On Book Publishing

I'm deeply humbled by APinoy of U.K. when he told me, in my Great Pinoy profile page, that he is sending over his personal copy of my book, KOILAWAN: Letter and Poems of a Jungle Dad-Mom, for my signature. Then, another request from a Kababayan (a fellow Filipino), was posted seeking advice on how to go about publishing. Such requests make me feel a successful writer; hence, I thank you all for that.

Thursday, Sept. 18, was a big day for me. Comfort Publishing emailed me that it has officially accepted my manuscript, PRAISING ALL SEASONS LONG: Haiku Verses, for publication. This will be published as an illustrated gift book. Please join me in thanking God, and hope you will continue to support me in this endeavor.

Now, let me address the request on publishing. KOILAWAN was my first published book. I have no book published in the Philippines. The only publications I have in our country were social research articles published in academic journals, such as the Philippine Journal of Society and Culture of University of San Carlos. I also have some magazine articles which were published by AGLOW Magazine. I have no book publication credentials, while I was down there. Therefore, allow me to blog something on publishing based on my experience here in the U.S.

Nowadays, there are several avenues to publish a book.

1) Traditional Publishing- We all know this one. It is publishing a work upon the invitation or decision of a book company, who, after promoting or pitching the manuscript to them, decided to publish it. Pitching could be either done by you or your hired literary agent. For aspiring writers, this is very hard to come by. Publishers, being profit-oriented companies, usually offer this to writers, who already got a name and hundreds of thousand fans.

2) Self-Publishing- This is an avenue for a writer, who has the money to spend, time to promote and market, and room (in your house) to stock copies of your book. One advantage is that you don't want to convince anybody but yourself that your book should be published and you can have a total control of the publishing process (even the procurement of ISBN, the International Standard Book Number) and marketing (even the book price). If you feel that there's a demand or are able to create a demand for the book, this avenue is the way to go.

3) Vanity or Subsidy Publishing- Some consider these as two separate things; however, they actually are just synonymous to each other. Again, money, time, and space are needed here. The writer has to pay to be published, time to spend in marketing, and space to stock the books. It differs from self-publishing, because the book company simply applies its ISBN to the writer's book. The author also receives a few copies of the book and is promised, which usually doesn't come true, royalties on those copies that might be sold by the subsidy press. Many vanity presses also require the writer to purchase, at least, a minimum number of copies as part of the contract. I don't recommend this to anybody. It's purely enriching the publisher, plain and simple.

4) Publish-on-Demand (POD)- In POD, the book is digitally set up and is only printed every time there are orders. This is the reason why, in contrast to vanity publishing, POD publishers do not require, but encourage, the writer to buy copies of the books. Some offer the writer 60% off the book selling price. But again, the author have to pay the publisher from $400-$2000, depending on the book printing quality and the package. Book inclusion in the company's book catalog, printing of posters or bookmarks to promote your book are some items that could be included in a package.

5) E-publish or Audio Publish - E-publish means your book is only available in the internet. People pay to listen to it. It started in the mid-90s, however, it seemed to fade, not until recently, when college students have started using the internet for their research. The problem, though, is that students cannot afford to subscribe to a book, which is not either their textbook or a one of the required readings of a course. This also is not the way to go in publishing, because very few readers would spend many hours in the internet to read a whole book.

In audio, you manuscript is in CD-format. You buy it just like your DVD or CD music.

My book, KOILAWAN, is a POD book. It is my first book. No marketable name yet, so the best way is to POD. I have to start somewhere. Before I decided to go POD, I pitched the book to a literary agent in New York. It was accepted, however, upon knowing that it would take many months, even years, to see it published, if ever the agent would be successful in pitching it to a publisher, I decided to go the POD way. As I mentioned in my social networking page, the book was included in the TOP 100 bestsellers in some online book outlets for several weeks.

My second book, The Experimental Dasang (Hey Poem)and 45 Other Poetry Forms: An Anthology, which would be in the market, hopefully, sometime in December, is also a POD book. Yes, I still have to shell out some "old presidents"(dollars)to the publisher.

This third book, Praising All Seasons Long: Haiku Verses, will be published without any expenses on my part. My royalty would be somewhere between 8% to 12% of the sale. Well, I actually still awaiting for the contract. If I am satisfied whatever is in the contract, then, I could sign it and Comfort Publishing(CP) would begin the printing process. CP will design the book cover and look for pictures to illustrate some of the verses.

I currently am pitching my other book project, Bedtime-Pastime: Collections of Short Stories and Bukidnon Folktales, to literary agents and book publishers. Hopefully, this also would be printed as a traditional book. Bedtime... is co-authored by Dr. Genoveva Melendez-Ablanque of Bukidnon State University. You could read the list of content and a few of the short stories and a folktale on Webook.com.

I also was one of the 20 Christian writers, who were invited to contribute 2 articles in a Webook book project, XPRESSION: On Saving Grace. My article and my blank poetry, "What Now...? Am a Polygamist?" and "A Love to Surrender", respectively, are still in first draft. To meet the deadline that I promised to our project leader, I also have posted them on Webook.com. They can be read-for-feedback. Please go and check them out. You'd know that most of my first draft need lots of polishing to do. This would give you an idea that writing is a challenging job.

NOTE: If someone would like me to address other issues on publishing through my blog, send me a message in my social network page or email me, edMindustan@gmail.com.