| Author | Message | ||
     Thumper Veteran Poster Username: Thumper Post Number: 853 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
Hello All, There is more controversy surrounding the Essence's Bestseller's list. I have known about the controversy concerning who rightfully owned it, who created it and how it was compiled for a number of years now. Yesterday, a friend of mine sent me a link to an article which questions the validity of Essence's Bestsellers list, http://www.theurbanbooksource.com/editorials/taintedbestsellerlist.php. There's something rotten in the cotton. | ||
| Carey AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Carey Post Number: 2096 Registered: 05-2004 Rating: N/A |
Well my nappy happy naptown friend, I am sure you have an opinion about this. In fact, if I was a betting man, I would bet that you've noticed a few of the "inconsistencies" mentioned in the link? I know you have the sweetest of hookups and thus, do not have to buy all your books like common folk but I would bet you know a little something about the Essence's Bestseller's list? Come on, drop it. I've heard it said we should watch the dog that brings us the bone. I don't know how that saying fits in this discussion but it felt good to say it *lol*. | ||
| Cynique "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Cynique Post Number: 13966 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
Is there anything about ESSENCE magazine that isn't superficial? All it is is a glamourous catalog with a few insipid articles interdispersed between the ads. It figures this slick magazine would provide a show case for books it is willing to promote as bestsellers. | ||
| Emanuel Veteran Poster Username: Emanuel Post Number: 706 Registered: 03-2004 Rating: N/A |
That rumor has been out there for years. I spoke with an author who told me from personal experience that you can buy your way onto the list. I'm sure there are several other lists that are tainted as well. Money talks. You can buy a good review and buy your way to a bestseller list. | ||
| Troy AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Troy Post Number: 1890 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
I'm not saying that the Essence list uses a fair, unbiased process that is immune to tampering. I would however be surprised and honestly, very disappointed if it was determined that one could "buy" their way on to "The List" (Essence's) by paying someone at Essence. We do know that authors shedule readings at reporting stores to get their way onto the list. We also know that the list is skewed toward the population who buys from the reproting stores and their inventory. Which is a tremendous distortion of the books people are actually buying or reading for that matter. I think people should just take the Essence list for what it is and keep it moving. Authors care about this far more than the average reader. | ||
| Chrishayden "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Chrishayden Post Number: 8113 Registered: 03-2004 Rating: N/A |
There is no list that is not subject to manipulation, juggling, and outright fraud. The only measure that is half way objective popularity is sales (and sometimes the list makers fudge these, for example listing the number shipped before returns)and note this does not guage or include used book resales, library borrowings and books passed along to others who read it. A book list mostly reflects the tastes of the compilers, publishers, editorial staff-- | ||
| Chrishayden "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Chrishayden Post Number: 8114 Registered: 03-2004 Rating: N/A |
I know one thing--I was satisfied and promoted the ranking when a book I was in made it--and I think all of us would. Hey. | ||
| Carey AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Carey Post Number: 2105 Registered: 05-2004 Rating: N/A |
Good point Chris. I know others from this board that have appeared on the list. They were as happy as a sissy on a penis farm. | ||
| Chrishayden "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Chrishayden Post Number: 8118 Registered: 03-2004 Rating: N/A |
I thought that went "happy as a sissy on a troop train"? | ||
| Carey AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Carey Post Number: 2110 Registered: 05-2004 Rating: N/A |
well Chris, I've also heard it spoken like this: "happy as a gay proctologist" | ||
| Troy AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Troy Post Number: 1900 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
Chris AALBC.com's list is based purely on sales (http://aalbc.com/books/bestsellers.htm). The list, in no way, reflects my personal tastes. One would think the list would be skewed toward books that are promoted or otherwise highlighted on the website. However I often use the list to identify and discover popular authors one such other was Deja King http://aalbc.com/authors/deja_king.htm The link to the best sellers list is always (with rare exception), the most frequently clicked link on my newsletter: http://aalbc.com/enewslet.htm | ||
| H_i_c_k_s_o_n Regular Poster Username: H_i_c_k_s_o_n Post Number: 77 Registered: 05-2006 Rating: N/A |
Hello everyone, I've noticed lately that there have been discussions circling around Essence Magazine's Bestsellers list being fraudulent. Me being publisher at Ghettoheat have had two titles on the list: "Convict's Candy"- October 2006, "And God Created Woman" - April 2008--both titles landing at number 10. I've never paid anyone to have titles on the list, nor will I ever. "Convict's Candy" and "And God Created Woman" were placed because of sales being recorded at stores. I can vouch for this, as I personally toured for Damon "Amin" Meadows & Jason Poole ("Convict's Candy"), due to the two authors being in federal prison, and for Mika Miller (And God Created Woman) when she stopped touring. Not quite sure of other publishers paying to be on Essence Magazine's Bestsellers list, yet I can confirm that Ghettoheat hasn't. | ||
| Hen81 Veteran Poster Username: Hen81 Post Number: 208 Registered: 09-2007 Rating: N/A |
My book Rooftop Diva was on the list October 2007. I did even know that it was on the list until I got an email from another author asking how it got on the list. It was from sales at a reporting store. No money was paid and I would not pay anyway. www.DTPollard.com | ||
| Nafisa_goma Veteran Poster Username: Nafisa_goma Post Number: 361 Registered: 01-2006 Rating: |
I don't know about people paying to be "ON" the list, but I can promise you that there are people who pay big money to keep certain authors OFF the list for whatever reasons. Kola Boof was an author whose sales stores mysteriously "didn't report" and we later learned that they were being paid not to. Both "Flesh and the Devil" and Kola's autobiography "Diary of a Lost Girl" were big "Hardcover" sellers garnering attention from the international media and yet Kola never appeared on the Essence list. All of her books, however, made Troy Johnson's AALBC.COM Bestseller list (in 2002, "Long Train" by Kola was the biggest seller of the year on AALBC.COM) and to be frank with you, this website sold the least of her books (Amazon.com was far and away her biggest outlet). Kola has named at least one of the persons who paid stores not to report her sales (and in some cases not even stock her books), but there are many powerful people and companies and even political organizations that pay to keep authors off the list. In Kola's case, there was a rival author/publisher who had personal resentment and jealousy towards Kola and that person's actions were coupled with a few political figures who feared the messages that Kola's work espoused. Kola remains a sort of "underground cultural phenom" and a media figure (just last month she was invited to and attended Whitney Houston's NYC listening party). But amazingly, there has been terrible censorship and silencing of her voice by the usual establishment folks--mainly because her work is so confrontational and makes the upper class black nouveu uncomfortable. There are also African Americans who say that "Africans" shouldn't be on the Essence list, regardless how many books they sold. It was very WHITE-like. I expect Kola to have better luck next year, but I'm sad to confirm that corruption, prejudice and PAYOLA rue the day at Essence magazine. The list is half true and it's half fraudulent. | ||
| Nafisa_goma Veteran Poster Username: Nafisa_goma Post Number: 362 Registered: 01-2006 Rating: |
BTW, I am speaking as an editor/publisher from Door of Kush, which published most of Kola's books before she left us in 2007. Not as her close friend. | ||
| Schakspir AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Schakspir Post Number: 1278 Registered: 12-2005 Rating: N/A |
t.b. | ||
| Cynique "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Cynique Post Number: 14012 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: |
"close friend" is right. So close we can't tell you 2 apart. Come on back, Kola. We misses ya.  |
