling fiction book for the current period, Provenance: A Novel by Donna Drew Sawyer.  To get a better idea of how these seals look in use. 

Looking at the images this way. I'm leaning to #1 because the word "Bestseller" is legible and the logo can be made out if you are familiar with it.  I don't think the logo should be more prominent than bestseller, but it is still recognizable if you are familiar with it.

I liked #2's but the design, while it is unique, it looks less serious (ignore the bad crop), but that could just be my 50-year-old brain.   I wonder what a millennial would think about it?  Shaniqka were you born between 1980 and 200 (roughly)   I liked #6 when it was large but at this size, it is completely illegible.

I do like the idea of putting the year in the seal Mel.  

I'm beginning to wonder if having the words "Africam American Literature Book Club" on the seal is necessary. What do you y'all think about that?

Maybe a variation of Number 6 where the word bestseller is more prominent, but I'm thinking the printed (peel and stick) version of number #6 would be more expensive that the others which are pure circles.

I'll drop further consideration of any variation on #5. No one liked it.

1.jpg  2.jpg  3.jpg  4.jpg  5.jpg  6.jpg9781595586438.jpg

 

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