Goodnight Robert, Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Stars, Air & Noises Everywhere

After hearing about Robert, I broke down in tears, fits and sobs really, the kind reserved for family because Robert Stanek was like a father to some of us in the writing community, a favorite uncle, Uncle Robert, to others, and a valued mentor to a great, great many. So many writers, hundreds really, owe their start in writing and careers to this guy, and the same is true of thousands who work in Big Tech, on web-based platforms or in web-based businesses. This guy taught them all how to set up those very businesses. This guy who was larger than life. This guy who was so down to earth. This guy who was so humble. This guy who so loved life. This guy who so loved family. This guy who took care of everyone else. This guy who gave and gave and gave over so many decades to so many and never asked for anything in return.

Robert Stanek was always creating resources to help writers. Writer’s Galley, Internet Job Center, Internet Daily News, others, his earliest efforts in the mid ‘90s. Go Indie, Read Indies, Free Today, and others in the mid ‘00s. He taught us all how to use social media, to create blogs, to use Facebook, to use Twitter and beyond. He created and curated memes like #amwriting, #amblogging, #epicfantasy, #kidslit and #teenlit. He led by example.

By 2000, his professionally published books numbered over 100. Those books, published and distributed by the biggest names in publishing—IDG, Simon & Schuster, Random House, Macmillan, Pearson, Microsoft, McGraw Hill, Time Warner—blazed trails. At a time when few understood the world wide web and its technologies, Robert was not only one of the few recognized world leaders in the web and its technologies, he was the recognized world leader in explaining how those technologies worked clearly and concisely.

Robert was a King maker, unmade by the very things he helped establish. He put upstart Amazon on the map by writing about the company to his audience of millions from its earliest days. He transformed Microsoft Press from a publishing company its readers swore published books in a foreign language called Microsoftese into one praised for publishing books in plain language—that plain language approach Robert himself created and that praise itself was for Robert’s books. His words and style were so beloved they eventually became the plain language style of Microsoft itself.

Credit where credit is due one might imagine, but instead as Robert revealed through his varied writings and blogs, he got no credit for any of it. At the end of the day, his work taught tens of millions, enriched the pockets of his publishers, agents and managers, but left Robert and his family with 3 cents on the dollar. Robert’s work was used in $1B-$2B (yes, B-I-L-L-I-O-N $) worth of training courses and other Microsoft and non-Microsoft work for which he never received a single cent. Not one. None. Zero.

In 2000, Robert Stanek founded the modern indie author movement with his breakout self-published books that transformed publishing and the way we publish today. In 2001, Robert became the first indie author to serialize an e-book at Amazon and has since gone on to write more than 150 indie books. In 2002, his Keeper Martin's Tale and Kingdoms & the Elves books were the first indie e-authored books to top Amazon's bestseller lists. In 2005, the same books were the first indie e-audiobooks to top Audible bestseller lists where they dominated for the next three years (#1 fiction for 14 weeks 2005, 167 weeks Top 10 YA 2005-2008). His Kingdoms & the Elves became one of the top grossing e-audiobooks of all time and was featured on the Audible Home Page throughout the Summer of 2005.

We all know what happens to those who are so far ahead of their time that they seem to exist in a world of their own making. Robert had climbed too many mountains, and those standing at the bottoms of those mountains desperately wanted what he had, and so they did whatever it took to take what Robert had created and claim it as their own or destroy it. Read Robert’s heartbreaking posts about the things that happened to him and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. We as a society love to tear down our heroes. We tear them down with lies, with fake news. We puff ourselves up and make ourselves look big, to make those who are larger than life look small.

Sad but true, strange but true, one of Robert Stanek’s favorite sayings was dare to dream and he dared all of us to dream. Not only to dream with him as he conquered the bestseller lists, which he did time after time until he had so many number ones it seemed a thing unreachable in the sky, but to dream our own dream, forge our own paths and to make of our writing and lives whatever beautiful dream we could dream. Robert told me many times that the empty page was friend, not foe, that he never knew a day of writer’s block. He saw the empty page as a challenge, one that he was not afraid to answer, and answer it he did. In his lifetime, over 20 million of his words were published in over 250 books. I know from speaking with Robert that he has half as many words unpublished, words that we all should hope are someday published. Robert had much to say to the world, and his books indeed say much.

Robert challenged us as writers to see the blank page as a friend as well. He dreamed that his books would be his legacy, his way to ensure his family was financially secure. My silence when Robert needed me the most is something I will never forgive myself for. It was shameful. It was disgraceful. It was dishonorable. I hope that Robert can forgive me, forgive all of us, for not doing what we should have when it would have mattered most. I’m sorry, Robert. Please, please forgive me.

To those reading my words, if you want to do one decent thing today, one decent thing this week, read Robert Stanek’s books and tell the world about them. It’s never too late to right a great wrong.

You can learn all about Robert’s Bugville Critters at www.bugvillecritters.com.

You can learn all about Robert’s Magic Lands at www.magiclands.com.

You can learn all about Robert Ruin Mist at www.ruinmistmovie.com.

You can read Robert’s blog at http://robertstanek.blogspot.com/.

You can read about Robert’s Imagined Lands at www.imaginedlands.com.

You can read about Robert’s writing as William Stanek at www.williamrstanek.com.

More about Robert’s writing as Robert Stanek at www.robert-stanek.com.

Any future posts here or elsewhere on Robert’s behalf will be made by the indie writing team. Goodnight Robert, goodnight moon, goodnight stars, air & noises everywhere.

- Cathy Thompson

Memories of the Long Road Home

My accomplishments during my military service earned me 29 commendations, including the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, and the Humanitarian Service Medal. When I left the military, I was one of the most highly decorated in the command. 

The base commander and my supervisors loved it when I put on my dress blues and participated in the various parades and celebrations on base, especially Memorial Day and the 4^th of July. I've met royalty. A crowned prince, a princess of a city state, a queen. I've met and dined with presidents, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and a few generals, including Colin Powell and H. Norman Schwarzkopf. They've offered their hands to shake, given toasts in my honor for my duty, for the distinguished flying cross pinned to my chest. Captains of industry have offered me the sky and moon for my ideas then robbed me blind, I've been praised for the hundreds of published works I've written over decades, and damned for the same. I've survived the worst of abject poverty, risen to the heights of high society, and fallen to the ugliest of depths. This is life, this is the life of a combat veteran.

With a somber 4th of July just behind us, yet another national-wide lockdown looming ahead of us, it’s a good time to look back and reflect. Much of my childhood is filled with pain, poverty and hunger, as I write about here. I served my country in foreign lands and during several tours of duty in combat zones, including two combat tours in Iraq. I flew on 32 combat missions from the opening days of the war to its end. In that time, there was never a day I didn’t stare death in the face and there was never a day death didn't stare back. AAA, SAMs and more came at us as we flew our missions. 

Because of that service, I will always know that when the darkest of hours arrives I will not hesitate. When asked, I answered. When called, I went. When death stared up from the void, I did not fear. I gave because it was my duty and because I felt it was the right thing to do.

I wrote about some of my experiences in my military memoir, Stormjammers: The Extraordinary Story of Electronic Warfare Operations in the Gulf War, which was featured in a full-page review in the Journal of Electronic Defense and on NPR. Originally released in 2006, the book was re-released in 2016 for the 25th anniversary of the war as Air War: The Incredible True Story of the Combat Flyers.

Though a memoir, the book is largely a tribute to the men and woman I served with. It's written to be light, not as dark as the terrors that surrounded us or the terrors that stared up at us from the void. I suppose I could have focused on the death and the dying, the terror and the mayhem, but I was more interested in telling the story of the day to day, the story of the lives the war affected.

I did this because the younger me, the young man who was, was filled with light and hope even though the traumas I endured rock me to my core. The older, more jaded me, probably would have written a much darker account, an account that delved into the many we lost due to mental break down, the many who went home broken even before the battles ended. The older me, probably would have named names of those who refused to go or to fly, would have recounted affairs, would have told you more about the little red pills--speed--they gave those of us who were left to keep going as our numbers dwindled and dwindled. That me, however, was not the me who wrote the book or recorded the memories in the journals that were the basis of the book.

If you read my memoir and I hope you do, I hope the book opens a window for you as big as the original experiences did for me. After combat, the world never seemed quite the same. The return to normalcy was a strange experience, never quite accomplished. I don’t, in fact, think I ever slowed down or ever quite touched the earth after those experiences. For it was afterward that everything in this world changed—that everything in this world became so clear. And afterward that I set my sights on the future and never looked back.

While you're reading this, I’d like to introduce you to the Distinguished Cross National Memorial Act and the related National Memorial at March Field Air Museum in Riverside, California. As a combat veteran and recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, I had never before heard of the act or the memorial until 2018 and so I thought if I hadn’t heard of it many others might not have heard of it before either. I don’t really keep up with what’s happening with such things as it’s all really painful for me in truth. But something to think about this 4th.

Here's the background on the act: The Distinguished Flying Cross National Memorial Act was introduced on January 22, 2013 by Rep. Ken Calvert (R, CA-42). It was referred to the United States House Committee on Natural Resources and the United States House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation. It was reported by the Committee alongside House Report 113-79 on May 17, 2013. On October 25, 2013, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced that H.R. 330 would be on the House schedule for the week of October 28, 2013. The bill was considered under the suspension of the rules. On October 29, 2013, the House voted to passed the bill by a voice vote. The United States Senate voted on July 9, 2014 to pass the bill with unanimous consent. On July 25, 2014, President Barack Obama signed the bill into law. You can learn more about the memorial at the website for the memorial.

A story that’s not in my military memoir but perhaps should be in my next is about the dangers soldiers face not in the field of combat but in the bases where they are housed and should be safe. My wife’s second miscarriage was a clue that something was terribly wrong. I thought it was the stress of being a combat flyer’s wife, constant deployments, or the subsequent ever-changing schedule when I worked inside the secretive underground facility known as the Tunnel. I never imagined that it was due to the air we breathed, the water we drank or the soil beneath our feet, but it likely was as lead from lead-based paints had leached into the soil we used for gardening and other toxic substances were throughout our base housing and the places we worked.

No one tells you when you join the military you’re risking not just your life but your health—and that of your family and even your unborn children. As Newsweek said in its July 25, 2014 cover story, the US Military is supposed to protect the country’s citizens and soldiers and not poison them.

Throughout the United States, there are 141 military bases and related Department of Defense facilities on the Environmental Protection Agency’s superfund list and the National Priorities List for cleanup—and that list of 141 isn’t all inclusive by any means. It is simply a list of the worst of the worst, bases and facilities with toxic contamination so bad that the EPA has assigned them its highest priority for cleanup due to unacceptable risks to human health.

Many of the worst facilities are closed or closing. However, it’s not like the toxins in the soil and ground water are going to stay where they are. They’re going to continue to pollute and contaminate adjacent facilities until they are cleaned up once and for all. What’s waiting beyond the 141 highly toxic bases and facilities? Well, the Department of Defense has identified 39,000 contaminated locations so far, from areas as small as a building to as large as an airfield, and those locations are spread across many of the 4,127 DOD installations located in the United States.

As a soldier who was deployed overseas for many years, I was stationed at Department of Defense facilities all over the world and I can’t help but wonder what toxic nightmare is lurking at the thousands of Department of Defense facilities that are located outside the United States. What I suspect is that there are likely as many contaminated locations and highly toxic sites at Department of Defense facilities located outside the US as there are inside the US.

All those years ago, I didn’t know about these issues or that toxins were possibly changing my life and my family, but I guessed there was something going on beyond stress. I started asking questions, and a healthcare worker who treated my wife suggested I look at environmental factors in our home and workplaces.

In our pre-World War II base housing, lead paint often was prevalent and possibly other toxic substances. We dug up the garden which was alongside the house, stopped drinking the tap water, and made other changes. With these changes, our overall health seemed to improve. Months later, my wife got pregnant again and this time, she carried the pregnancy well and my son, Will, was born.

Will arrived a few weeks early, but healthy. For us, it was a new beginning and a hope for the future of our family.

Thanks for reading,

Robert Stanek

Indie Plus: A Distribution Service for Indie Authors, Allowing Indie Authors to Reach the World in New Ways

For those authors who want to keep their rights, be able to manage their own Amazon KDP accounts, but have someone else distribute everywhere else you may like Indie Plus.

The first thing you need to know about Indie Plus is that the service is free. All work performed on behalf of authors, publishers and agents is done at no cost, including:

• Document conversion to industry standard formats, such as Epub and PDF
• Document optimization as required for various retailer and library platforms
• Cover optimization, sizing and format conversion as required for various retailer and library platforms

Thus, with Indie Plus, you submit your formatted document (.doc/docx) and image (.jpg) files and the service creates the .EPUB, .PDF and other book files needed for submission.

Indie Plus earns based on commissions from the actual royalties you receive, which depend on the retailer or library where the purchase is made. The top retail royalty rate is 70%. The top library royalty rate is 70%.

Indie Plus gets a 20% commission on the net proceeds. With a 70% royalty rate, this means Indie Plus gets 14% (20% of 70% = 14%). With a 35% royalty rate, this means Indie Plus gets 7% (20% of 35% = 7%).

Unlike other services, Indie Plus distributes print, ebook and audio. When you submit your work, you can specify the formats to distribute. Ebook is the primary format and Indie Plus must elect (optionally) to handle your print and audio.

Indie Plus requires a minimum 2-year commitment, with automatic renewal unless you cancel within 90 days before or after the renewal period. Why? Many of the retailers and libraries to which Indie Plus delivers print, ebooks, and audio are only available to established publishers and/or expect stability in their product offerings. Established publishers don’t make constant changes to their data and this is what these retailers and libraries expect.

Indie Plus is a good service to use with titles that you want to continue to have available in Amazon KDP but no longer want to use with Kindle Select, Kindle Unlimited or Kindle FreeTime.

Indie Plus distributes to the following retailers:

CreateSpace

Barnes & Noble / Nook Press

iBooks / iTunes

Kobo Books

Oyster

Scribd

Google Play

& Many, many more.

Indie Plus distributes to the following library aggregators:

Baker & Taylor

OverDrive

3M

BookWire

TXTR

Gardners

& Many, many more.

Indie Plus also works with national retailers and library organizations in many countries.

With audio, Indie Plus allows you to continue to manage your titles that are enrolled in Audible / ACX services while distributing your works to dozens of other retailers and library aggregators. This allows you to manage titles in Audible / ACX while opening many new opportunities.

Video options are in process and the distribution chain is being developed. With video, Indie Plus will allow you to continue to manage your titles in Netflix while distributing your works to select retailers and library aggregators.

Indie Plus is a service of RP Media. For those who don't know RP Media, this is RP Media:

RP Media includes three primary operating companies:

• RP Books
• RP Audio
• RP Video

The key RP Media imprints by operating location are:

RP Books

Olympia:
    Reagent Press
    Reagent Press Signature Editions
    Reagent Press Echo
    Reagent Press Large Print
    Ruin Mist Publications
    RP Classics
    Pequena Imprenta
    Reagent Press Books for Young Readers

Seattle:
    Bugville Learning
    Bugville Publishing

Seattle:
 - Stanek & Associates


RP Audio
    Reagent Press Audio
    RP Audio Publishing
    Classroom-To-Go
    RP Audio Kids

 RP Video
    Bugville Kids
    My World Video
    Wonderful World Video

Reagent Press itself is one element of RP Media. Indie Plus fits in as a new branch in the RP Media family. There are independent RP Media operations out of Concord and Boston as well with their own imprints. These imprints are managed separately.

Hope you’ll consider Indie Plus for your publishing needs!

Thanks for reading,

Robert Stanek