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.

Changes in Publishing by Christine Duncan

Some of the buzz this week appears to be about a decision by Barnes and Noble. They have decided not to stock books published by Amazon Those of us who have been e-published a while thought we could side step the war between giants. Ebooks, or so the theory went, would always be available, did not depend on big publishing houses, were not as subject to things like recession. The theory failed to take into account the sheer mind-boggling amount of stuff out there on the internet. Ebooks, are many times, lost in the huge vastness of the information age. I keep having this discussion with one of my sons, who is in a band. He sees all of this as the "artist" taking back his own. The music industry was fundamentally changed, he says, by the internet, the iPhone, the MP3. Bands can go around the big recording companies and get exposure. They can find an audience. The question is, in my mind, is it a good change? Do those bands finding an audience make any money at it? Can I as a writer in a ever changing industry do so? So does it matter that one big titan is battling another big titan in the book industry? Will it make any difference to those of us who are writing today? You tell me.

Seems Like Everyone is Writing and No One is Reading

If course that isn't really true, but since it's now so much easier to get published than it ever has been, a lot of people who would have never even attempted to write a book have decided to write and publish on Kindle or Smashwords or some other easy way.

I suppose they all think they'll be like the few authors who are making a lot of money this way. No one can make any money though unless people buy the books.

Back in the dark ages, when I first started out, you had to have you whole book completed. In that time period there were no computers or copy machines. To make sure you had a copy of the book you were writing, the only recourse was to make a copy of each page with carbon paper.

One your book was done you sent the who thing in a box along with a cover letter, a synopsis and another Self-Addressed and Stamped box if you wanted the manuscript back--and of course you did. If the publisher didn't want it, you sure didn't want to have to type the whole daggone thing over again. Of course after about 5 rejections, the manuscript had to be retyped anyway because it smelled of cigarette smoke and probably attracted some coffee stains along the way.

Believe me, unless you were totally dedicated to wanting to be a published author, you didn't go through all this work.

Maybe it's just too easy today to put a bunch of works together and send it off to Kindle or some other similar spot and call  yourself a published author.

Oh yes, we've all heard readers complain about lame plots, undeveloped characters, stiff dialogue, lack of setting, poorly formatted and edited books filled with typos, but that doesn't seem to stop anyone. Books are being $2.99, 1.99, .99 and free. That means a lot of readers are seeking only the bargain books. Is this going to mean anything to the major publishers, who climbed on this e-publishing bandwagon late and are charging far more for their e-books?

To make this personal, I'm with small independent publishers because I don't want to learn how to format books or pay someone to do it for me. I don't want to create a book cover or the back page. My publishers have much better cover artists than I'll ever be--and both of them let me give input in what I'd like to see in a cover. And both publishers edit my books before they become public.

Yes, everyone gets their cut before I get my paltry sum. Sometimes I laugh when I receive my royalty statements--better than crying. I do far better getting my books at a discount and selling them at book and craft fairs and speaking events.

This might bring up the question if you're not making a lot of money and there's so much competition, why are you doing it? The main answer is because I can't stop writing. If no one published my work, I know I'd just keep right on going. It's rather like an addiction.

You also might ask, are you reading too? The answer is yes. I always have a book by my bed, one on the dining room table and of course, the book I'm reading on my Kindle.

Any one agree with me--or have a different take?

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com/

Which Famous People Are Your Book Characters? by Morgan Mandel



Available for all ereaders,
also in print at Amazon.

Do you put photos of famous people near your computer to remind you of what your characters look like? Actually, I don't, but today I started imagining which ones would fit the bill for my Fountain of Youth theme, romantic thriller, Forever Young: Blessing or Curse.

For Dorrie Donato, the Boomer Generation widow who turns from 55 to 24, for the older version, I'd choose Holly Hunter,who is close to 55, has warm blond hair and warm brown eyes. Holly seems approachable, yet vulnerable, qualities I want my character to project.

For 24 year old Dorrie, I choose Carrie Underwood. She's young, and fits the description, of blond hair, brown eyes, a pretty face, spectacular figure, spunk and talent. Perfect casting!

Roman Remington, Dorrie's boss, dubbed as the Angel Man in my thriller, is tall, with shoulder length blond hair, appears in commercials and is very charismatic. Immediately, the image of a young Fabio comes to mind.

What about you? Which Famous People Are Your Book Characters?

If you'd like to read Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, it's now available in Print. Also, in Kindle, Nook, Itunes and other electronic formats. See excerpts and all buy links for the four Morgan Mandel books at http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com.

My Field of View Is Narrowing

I've realized that the focus of my writing has narrowed over the years. My first three novels written in 1990-93, but never published, have a decided international flavor. The first ranges from the U.S. to Austria, Cyprus, Hong Kong, and Israel, winding up in Toronto. Book two takes us from the U.S. to Korea and China, while the third wanders among Ukraine, Iran, Belarus, Mexico and the U.S.

This trilogy of post-Cold War spy stories grew out of my love of the espionage genre, which I had followed for years with authors like Helen Macinnes, John le Carre, Graham Greene, and Robert Ludlum. The international scene was fresh in my mind from travels across Europe and around the Far East in the eighties.

While revising the books with an eye toward publication, I was reminded of how much additional research I had done in preparation for writing them. I make folders for each of my books and place all of the research material in them. Besides notes they include call slips for various books I checked out of the library. I also have a supply of maps and travel books covering the areas. The shelves in my office include books on the CIA, the KGB, and such famous spies as Harold Adrian "Kim" Philby.

By the end of the nineties, my settings had narrowed down to mostly U.S. locations. After a trip to the Holy Land in late 1998, however, I set my first Greg McKenzie mystery half in the U.S. and half in Israel. My second McKenzie book wandered off to Perdido Key, Florida where we vacationed often in my brother's condo, but since them the mysteries have all taken place around my hometown of Nashville.

I suppose this is part of the aging process, since my wife and I have cut back on our personal wanderings over the years. There's probably a bit of laziness involved, also, as it's much easier to write about an area you are intimately familiar with. I enjoy venturing out to re-check locations I haven't visited in a while, and I'll occasionally include a place I've never been before.

I still enjoy the high-octane machinations of the spy story, though I haven't read a good one lately. Who knows, I might just stumble into a dead drop  or pick up a one-time pad and get motivated to turn out another espionage tome. Meanwhile, look for the Burke Hill trilogy in the near future.

Chester Campbell
http://chesterdcampbell.com
Visit me at Mystery Mania

Publicity is Where You Find It

Publicity is Where You Find It

Randy Rawls

I've been quite fortunate with the number of reviews and postings I've received on my THORNS ON ROSES. Some of the folks who read this will recognize the book as one they gave a nudge to. Thanks to each of you.

But some of the other sources have been quite surprising. The latest is a chuckle and a source of pride(?). I have to admit I'm not a reader of this paper and have mixed feelings about it, based on reputation and rumor. However, I believe publicity is where you find it. And I've found some here. So, this month when you check out at the cash register of your favorite supermarket, I give you permission to scan the tabloids. Pick up the February 6 edition of National Examiner and flip the pages. Yep, that's my THORNS ON ROSES you'll see blurbed. Now, lest you think it's no big deal, consider that I share the page with Richard Gere, Gregory Peck, and Dean Cain. Heck, I feel like I fit right in. :-)

Another one popped up this week that I'm even more proud of. About a thousand years ago, I was the key person in founding a youth travel soccer league in Northern Virginia, then served as its president for several years. We named it the Old Dominion Soccer League. One of the driving provisions that I insisted on was sportsmanship, players and parents. We were the first that I'm aware of to give a Sportsmanship Award each season. We made a big to-do about it, making it equal to the championship award. When I left the area, the membership honored me by naming it the Randy Rawls Sportsmanship ODSL Award. Twice a year when the awards are handed out, my ego swells. And it doesn't hurt that there is usually a plug for my writing attached. The latest
I've seen is at www.staffordsoccer.com/home/592340.html. Enough to make an old man feel like he's done something good for the world.

While I'm on my feel-good platform, there's another that gave me a buzz. It ran in the blog,
BLOGCRITICS.org, and in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. If you're so inclined, the link is at http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Book-Review-Thorns-on-Roses-by-Randy-Rawls-2659670.php The thing about this one that I love is the reviewer, Leslie Granier, really nailed the story. Not just the one I wrote, but the one that did not blatantly appear in words.

And there are many more, each of them presenting my story and me in a favorable light. I'd love to claim this happened because of my sheer talent, but that would be an outright lie. For THORNS ON ROSES, I took a chance and hired a publicist. She did the ground pounding that produced the reviews. Of course, I'm still going to claim it was my book that caused the reviewers to write the reviews as they did.

Does that answer my question as to whether spending a lot of money on a publicist is worth it? No, it doesn't. I won't even have a small clue until the royalty statements begin to come in.
I'm not optimistic.

Just Randy being Randy.

Celebrate February

Let's celebrate February!

It's the shortest month of the year. It occurs in the dead of winter. Except for the Superbowl, the only sporting event of consequence is the publication of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

February has perhaps the weirdest collection of holidays of any month.

• On February 2, we have Ground Hog Day, where we honor a reclusive little burrowing mammal, which, on this day, takes on the status of oracle.  
• February 14, Valentine's Day, is the one day of the year that creates more anxiety for men than a group prostate exam. What's so hard about Valentine's Day? Finding the right gift. The right gift is one that gets you, the guy, what you want, which is to get laid. But can the gift say that? No. The gift must say the opposite. It must profess undying love and commitment. A gift that screams, "I want to jump your bones," will get you an evening alone. 
• Mardi Gras this year falls in February. What do we do on Mardi Gras? We engage in all sorts of excesses and debauchery in preparation for six weeks of atonement for excesses and debauchery. 
• Finally, there is President's Day, which is, in my opinion, an equal to July Fourth in importance because we celebrate all US presidents, and especially George Washington, the founder of our country, and Abraham Lincoln, the preserver of our country.

February birthdays are awesome. I don't think there is another month with an all-star birthday line-up to match February's.

Let's take just two dates.

• February 12 is the birthday of my granddaughter, Morgan, who is the cutest, smartest dancer in the world. It is also the birthday of two of the greatest thinkers of the world, two men of genius whose accomplishments are still being felt--Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln.
• February 22 is my birthday. Okay, maybe that's not much, but look who else was born on this day. George Washington, Edward M. Kennedy, Robert Baden Powell, Drew Barrymore and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Pulitzer Prize winner Edna St. Vincent Millay penned what might be the best paean to excess and debauchery.

First Fig
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But, ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--
It gives a lovely light!

A list of other notable February birthdays can be found here.


To celebrate February, I am giving away FREE electronic copies of my short story collection, Game Face. This offer expires at the end of the month, but, because this is a leap year, February has an extra day for you to take advantage of it.


To get your copy, click on your preferred ebook format:
mobi (for Kindle)
epub (for all other e-readers)

Mark Troy
Hawaiian-eye Blog
http://www.marktroy.net