Write, publish, and sell—or perish

Marites Dañguilan Vitug

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Authors have to market their books, sometimes shamelessly. It’s the only way to reach a wide audience.

 
Marites D. VitugAt the recent Manila International Book Fair, I joined established publishers in their gathering to give awards to outstanding books in various categories. The books, which were judged for their content and design, yielded nice surprises, including well-written essays by a science writer who simplified seemingly esoteric concepts.   
 
Every 2 years, the Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP) gives out its Gintong Aklat awards. This is most welcome since writers and publishers in the country need some recognition, too.
 
In my talk, I shared with BDAP members the perspective someone who has recently joined the ranks of self-published authors. I hope that they see this as a positive development since there will be more content out there in the market. We will see a more diverse publishing landscape.
 
New technology has made this possible, including the phenomenon of e-books. Through Amazon and other digital platforms, authors can easily reach out to overseas and domestic markets.
 
This is liberating and it has an egalitarian effect. It widens the playing field and lessens barriers to publishing.
 
Accident
 
My road to self-publishing was not at all planned. It came as an accident.
 
In 2010, when I wrote Shadow of Doubt, I lost my original publisher and distributor. They chose to stay away because the book was bound to cause controversy. The Supreme Court, though the weakest branch of government, apparently made sure that my book wouldn’t be readily accessible.
 
I had to scramble for a new publisher. My news organization, Newsbreak, came to the rescue. We shared the task: Newsbreak took care of the paperback edition. With the help of my son, I took charge of the hardbound edition.
 
We found other outlets for the book: medium and small-sized bookstores. We set up our own website where we accepted online orders for hard copies.
 
We made the e-book version of Shadow of Doubt available on Amazon at the same time as the hard copies were on bookstore shelves.
 
I learned how to market a book. This was the first time—after writing 3 books—I worked real hard to promote and sell my book. I urge authors to do the same.
 
I realize that authors do not stop working once the book is done. Marketing and promoting it is very much part of our work, and it can be demanding of our time.
 
It seemed like I did—and continue to do—a lot of shameless self-promotion. But as Peter Osnos, the founder of Public Affairs books, said, “It’s essential that journalists recognize that to truly reach their audience, it is necessary to devote as much attention, time and effort to the promotion of the book and its contents as to its writing.”
 
Public Affairs specializes in nonfiction books. The challenge they and other publishers face, says Osnos, is how to give to consumers what they want, where they want it, and when they want it. Osnos’s aphorism is: “Good books. Anyway you want them. Now.”
 
Making the connection to the reader
 
Apart from promoting and marketing the book, there’s one big lesson I learned from all my talks and book tours. For the first time since I started writing books in the late 1980s, I felt that I was finally able to make a connection to the reader: the reader who knew and cared little about the subject that I wrote; high school and college students; non-lawyers. The ordinary reader, if there is such a person.
 
Listening to their questions, feedback—not all, of course, were positive—I realized the importance of telling a story, the narrative that weaves facts about true characters, living persons, and events that actually happened.
 
I hope that the narrative nonfiction genre will thrive in the Philippines, with the support and encouragement of publishers. There are a number of journalists and writers who have stories to tell; who are brimming with book ideas. But without funds to research and write, it is difficult to start.
 
In the Philippines, authors need to do everything (and I speak from experience): conceptualize a book, raise money for research and writing, put an editorial team together to produce it, publish it yourself or pitch it to a publisher, promote it, plan and oversee the book launch, and sell the book.
 
The National Book Development Board has started a competitive writing grant which is a boost for authors. Understandably, with its limited funds, it focuses on certain subjects.
 
If this idea could be picked up by our publishers, it will definitely lead to more content and diversify the voices in our publishing landscape.
 
Dream
 
I’ll ask you, dear readers, at this point to indulge me a bit as I share my dream with you.
 
My dream is to be a full-time author; an author who can live off her earnings from books. I think this will be good news for the industry as well.
 
This will mean that the reading public would have grown tremendously and can sustain authors; that the economy would have expanded such that many can afford to buy books; that the economics of the industry would have enabled publishers to give advances to authors; that grants for research and writing would be widely available and accessible.
 
That will also mean that e-books and hard-copy books would thrive, side by side. That will mean that more writers and journalists can enjoy being full-time authors. – Rappler.com

Marites D. Vitug will launch Hour Before Dawn: The Fall and Uncertain Rise of the Philippine Supreme Court, her second book on the judiciary, on September 21, 2012. Read excerpts here.

A MIXED BAG. When President Aquino made his first appointment to the Court, he cared about issues and where the candidate stood on these. But this slipped away as political realities and personal conveniences took over. This is the front cover of Marites Dañguilan Vitug's newest book.


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Marites Dañguilan Vitug

Marites is one of the Philippines’ most accomplished journalists and authors. For close to a decade, Vitug – a Nieman fellow – edited 'Newsbreak' magazine, a trailblazer in Philippine investigative journalism. Her recent book, 'Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won Its Maritime Case Against China,' has become a bestseller.