New Novel from Louis Edwards, Eloise Greenfield Passes, How AALBC Sells Books, and More - 8/11/2021

[Daylian]

Award-winning author Louis Edwards makes his long-awaited comeback with this epic tale of a New Orleans boy whose very creation is so filled with tension that it bedevils his destiny before he is even born. Spanning from the Deep South to the Middle East, Ramadan Ramsey bridges multiple countries and cultures, entwining two families who struggle to love and survive in the face of war, natural disasters, and their equally tumultuous, private mistakes and yearnings. More ▶

AALBC Mourns the Passing of Eloise Greenfield

Eloise Greenfield (May 17, 1929 – August 5, 2021) was famous for her descriptive, rhythmic style and positive portray al of the black experience. She published approximately 50 books for children over the course of her illustrious and trailblazing career. “…my mission has been to write for children and to try to enhance their love for words, because I think that children are all born with this love for language and words, and I want to enhance that. I want make them laugh. I want to give them ideas. I want them to see how beautiful they are. I want them to be reflected their work … I want them to love literature.” —Eloise Greenfield

Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement and the Klan Partner

The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South by Osha Gray Davidson C. P. Ellis grew up in the poor white section of Durham, North Carolina, and as a young man joined the Ku Klux Klan. Ann Atwater, a single mother from the poor black part of town, quit her job as a household domestic to join the civil rights fight. During the 1960s, as the country struggled with the explosive issue of race, Ellis and Atwater met on opposite sides of the public school integration issue. Their encounters were charged with hatred and suspicion. In an amazing set of transformations, however, each of them came to see how the other had been exploited by the South’s rigid power structure, and they forged a friendship that flourished against a backdrop of unrelenting bigotry. The film adaption of this book is now on streaming on Netflix. I watched it last night and found it to be a moving story. More ▶

AALBC’s Black Wall Street Pop-Up Bookstore is Thriving!

Books are selling fast at The Black Wall Street Bookstore, in the historic Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Ok. Business has also been bolstered by visitors, from all over the country, to the Greenwood Rising museum which opened across the street last week. Local readers are super sophisticated quickly recognizing many of the classic titles and important authors whose book are offered for sale.

It is one thing to sell books on the web and understand the impact your have on readers, but to actually see a child’s eyes light up with the excitement of seeing and holding a book full of wonderful images and words gives me a awesome feeling! Please keep spreading the word about AALBC and purchasing books from us. Your support helps us bring smiles to the faces of children all over the country.

International Royal Music & Art Festival Festival (Sept. 11 & 12, Fresno, Texas)

The 2021 International Royal Music & Art is set to be an acclaimed cross-genre experience inspired by the historic Woodstock Festival. This interactive festival will feature 7 Pavilions with Music, Film, Fashion, Art, Literary, Health, and Business. Live performances will include Grammy Award Nominee, singer/songwriter, Chanté Moore and Grammy Award Nominee & Black Girls Rock Awards performer, rapper/singer/songwriter, Maimouna Youssef aka “Mumu Fresh.” Our Literary Pavilion special invited guests include “The Money Coach,” New York Time Best-selling Author and TV personality, Lynnette Khalfani-Cox* and Troy Johnson, the founder of AALBC. Additional special guest performers and celebrities will be announced.

AALBC Sells Books, in All Formats, Through Partnerships

AALBC is able to sell the physical books we showcase, on our website, because of a wide variety of important partnerships with distributors and publishers including; Black Classic Press; Africa World Press & The Red Sea Press; Lushena Books; and Ingram. Audiobooks sales are done through our partnership with Libro.fm. Libro.fm’s audiobooks service is objectively superior to Audible (owned by am*zon), because when you buy audiobook from Libro.fm you own them — even it you cancel your subscription. Libro.fm is also Social Purpose Corporation (SPC) who has demonstrated a commitment to serving readers and independent booksellers, like AALBC. AALBC currently partners with a My Must Reads for the sale of eBooks. They offer a fine alternative to the Kindle eBook (owned by am*zon). To sell books that are not in our store we use Bookshop.org. Bookshop gives the bookseller the entire profit margin. Yes, you read that correctly, Bookshop doesn’t earn money off sales generated by booksellers. All profit from the sales we refer come back to AALBC. This is almost 10 times what am*zon.com offers booksellers! Bookshop.org is in the process of being certified as a Benefit Corporations (B-Corp), so they are very serious about supporting independent booksellers. Often, readers would like to support AALBC with the purchase of a book that we do not showcase on our online store. Bookshop allows us to profit from the sales of these books too. The best way to buy a book not showcased on AALBC, and support our site, is to visit this page. There you can search for, and purchase, over 15 million different titles. Readers, by supporting indie booksellers, and the businesses who support us, you are ensuring that stores like AALBC can continue to grow and that our stories and history is told with fidelity. In a world where a single company (am*zon) dominates the sales of physical books, e-books, and audiobooks the entire book ecosystem is put at a disadvantage in terms of discoverability of books and revenue to the professionals who make books possible. Authors, if your books, eBooks, and Audiobooks are only available from am*zon, independent booksellers, even online booksellers like AALBC, can not buy them to sell in our stores. This is by design, as it provides a strong incentive to send readers to am*zon. This further strengthens am*zon and weakens the rest of the book ecosystem, and readers are less well served as a result.

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Dear Reader, I don’t normally dedicate so much newsletter space to the business of books, but the subject of am*zon’s control over the book industry is important. Independent booksellers provide a variety of services, both online and in the real world, that am*zon simply does not. The only way to ensure we do not continue to lose (and we have lost a great deal in the Black book ecosystem) is to use our power and directly support independent booksellers. Consider it a direct investment in the preservation of our culture and institutions. As always, you are why I’ve been able to make AALBC the premier online platform for books by, or about, Black people. Your paid subscription, book purchases, suggestions, engagement on the site, commenting, social sharing, and advertisements helps support AALBC’s mission to celebrate Black books and authors. Peace and Love, Troy Johnson Founder & Webmaster, AALBC.com

This Newsletter was Sponsored by Amistad Books Consider sponsoring our eNewsletter or a dedicated mailing. ★ AALBC.com eNewsletter – August 11, 2021 - Issue #332