Blackbookscentral.com, an online source of exclusive content, supplemental information and discussions relating to Simon & Schuster's African-American titles and authors, is now up and running on the S&S Web site (www.simonsays.com).
"These are the kinds of grassroots things we as authors have been doing on our own for a long time, and it makes so much more of a difference to have [S&S] doing it for us on a larger scale," said S&S author Lolita Files.
Initially, the site will focus on novelists from the adult publishing group; highlights include a free prequel of Omar Tyree's August Just Say No!; a q&a with Michael Baisden, author of The Maintenance Man; an excerpt from Blind Ambitions by Files; and an original essay by Evelyn Palfrey, author of Dangerous Dilemmas. The site plans to expand to include children's literature, nonfiction, audio, backlist titles and e-books.
Marketing plans for the site include sending e-mail to 750,000 subscribers of Electronic Urban Report (www.eurweb.com), the largest service site for the African-American community, and announcements to and links with other sites such as Black Issues Book Review. The blackbookscentral.com URL will also appear on dust jackets for a summertime mass market promotion of African-American titles.
