Author Cabo Bob Talks About His Latest Book, Mexican Slang 101

Cabo Bob is the author of a notorious, non-fiction book. Mexican Slang 101. This self-published masterpiece has sold thousands of copies. Despite being more than 20 years old, it is still a popular beach purchase. My interview with Cabo Bob proves to be inspiring and true.

What made you decide to write Mexican Slang 101?
Mexican Slang 101 grew out of what might be fairly typical. Friends, including gringo members of the Bi-cultural League of Playas de Tijuana, where I lived at the time, noticed I used a lot of slang expressions in my conversations at club meetings and dinners and asked me to share them. I got tired of xeroxing off lists for them, so I agreed to publish a book of slang for a local small press. This was the original version of the book: much more academic, with sections on Chicano slang and academic considerations: and written for people who already speak Spanish.

Difficulties arrived, and I ended my agreement with the publishing company.

Over time, I created my own book. I cut out the more intellectual stuff and added pronunciation guide. Spring-breakers and gringo ne'er-do-wells were my target demographic. My idea was sitting on a beach in Mexico while little urchins flogged the book to tourists and brought me the money.

The first versions of the book were deliberately very crude. The idea was to look like those joke packs of "Horseshit Cigarettes" sold to tourists in TJ. I actually xeroxed the cover several times to degrade the quality of the type. But it always had the same signature color cover: school bus yellow.

In the early nineties, while living in Mazatlan and selling the book on the beach myself as my only form of support (urchins turned out to be unreliable) I cleaned up the format, revised the contents and contracted the present skeleton covers from a fantastic Seattle artist, Jessica Creager.

I produced the book with photocopiers, did the stapling myself. Trimming off the "shingle" or page excess has always been the major hassle. I would usually work out a deal with some little Mexican printer in a hovel to let me use his hand-operated guillotine to trim the books. Generally cost me a couple of beers. The covers are printed because the stock won't go through copy machines. I've done them in dozens of little print shops. The kind where a guy burns plates by setting them in the sun and timing the exposure by smoking a cigarette.

A couple of years ago, I started the web site and started selling online. The success of that operation has led to doing the book in actually print shops, like other books.

How long have you been writing?
I have been writing all my life. I put out one-man books and newspapers in grade school. I refused to do student publications, (I have trouble working with others because I'm an asshole) but had several underground publications in the sixties and seventies. And I mean REALLY underground, not Berkeley Barb with business licenses and such.

I went on to write for newspapers and magazines all over the West. I've appeared in Harpers, Hustler, American Photographer, Penthouse, and Outlaw Biker - those sorts of publications.

Is this your first published book? If not, what are your other book titles?
I've had guides to Mexico published, but currently off the market. Likewise a couple of volumes of verse, including "Engines of Desire". At the moment, Mexican Slang 101 and the other slang books are the only ones out there. But I still plan to be a novelist and screenwriter if I grow up. Rich, famous, and surrounded by hot young women: I think this is the year for it.

Are you currently working on a new book?
Mexican Jokes 102 has been in the works for an embarrassingly long time. Mostly I have been working on novels and a couple of them will be published this year. I am also hoping that my border TV series, currently in development with Hollywood producers, will get bought by a cable network. The novels in question are, not shockingly, set in Mexico: including the science fiction one.

It sounds to me that your book is pretty successful. Do you believe that it was a success? What was the main thing that caused this success?
Mexican Slang 101 is quite successful in its niche. If you Google Mexican, slang, dictionary, Spanish, that sort of query, I come up all over it. I've learned a lot about search engine optimization, link-building, and all the stuff to get people to a site to buy. That said: it's not enough at this point to support me by itself and probably won't be. The good thing about a niche market is that it's easy to target. The rough thing is, it's just a niche and that's all there is. I can't go out there and make more people interested in Mexican Slang.

Part of the "secret" is just being a big item in that narrow niche. There's also the fact that I'm a good, professional writer, (I've won literary and humor column awards) so it helps that it's a quality product in the sense of the information and readability. The artwork also helps, I'd say. It's eye-catching and the life of the book has paralleled a fashion trend towards skeletons. Another thing I did right without thinking about it all that much was choosing the bright yellow cover stock. It jumps right off the shelf at you and is very noticeable on the beach or wherever.

Were there any struggles along the way? What was the hardest part in making, publishing, or marketing your book?
This has not been a labor of love struggling with problems. It's more like, make money goofing off in Mexico. The hard work of the job: running around to printers, stapling, chopping, all that, is fun for me. I like printers and the funkier their shops the more I dig them.
The scariest time for me was the first time I crossed from Baja to Mazatlan. Once there I didn't have the money to get back to the States and no source of more money. I lived in a crazy little hotel where the shower shocks you for $20 a week and worked the beach and restaurants, illegally selling my book. I was a gringo wetback working illegally in Mexico.

The book didn't sell. I went from ten books a day to zero for over a week. I was pretty panicked, but ran into a guy who had a booth where cute girls put on temporary tattoos. He told me flat out the book was over-priced at $5 (which it still sells for, after over 20 years) because the "Land of Maz" is a cheapskate destination. He sold his tattoos for less there than his stall in Cabo.

So I dipped into my dwindling funds and printed a new set of covers for $3 and replaced all the covers, re-stapled. Immediately, I started selling a few dozen a day. It was enough money to live on, which I did for six months.

What would be your advice to aspiring authors?
My advice would be:

Don't go to college to study writing. Learn something you can live with. It might become what your write about. Some of the most successful authors of our time are lawyers and doctors.

Don't spend a lot of money on "how to write" books and courses. They are for people who can't write and hope some magic key will make them able to. It won't. If you can't write, no book will help you. If you can, you will figure it out.

If it's your intention to be a novelist of poet, don't write commercially for a living. Newspapers, tech writing, etc. It just burns you out and dulls the edge of the itch. Get a job that is comfortable and doesn't clutter up your head. Nursing is great. Wallace Stephens sold insurance. How many greats were previously journalists?

Try your hand at all kinds of writing. Poems, songs, scripts, flash, whatever. Who knows what you're best at?

The big thing I'd say to people who want to self-publish is: it's no picnic running around selling books. If you aren't up to that, and don't have the skills to deal with printers, you're better off having a publisher.You are also best off in a defined niche. The more money in the niche, the better. I know people who do what I do, but sell their books for $25 or $200 apiece.

For more information about Cabo Bob and Mexican Slang 101, please visit http://slang101.com