Black Pearl Books in Wal-Mart

Here is that rare interesting item from the ocean of weird press releases for books and publishers. It is really quite impressive for a small publisher to get into Wal-Mart.

Black Pearl Books’ Newly Released Hip-Hop Books/New Website On Fire — ‘Legit Baller’ & ‘Hustlers’ Coming To Wal-Mart In November ‘05:

…Wal-Mart is bringing two more of Black Pearl Books’ titles (“Legit Baller” by Jerry Blackshear & “Hustlers” by Ronald Quincy) to its stores in November 2005. Wal-Mart already carries BP’s Essence Magazine Best-Seller “Slick” by Brenda Hampton as well as “Twisted” by Holland Jones.
….

Black Pearl Books continues to roll along, becoming the 1st African-American urban publishing company to enter Wal-Mart without the aid of a distribution deal with a major-publisher and has plans for 30 new releases in 2006. BP is also making book-news with book reviews from noteworthy national urban publications such as Vibe Magazine and Rolling Out Urban Style Weekly Magazine

Not sure what’s up with this rather defensive para in the middle of the press release:

Despite Black Pearl Books’ mega-success, it hasn’t come without some sour moments. But it’s clear that the company president’s positive attitude is a major reason for its continued success.

“It’s a shame that a very small number of African-American stores and distributors don’t carry our titles for their African-American customers. But I don’t get bent out of shape over it — whatever the reason, I’m confident that those who do not, will hopefully care about the needs of their readers & customers in the near future! My attention is targeted to the thousands of stores that do carry our titles. In the end, customers have no problem finding our books! My advice to African-American customers trying to support these stores by purchasing BP’s books is to simply ask the owner to get them for them,” says Hurst.

Is this simply a financial issue (some vendors regard Black Pearl Books as unproven), or is there a values or attitude split?

Update:The Black Pearl catalog reveals a strong grasp of marketing

and a weak grasp of hyphenation.

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