Bob Sanchez and his wife retired to Las Cruces, New Mexico, from where they take frequent RV trips. The fomer Massachusetts technical writer has written five novels and had three agents. One small publisher, Fjord Press, had was interested in publishing his novel, Little Mountain, but went out of business instead. Bob then self-published three novels, When Pigs Fly, Getting Lucky, and Little Mountain. The first is a comic road trip, the others conventional murder mysteries.
Bob, why did you decide to publish independently after employing three agents?
Many people told me they were surprised my work didn’t sell to royalty publishers, and I felt confident my novels deserved publication. I became impatient with the long process involved in seeking the approval of agents and publishers who were all complete strangers. Rather than spend the rest of my life hoping to see my work in print, I decided to publish and take my chances. Given the general reputation of self-publishing, that wasn’t an easy decision at first.
Do you place your own books online or hire someone to do it for you?
When Pigs Fly went online using iUniverse as an intermediary. I e-published Getting Lucky and Little Mountain myself.
Now that indie publishing has become popular, would you accept a contract from a royalty publisher if one was offered, or do you prefer having control over your own books?
A royalty publisher won’t offer me a contract, because I won’t look for one. Should an offer fall out of the blue I’d consider it, but I do enjoy having control over the process.
How did your first novel, When Pigs Fly, come about?
I wanted to write a funny novel. My earlier efforts had been serious stories set in the mill city of Lowell, Massachusetts, but after my wife and I vacationed in Arizona a couple of times, I thought it would be fun to move my hero to the Tucson area. A couple of Arizona friends helped vet the geographical details.
What’s the most difficult aspect of self publishing?
Knowing when your book is ready. Agents and editors perform a critical service by weeding out work that isn’t ready for prime time. On the other hand, some good material gets left behind too. It’s difficult to be objective about your own work, so you have to get trustworthy and competent peer critiques. Also, you are responsible for everything from proofreading to marketing. That’s a tough range of skills to master.
I noticed that you also provide readers with print copies. Who has done your printing and have you been satisfied with your books and getting them online?
iUniverse published my first two novels, and I published Little Mountain using Amazon’s CreateSpace. I will not go back to iUniverse because they are too expensive and maintain too much control. For example, they insisted on my charging $9.99 for an e-book.
Do you promote your books in brick and mortar stores or strictly online?
Other than a few book signings, I don’t promote in bookstores. I tried that, and it took much too much time and energy. Mind you, I live in the Southwest, where everything is spread out making indie book tours unprofitable. So I am experimenting with mainly online marketing.
How much time do you spend networking and promoting your books?
So far just a few hours per week, but I plan to do more.Tell us about your latest release and how well it has done?
Little Mountain is my most serious work yet and stars a Cambodian-American cop who must solve a vicious murder that brings back haunting memories of the Khmer Rouge genocide.
Advice to aspiring indie authors?
You are completely responsible for the quality of your work right down to the smallest detail. Ask peers to critique your work but remember that you are the final judge. Take all comments as suggestions, then you decide. Spelling, capitalization, and grammar all matter, though. Get those right. Double- and triple-check everything. Hire a reasonably priced artist to design your cover.
Thanks, Bob.
You can visit Bob at his blogsite: http://bobsanchez1.blogspot.com,
His books are available at http://tinyurl.com/bobsanchezauthor.
You can visit Bob at his blogsite: http://bobsanchez1.blogspot.com,
His books are available at http://tinyurl.com/bobsanchezauthor.
23 comments:
Thanks for sharing your publishing journey, Bob.
How do you limit online promotion and marketing to a few hours a week? Help! What am I doing wrong?!
It's good to have you join us here, Bob. I'd also like to know how you manage just a few hours PR each week.
Love the title WHEN PIGS FLY. Makes me smile even before I read your book.
And I, also, am looking forward to your answer to Anne's question.
Best Wishes,
Jackie King
author of THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE
Anne, Jean, and Jackie, my promotional efforts online are limited only by my patience and available time. My life gets scattered at times, though I normally don't take so darned long to respond to a post. No one is going to to publicity for you for free, so it's necessary to set aside time for it. Yet it's tricky; your Facebook friends aren't going to want to see you flogging your book all the time. But what I am doing at the moment is tweeting with a list of several dozen pre-written tweets, using a variety of hashtags so the same people don't keep seeing my tweets. And I keep trying to increase the number of quality Twitter followers.
Does all of this work? I don't know yet, but I do know it doesn't cost money, just time.
My apologies for my Rip Van Winkle routine. I am fully awake now.
Very interesting blog. I come from the era when self-publishing was only for those whose books weren't quite up to par. But now it seems it's the way to go. I am seriously considering it. Thanks Bob
Very interesting interview. I enjoyed Mr. Sanchez's thoughts on indie-publishing.
I particularly liked your statement that indie authors are responsible for the quality of their work. This is true with all authors, especially these days. Even the most professional editors can miss a typo if it seems to make sense. I once wrote a professionally published fantasy short story in which a character rode into someone's territory after a bird. In the published story, she rode ON a bird. It was a fantasy, true, but....
Mr. Proof Copy is our friend. :)
Marian Allen
Fantasies, mysteries, comedies, recipes
Good interview. You're inspiring, Bob. But it sound like yu work awfully hard for a retired guy.
Jackie, When Pigs Fly is an unoriginal title, but it fits a crazy book. Grownups love it (well, most grownups), but don't confuse it with a children's book!
Pat, I'm from the same era. Back in the 90s a small publisher offered to publish Little Mountain if I'd share in the cost, and I declined because I thought it smacked of self-publishing. Now look, self-pub is all I do. Perspectives change, and the public's view of self-publishing is changing. Yes, a lot of junk is out there, but people are beginning to realize that the good stuff can be self-published too.
John, thank you for stopping by. Wayne, if you think of it as a hobby, then it doesn't seem like work. (So I have a comment from John and one from Wayne, but nothing from John Wayne. Oh well.)
Marian, try to catch those typos as early as you can. If you wait til the proof stage, making a correction that's your fault can cost you money. IMO, proofs are most useful to make sure the formatting is right and that nothing is missing. I wouldn't send a proof back to fix a minor typo.
Bob, I prefer promoting online as well. I'm not much for personal appearances. I get too nervous.
Public appearances have their own appeal, Alex. They used to terrify me, but no longer since it's clear no one is going to throw things at me. The problem is the cost vs. the benefit. You have to drive someplace, which costs both time and gas money, and then people may or may not be inspired to buy your books--or enough of them to make the trip worthwhile. So online marketing involves no gas expenses, and you can do it in small slices of time if need be.
Loved your answers -- realistic and forthright.
You say regarding self publishing - "You are completely responsible for the quality of your work right down to the smallest detail."
This is what scares me. I've been editing obsessively - changing the font, reading on my kindle, whatever, to make sure I catch all errors. And yet, each time I reread there is something that I *must* change. How do you say enough is enough?
Anyway, just bought When Pigs Fly on kindle. I'm sure I'll enjoy it. Good luck! Rasana
Thanks for the kind comment, Michael.
Rasana, just because you're responsible for the content doesn't mean you absolutely must catch everything. It just means you're responsible for the final product. You have to get the big stuff like chapters in the right order so a character isn't drinking tea in the chapter after she's been killed. Focus on the big stuff first, then work your way down to the small. The smaller the error, the less it matters if you miss it. After I published Little Mountain, which I was confident was perfectly edited (hah!), my brother told me the hero starts a page drinking a cup of tea and ends it by finishing his coffee. You have to expect stuff like that, because a novel is a huge project. But the really nice thing is that you can, as I did, go back and update the book.
Try, try to get everything right. Have others with judgment you trust review for errors, then check again. And then publish the darned thing. As for knowing when to say enough is enough, you get to a point--early on, hopefully--when you decide to do absolutely no more rewrites, no more searching for that perfect word. You get past that, your novel is flat-out finished, and all you want to know is if there are technical errors.
There's no simple road to success, but as Bob notes, when a person thinks of it as a hobby, it doesn't eat up the psyche. That's what I get from Bob's work -- he's doing it out of love and passion. I knew that from the first time I read When Pigs Fly, a very Hiaasen-like, fun-stuff-all-around caper.
Bob, thanks for sharing your view of the road to writing, publishing, and then marketing. It's a three-headed beast that I don't believe every writer truly understands. Keep writing and keep blazing the trails for us who follow.
Rasana, I meant to thank you for downloading When Pigs Fly for your Kindle; I just read your blog about the stiff duties on Kindles sold in India. What a huge market that must be for Amazon.
Gary and Rick, I appreciate the comments. If we all share what we know, we all benefit.
I so enjoyed your excellent advice on self-publishing. You're right about wearing many different hats if you do it yourself. It all starts with the story, then making it the best it can be.
In the end, it's believing in yourself that makes the elephant fly!
Katie O’Reilly Titanic blog
Jina, it's the pig that flies, not the elephant.
Touche, Bob! I was thinking of a certain Disney elephant...
Being responsible for the quality of our work is what made us delay so long in putting our book into print. Enjoyed the interview.
Very informative interview. Bob is so right about mainstream publishers allowing some very good work to fall through the gaps. Their experts aren't perfect and all good books do not get published. Indie publishing gives writers, and readers, a wider choice.
You're a very brave man. I wish you every success.
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