Allen Mesch

I just learned about the Alliance of Independent Authors and I thought I would share some information about this international organization.

Who Are They?

The Alliance of Independent Authors is a non-profit professional association for authors who self-publish. Their mission is ethics and excellence in self-publishing.

The Alliance of Independent Authors has a global team who, together with ambassadors and advisors worldwide, provide trusted, best-practice information and advice to the author community and provide our members with an extensive suite of benefits.

The Alliance of Independent Authors is global with members on all seven continents, and our outreach campaigns, self-publishing services center, guidebooks, live streams, podcasts, and blogs reach far and wide and have had an impact at every level of the wider author community.

The organization launched at the London Book Fair 2012 to foster excellence and ethics in self-publishing.

The Alliance of Independent Authors works in four areas:

• Provides advice through the Self-Publishing Advice Center, which offers a daily blog, weekly live streams and podcasts, and a bookstore of self-publishing guidebooks.

• Monitors the self-publishing sector through the watchdog desk, alerting authors to bad actors and predatory players, running a self-publishing service ratings list, and approved partner program.

• Campaigns for the advancement of indie authors in the publishing and literary sectors (bookstores, libraries, literary events, prizes, grants, awards, and other author organizations) globally, encouraging the provision of publishing and business skills for authors, and furthering the indie author cause.

Membership Levels

The Alliance of Independent Authors has three levels of author membership. I have only included the first two levels.

Associate: $89/year

Associate members receive:

• Advisory team – all questions answered
• Free author advice guides
• Private moderated member’s forum
• Selected discounts for author services
• Affiliate earnings program
• Approved Services directory
• Online advice conference
• Daily blog, a twice-weekly podcast
• Associate member website badge

Author $119/year

Author members receive:

• Advisory team – all questions answered
• Free author advice guides
• Private moderated member’s forum
• All discounts for author services
• Affiliate earnings program
• Approved Services directory
• Online advice conference
• Daily blog, a twice-weekly podcast
• Author member website badge
• Public author-publisher profile
• Book listing
• Contract vetting
• General legal advice
• Blogging opportunities
• Speaker opportunities
• Interview opportunities

Interesting Statistics

Income Comparison Between Self Published Authors and Traditionally Published Authors

• Self-published authors earn more than authors who are traditionally published.
• Self-published female authors earn more than self-published male authors.
• LGBTQIA+ self-published authors earn more than heterosexual self-published authors.
• Successful self-published authors are not ‘agreeable’… and that’s good!
• 75% of book sales were part of a series (fiction and non-fiction).

In 2022, the median income of the Alliance of Independent Authors indie authors was $12,754.56. For seniors, the income was $10,000 for ages 55-64 and $3,000 for those 65 years and older.

The median income level for some of the genres in 2022. Income and sample size in parentheses.

Biography $795.59 (8)

Children’s $3,000 (89)

Crime/Thriller/Detective $18,893 (270)

Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Speculative $7,982 (330)

General Fiction $1,057 (64)

General Nonfiction $13,538.32 (54)

Historical Fiction $7,421.4 (129)

Horror $2,324 (24)

Memoir $2,474 (21)

Narrative Nonfiction $10,000 (13)

New Adult $145,448 (2)

Romance $38,800 (496)

Women’s Fiction $9,226 (45)

Young Adult $1,686 (35)

Other $10,000 (151)

Source: https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/facts/

I encourage readers to learn more about this organization, especially those interested in obtaining outside, fee-based help for your book.

Source: The Alliance of Independent Authors

I have been busy this year thinking about additional subjects to write about and writing two new books.

Bullets and Barrels

Bullets and Barrels is a non-fiction book about how American Civil War officers and soldiers helped develop the oil and gas industry. The book traces the growth of the domestic petroleum industry from Colonel Edwin Drake’s discovery well in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859 to Ida Tarbell’s The History of the Standard Oil Company in 1902 and her 1909 article in the American Woman Magazine titled “The American Woman – How She Met the Experience of War.”

Readers will learn how Charles Pratt built “America’s first modern oil refinery” in 1867 and the Confederate attack on Burning Springs in the Civil War. The book will describe how Civil War veterans like Amos Densmore, Edward L. Roberts, William W. Averell, and Samuel Jones introduced new technology into the fledgling petroleum business.

My plan is to publish Bullets and Barrels this winter.

The Traitor

The Traitor is the second installment in the Russell Conrad series of political thrillers. The story begins after Conrad returns home from saving the president’s life in The Analyst. Conrad is accused of treason for helping Israel thwart an Iranian missile attack. As the FBI transports Conrad to the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport, they are attacked by armed men who want to kill the SMU professor. Conrad is saved by a mysterious woman who whisks him to safety. Thus begins a frantic trip to the Texas Coast with the FBI in chase. En route to Port Isabel, Conrad and the women discover a terrorist plot that threatens the U.S. oil industry and the national economy.

My plan is to publish The Traitor early next year.

In the meantime, I hope you will check out my current publications.

These insults are from a time before the English language got boiled down to four-letter words. These insults from famous people had style, imagination, and class. I only wish that I could burrow some to inflict on someone.

1. “I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; Bring a friend, if you have one.” –

George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill.

“Cannot possibly attend [the] first night, I will attend the second…If there is one.” – Winston Churchill, in response.

2. A member of Parliament to Disraeli: “Sir, you will either die on the gallows, or of some unspeakable disease.”

“That depends, Sir,” said Disraeli, “whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.”

3. “He had delusions of adequacy.” – Walter Kerr

4. “I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.” – Clarence Darrow

5. “He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.” – William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

6.”Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.” – Moses Hadas

7. “I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” – Mark Twain

8. “He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends..” – Oscar Wilde

9. “I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.” – Stephen Bishop

10.”He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” – John Bright

11. “I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.”- Irvin S. Cobb

12. “He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.”- Samuel Johnson

13. “He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.” – Paul Keating

14. “In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.”- Charles, Count Talleyrand

15. “He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.”- Forrest Tucker

16. “Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?”- Mark Twain

17. “His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.”- Mae West

18. “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”- Oscar Wilde

19. “He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… For support rather than illumination.”- Andrew Lang

20. “He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” – Billy Wilder

21. “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.” – Groucho Marx.

22.”He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” – Winston Churchill

Source: The English Community

Colleen Hoover is an American author who writes novels in the romance and young adult fiction genres. She is best known for her 2016 romance novel, It Ends with Us. She self-published many of her works before she was picked up by a publishing house. Colleen Hoover has written 25 books in her 12-year career as an author. She is the founder of Book Bonanza with 2,700 readers, authors, and volunteers. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.

Early and Personal Life

Hoover was born on December 11, 1979, in Sulphur Springs, Texas. She grew up in Saltillo, Texas, and she graduated from Saltillo High School in 1998. She married Heath Hoover in 2000 and they have three sons. Hoover graduated from Texas A&M-Commerce with a degree in social work. She worked various social work and teaching jobs before starting her career as an author.

Colleen Hoover

Career

In November 2011, Hoover began writing her debut novel, Slammed, with no intention of getting published. She was inspired by a lyric, “decide what to be and go be it,” from an Avett Brothers song, “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise,” and she incorporated Avett Brothers lyrics throughout the story. Hoover self-published Slammed in January 2012. Hoover states that she published the novel so her mother, who had just gotten an Amazon Kindle, could read it.

A sequel, Point of Retreat, was published in February 2012. After a few months, Slammed was reviewed and given five stars by book blogger Maryse Black, and afterward, sales rocketed for Hoover’s first two books. Slammed and Point of Retreat reached #8 and #18, respectively, on the New York Times Best Seller list in August of that year. Atria Books picked up the novels and republished them on August 10, 2012. A third book in the series, This Girl, was published in April 2013. After the success of Slammed, Hoover quit her job in the social work field to become a full-time writer.

Hoover’s novel, Hopeless, was self-published in December 2012. The plot line, which is that of a girl who was home-schooled throughout her elementary education, before going to a public high school, reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list on January 20. It was the first self-published novel to ever top the list. A companion novel, Losing Hope, was published that July.

Finding Cinderella is a free novella that Hoover published in 2014. It features several of the characters from her novels, Hopeless and Losing Hope. A paperback was released with several bonus features, such as a new epilogue and Hoover’s own “Cinderella story.” Maybe Someday, published in March 2014, was the first novel in a small series about a boy and a girl who write music together and fall in love. Musician Griffin Peterson created a soundtrack to accompany the novel. Links in the e-book or a scannable QR code in the paperback led to a website, where readers could listen to the music.

Never Never, a 2015 collaboration with Tarryn Fisher, was originally split into three parts and sold as three separate books. The work was later republished as one complete book.

Hoover’s novel, It Ends with Us, was published in 2016. Hoover described it as “the hardest book I’ve ever written.” The novel concerns domestic violence, and, according to Hoover, it was written with the intention of advocating for domestic violence victims. The story was inspired by Hoover’s personal experience as a child growing up in a household with domestic violence, which carried through her adult life. The book’s main character, Lily, experiences domestic violence at a young age, witnessing her father’s abuse towards her mother, on top of experiencing it firsthand. Then, she ends up in a violent relationship, as an adult. In 2021, Hoover experienced a surge in popularity, due to attention from the #BookTok community on TikTok. As a result, in January 2022, It Ends with Us was #1 on The New York Times best sellers list. As of 2019, the novel had sold over a million copies worldwide, and it has been translated into over twenty languages. Filming of a movie adaption of It Ends with Us began in May 2023.

A sequel to It Ends with Us, titled, It Starts with Us, was published by Atria Books on October 18, 2022. Simon and Schuster released the details of the extensive marketing campaign for the novel, which became the publisher’s most pre-ordered book of all time.

In October 2022, Simon and Schuster UK acquired two standalone novels by Hoover, which are to be published in 2024 and 2026.

Alexandra Alter of The New York Times wrote, “To say she’s currently the best-selling novelist in the United States, to even compare her to other successful authors who have landed several books on the best seller lists, fails to capture the size and loyalty of her audience.”

Writing Style

“I can’t work on more than one thing.”

“Once I start and I get really into it, that’s my hyper-focus. And that’s all I do – just write 18 hours a day and sleep.”

Ms. Hoover’s success gives hope to all aspiring authors. Just because the big publishing houses ignore you doesn’t mean you can’t strike it rich by self-publishing your book.

Sources:

“From Bookstore to bestseller,” Dallas Morning News, June 24, 2023, pp 1B & 2B.

“Colleen Hoover,” Colleen Hoover – Wikipedia, retrieved June 26, 2023.

Arlington National Cemetery, the most famous cemetery in the country, is the final resting place for many of our nation’s greatest heroes, including more than 300,000 veterans of every American conflict, from the Revolutionary War to Iraq and Afghanistan.  Since its founding in 1866, Arlington National Cemetery has provided a solemn place to reflect upon the sacrifices made by the men and women of the United States Armed Forces in the name of our country.

The following pictures were taken in April 2023 during a visit to the cemetery. Unfortunately, I was unable to share my videos of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Please see Arlington National Cemetery for more information.

There are several memorials on the grounds of the cemetery. However, due to the lack of space for burials and the large amount of space that memorials take up, the U.S. Army now requires a joint or concurrent resolution from Congress before it will place new memorials at Arlington.

The USS Maine Memorial

Near the Tomb of the Unknowns stands the USS Maine Mast Memorial, which commemorates the 266 men who died aboard the USS Maine. The memorial is built around a mast salvaged from the ship’s wreckage.

The Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial

The Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial was dedicated on May 20, 1986, in memory of the crew of flight STS-51-L, who died during launch on January 28, 1986. Transcribed on the back of the stone is the text of the John Gillespie Magee, Jr. poem High Flight, which was quoted by then President Ronald Reagan when he addressed the disaster. Although many remains were identified and returned to the families for a private burial, some were not and were laid to rest under the marker. Two crew members, Dick Scobee, and Michael Smith, are buried in Arlington.

Shuttle Columbia Memorial

On February 1, 2004, NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe dedicated a similar memorial to those who died when the Shuttle Columbia broke apart during reentry on February 1, 2003. Astronauts Laurel Clark, David Brown, and Michael Anderson, who were killed in the Columbia disaster, are also buried in Arlington.

In section 64, a memorial to the 184 victims of the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon was dedicated on September 11, 2002. The memorial takes the shape of a pentagon and lists the names of all the victims that were killed. Unidentified remains from the victims are buried beneath it.

Eternal Flame Memorial to President John F. Kennedy

Other Notable Gravesites and Memorials

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier stands atop a hill overlooking Washington, D.C. One of the more well-attended sites at the cemetery, the tomb is made from Yule marble quarried in Colorado. It consists of seven pieces, with a total weight of 79 tons. The tomb was completed and opened to the public on April 9, 1932, for $48,000.

Other unknown servicemen were later placed in crypts there, and it also became known as the Tomb of the Unknowns, though it has never been officially named. The soldiers entombed there are:

• Unknown Soldier of World War I, entombed November 11, 1921.
• Unknown Soldier of World War II, interred May 30, 1958.
• Unknown Soldier of the Korean War was also interred on May 30, 1958.
• Unknown Soldier of the Vietnam War, interred May 28, 1984. The remains of the Vietnam Unknown were disinterred, under the authority of President Bill Clinton, on May 14, 1998, and were identified as those of Air Force First Lieutenant Michael J. Blassie, whose family had them reinterred near their home in St. Louis, Missouri. It has been determined that the crypt at the Tomb of the Unknowns that contained the remains of the Vietnam Unknown will remain empty.

Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier video.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has been perpetually guarded since July 2, 1937, by the U.S. Army. The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (“The Old Guard”) began guarding the Tomb on April 6, 1948. The guard follows a meticulous routine when watching over the graves. The Tomb Guard:

1. Marches 21 steps southward down the black mat behind the Tomb
2. Turns left, facing east for 21 seconds
3. Turns left, facing north for 21 seconds
4. Takes 21 steps down the mat
5. Repeats the routine until the soldier is relieved of duty at the changing of the guard

After each turn, the Guard executes a sharp “shoulder-arms” movement to place the weapon on the shoulder closest to the visitors to signify that the Guard stands between the Tomb and any possible threat.

Twenty-one was chosen because it symbolizes the highest military honor that can be bestowed – the 21-gun salute.

At each turn, the guard makes precise movements followed by a loud click of the heels as the soldier snaps them together. The guard is changed every half-hour during daylight in the summer, and every hour during daylight in the winter, and every two hours at night (when the cemetery is closed to the public), regardless of weather conditions.

Freedman’s Village

Beginning in 1863, the federal government used the southern portion of the land now occupied by the cemetery as a settlement for freed slaves, giving the name “Freedman’s Village” to the ground. The government constructed rental houses that 1,100 to 3,000 freed slaves eventually occupied while farming 1,100 acres of the estate and receiving schooling and occupational training during the Civil War and after the War’s end.