"Dunbar On Black Books," a monthly Internet newsletter about black nonfictin books and about those who write, publish and promote them, has published every month since November 1997. Each issue has featured books, authors, publishers, and others whose work is responsible for the remarkable surge in readership currently enjoyed by books by or about black people. We at DOBB take careful note of the reports which our webmaster gives us every week on the number of "hits" received every week by each of the more than 60 issues that we have published. We have noted that, unlike yesterday's newspaper, back issues of "Dunbar On Black Books" frequently enjoy as much interest as does the current issue. Our June 1998 issue, for example, received more "hits" every week in January, February and March of 2001 than any other.
We will be issuing periodic reports of the weekly rankings of the various issues. These reports will be in email newsletter format and called "The Dunbar Black Book Report." The objective of this newsletter is to inform the authors, publishers, and other personalities featured in our online periodical "Dunbar On Black Books" of the reception that the various issues have received and are receiving from our readers. These reports will consist of rankings of the top 5 to 10 issues, in terms of "hits" received for a given week. They will not include the number of "hits" received by any issue, but only the ranking of the issue if it comes among the top 5 to 10. The report weeks will be randomly selected. Since events seem to determine which article or issue gets catapulted to a lofty position in the rankings, we believe that random selection is warranted. For example, late in 2000, the History Channel decided to televise a feature on "The Slaughter," a book by Caroll Chase in which it is alleged that white Military Police killed more than 1,000 black soldiers at an Army base in Mississippi in 1943, buried them and concealed the slaughter. I expressed the feeling that the History Channel was about to deal in a fiction. Now, while I do not argue that my call to the attention of my fellow members, in a public forum of the African American Online Writers Guild that I and others considered "The Slaughter" to be fiction, not history, it was undoubtedly a factor in the decision of the History Channel to cancel the presentation. Perhaps, too, the flap that ensued brought our December '98 issue to second place in the rankings for the week ending December 10, 2000.
"The Dunbar Black Book Report" will be sent only to subscribers who have been invited to subscribe. Those invited to subscribe are authors, publishers and other personalities featured in our online periodical "Dunbar On Black Books."