Of poets and best-seller lists ...

Welcome to BIBR's third annual homage to poetry of the African Diaspora. We broke ground placing Saul Williams--performance poet and star of the award-winning film Slam--on the cover of our inaugural poetry issue. We paired venerable poet Sonia Sanchez with rapper Mos Def on our second, garnering kudos from the hip hop community for bringing rap into the canon of black poetry.

This time, we salute the peoples' poet, Maya Angelou. BIBR's decision to pay tribute to this poet icon preceded President Clinton's announcement of her National Medal of the Arts, but we are pleased to add our "family" blessing on her national recognition. Angelou has simply made poetry "live" for the masses of black America.

While I am happy to bring you all the offerings in this third poetry issue--including its wide range of non-poetry oriented literary features and reviews for every reading taste--I am especially proud to open discussion in the African American community of bestseller lists (Market Buzz, p. 26). With Angela Dodson's behind-the-scenes investigation of black book charts we shed light on this important aspect of the growth of book buying among African Americans. It doesn't answer a question that is frequently put to me and my staff at BIBR, "Why doesn't BIBR compile or run a bestseller list?"

I applaud the emergence of black bestseller lists and those who are generating them because such charts prove the strength of black book buyers as a distinct and important market. When I founded Black Issues Book Review, I made a decision not to compile a best-seller list. I stand by that decision, in part, because such lists are inherently subjective, but, most importantly, because BIBR's mission is to be ahead of the curve in presenting news and trends about books, not to track sales or note how well certain rifles are selling in the African American market. BIBR's reason for being is to provoke thought, spark discussion and encourage a reading lifestyle among African Americans.

Happily though, authors, publishers and booksellers have told us over and over that BIBR "sells" books. We frequently hear that our readers come into bookstores with the magazine's pages marked with books they want to buy and order on-line, based on discoveries from our issues. I am pleased and humbled by BIBR's power to generate commerce. At the time I founded BIBR, I decided not to attempt to measure the sales of black books, I made another decision I hoped would help to stimulate their sales. I personally experienced how difficult and frustrating it could sometimes be to find a particular black book. I resolved to make BIBR a resource that would make buying our books as easy as possible, so I made it a policy to include the ISBN, publisher, price and publication date for every book mentioned in BIBR. Providing this information continues to be a time-consuming challenge to my staff, but I believe this service has resulted in BIBR's "selling" reputation.

So, while BIBR has no plans to develop our own book sales charts, I support the creation of new bestseller lists and applaud all the list makers. Every cash register `ka-ching' for a black book brings me joy, and I say to all those compiling black best-seller lists, "Count on. The charts are good for us all!"

Sincerely,

WILLIAM E. COX President/Editor-in-Chief