A Visit with Bob Sanchez

by Jean Henry Mead

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, 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 will be featured in the soon-to-be-released book, The Mystery Writers, with Sue Grafton, Lawrence Block and other well known and bestselling mystery writers.

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.

The Scene of the Crime

Lowell, Massachusetts is full of grit and pride. Once a thriving mill city, it fell on hard times and bounced back again. It has a network of canals that used to float barges that took cotton to the mills and left with bolts of cloth. In the early 1900s perhaps a dozen ethnic groups toiled there, each living in its own neighborhood. Asians came along starting in the 1980s, adding flavor to the stew. Wang Laboratories was a big presence in the city once, and it played a role in attracting Asians to the area.

A Cambodian strip mall in Lowell 

Many of the neighborhoods are old, and if they aren’t necessarily run down, the shine is off the paint. There are plenty of multifamily dwellings including three-and four-deckers, with small shops on the corner selling cigarettes and lottery tickets. Over a couple of years, a storefront might go from being the Happiness Restaurant to Uncle Fred’s Used Appliances to Casa de Dios with a large purple cross painted over the door. The neighborhood called The Acre is one of the city’s toughest, and it’s been a haunt for my characters in both Getting Lucky and Little Mountain.

My research included a police ride-along, a citizen police program, a visit to the county morgue, even a day helping a group of volunteers clean out the canals. Lots of strange things get thrown into the canals, including everything from trash to stolen goods to dead bodies. On downtown Merrimack Street, I ate lunch at a Cambodian restaurant where the waiter took my order and went back to cook it. He was the owner and the only employee.

Not all of the interesting detail I observed has made it into my fiction, nor will it. Lowell is a nicer city than my brief description suggests, but it is a fine venue for fictional miscreants.

How important is the setting for other mystery writers? I’m sure this varies from one tale to the next. Do you find it important to get the details right, or is the plot all that really matters?

I hope you’ll visit all the great blogs on my tour. Please post a comment for a chance to win an ebook or signed paperback copy of one of my novels. And thanks for visiting!

Bob’s tour schedule

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