The Forum - July-August 2007 - (Vol 8 Issue 4)

Going Indie: The challenges of independent publishing

Celeste Ann Castillo Llaneta

Gloria F. Rodriguezs office is full of giraffes. From stuffed toys to figurines to posters, giraffes have turned the room into a wildlife preserve. The impressive collection is not of her own doing. Every single giraffe was given to Rodriguez by friends and family in honor of her role for the past fourteen years. Thats me, Im Giraffe, says the septuagenarian who is the sole proprietor of Giraffe Books. Im a one-woman publisher. Somebody would call and ask to speak to the personnel manager, and I would say, yes, this is she. The editor? Yes, speaking. At times, Im also the janitor. Rodriguez established Giraffe Books in 1993 after retiring from New Day Publishing, a non-profit publishing house established by the Christian Literature Society of the Philippines in 1969. Rodriguez joined it in 1973 and is chiefly responsible for making it a pioneering (and for certain periods, the only) literary publishing house in the country. She retired from it in 1993. It was my own private ambition, to publish books that are good for the Filipino and that express the Filipino spirit. Over the years, Giraffe has published history books, collections of short stories, essays and poetry by both Filipino and foreign authors, and a Humor from the Internet series compiled and edited by Rodriguez herself. Still, nothing lasts forever, and Rodriguez has already foreseen the end of Giraffe Books. By 2008, I will be 80 years old. Im overstaying as a publisher as it is. Giraffe Books has seen everything that could happen to a small, independent publisher in the Philippines, from distribution and financial woes to inspiring feedback on their books from appreciative readers. Its experience, as well as that of other publishers, can be a helpful guide to the new indie publishers today. Indie is as indie does Coming up with a good definition of an independent press can be as tricky as the publishing business itself. In its website, the Independent Press Philippines, a non-profit organization launched during the Read or Die Convention earlier this year organized by the book club Read or Die, Inc. (ROD), cites a loose definition of an independent press or a small pressthe terms are sometimes used interchangeablyas a publisher whose press run does not exceed five thousand and who doesnt publish more than ten books a year. Another portion of the website clarifies that the important distinction between a small press and an independent press lies in the fact that, the raison detre for independent publishers is not their small size but the types of books they publish and their cultural and financial point-of-view. By whichever definition, Giraffe Books is a good example of a small and/or independent press. Small presses are virtually non-existent, observes Kristin Mandigma, founding member of Read or Die, Inc. Literary publishing is almost solely the territory of large publishers such as Anvil Publishing, Inc., and the university presses. Most small publishers are the publishers of comic books. Among the small literary publishers, Mandigma cites Kenneth Yu, who publishes Philippine Genre Stories, a digest of speculative and pulp fiction, and award-winning writer Dean Francis Alfar, who publishes his yearly anthology on Philippine Speculative Fiction. Both Yu and Alfar handle their own marketing and the distribution of their books. Its in the attitude Lirio Sandoval, president of the Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP), has a different point of view. He says, Its not whether youre big or small. Its a way of thinking. When we say independent, we usually mean independent from the influence of your financier or the company board of directors. However, there are small publishers who might be under the influence of other outside forces, such as advertisers or authors who want to get themselves published. Independent means, what I want to publish, Ill publish. Thats how I would define it. In that sense, he believes that independent publishers are making their mark in the publishing industry. In every bookstore, the shelves are laden with new publications and genres that werent there ten years ago. As far as the

creative side of publishing is concerned, the Philippine book industry is doing well, says Sandoval. There are lots of interesting books and publications coming out. [Publishers] have more ideas than they can handle, and thats why you have these independent establishments coming up. On the business side, however, [publishing] is still not very profitable, Sandoval admits. There are still too few readers compared to our population. Or we might have the readers, but they dont have the capacity to buy [books]. The Philippines has also been lagging behind in the regional book market. I think we have enough talent, but sad to say, we dont have enough book buyers, either here or abroad. Myth-busting That Filipinos dont read is a familiar complaint. Antonio Hidalgo, president of Milflores Publishing, Inc., begs to differ. In his paper titled Creative Publishing, delivered at a symposium held two years ago at the University of Santo Tomas, he cites this as one of two common misconceptions, the second misconception being the prediction that the explosion of information technology in the form of the Internet, cable TV, CD-ROMs, etc. would render books obsolete. The first [misconception] is a half-truth at best, Hidalgo writes. It is simply not true that Filipinos dont readthey do. In fact, the Inquirerran a story on an international survey that shows that Filipinos, on the average, read more books than the Chinese, Koreans or Indians. According to a 2003 Social Weather Station (SWS) survey of reading attitudes and preferences of Filipinos, 90 percent of Filipino adults have read books and 68 percent have read non-school books. Filipinos read books that they think they need or want. This accounts for the sustained success of large publishers that specialize in romance novels in Filipino and in religious books. I think that the second misconception is simply false, he continues. Book publishing, in fact, has grown both globally and locally along with the proliferation of IT. Adventures in publishing A publishing company that has been proving Hidalgos point is PSICOM Publishing. Arnel Gabriel, president of PSICOM, traces the companys roots to a computer magazine. As the Internet grew as a font of information, PSICOM responded by putting out a magazine on IT news. When that dwindled in popularity, PSICOM tested the waters of book publishing with computer books, but immediately discovered a major drawbackcomputer developers will always be quicker to put out new versions of their software. Figuring that PSICOM should try other genres, and upon observing the then rising fad of texting, they put out a series of books on text quotes, text ring tones, etc. [The books] were a hit. We printed around fourteen books and we came out with a new book every two to three months, he says. As proof, he calls attention to the display in his office of three plaques of recognition from National Bookstore awarding the top three bestselling spots to a PSICOM publication. Then, just as with every other fad, it hit the downtrend. While scouting around for a new good idea, Gabriel happened to be present during one of the book fairs in Singapore. I noticed a commotion going on in one of the booths. I checked it out and saw that the booth was selling Singapore ghost stories. He came back, met his editors and writers, and soon came up with the first of the True Philippine Ghost Stories series. With this, PSICOM hit pay dirt. The books sold like the proverbial hotcakes, to everyonesincluding Gabriels complete astonishment. There was a time when our purchase order was almost 1,000 books a day, he says. Since then, PSICOM has been mapping out uncharted territories of publishing, coming up with offerings that include DC Comics, the How to Draw Manga series, magazines for the Japanese anime otaku, a whole spectrum of genres from horror to chick lit to humor, and even new experimental forms such as books based on Internet blogs, dubbed blooks. When we ventured into book publishing, we began to realize that there was a market [for books]. An untapped market, he says. Were experimenting with different genres now, and I think there will always be a buyer for your books. Not all their books were successful. For instance, a series of romance novels based on GMAs Love to Love series sold less than expected. The market for science fiction books, despite the glut of manuscripts, is similarly weak. [But] as long as its a good idea, were open to it. Although not a small press by a long shot, based on the number of titles it publishes, as long as the definition of independence is the freedom to try out new forms and, as Gabriel notes, being able to experiment the way we want to, then PSICOM is it.

Talking the talk Whats the difference between a book that sells and a book that haunts the shelves? One factor often overlooked by the educated elite is the language of the book itself. Gabriel observed an odd phenomenon when the first True Philippine Ghost Stories came out. Book 1 had a lot of mistakes in grammar and a lot of typos, but it sold. When we cleaned up the mistakes, the sales dipped. So in the next book, we left the language alone and only minimally changed the words used by the contributors, who were usually high school or elementary school children. That book became another hit, he says, especially among high school and elementary school kids, who speak the same language. The relative lassitude toward science fiction might also be due to the fact that most sci-fi books are written in English. Gabriel is ready to test this theory by coming out with a sci-fi book in Filipino. According to Hidalgo, the preference for Filipino is supported by the findings of the SWS survey reported in his paper, which shows that 57 percent of Filipino adults prefer to read non-school books in Tagalog (Filipino), while only 30 percent prefer English, and 13 percent prefer Cebuano. Hidalgo remarked in his paper that discussing this finding never fails to inflame some people, since this finding is counter-intuitive to those whose first language is English and who think that the rest of the country is like them. The class divide He traces the roots of this phenomenon to our history. We have a problem because our best writers who are welleducated write in English. The mass audience, who are not well-educated, read in Filipino, he says. Quite apart from the language barrier, this is also a manifestation of the class divisions in our society. Weve been a class society since Spanish times. Our elite was formed through collaboration with the colonizers, not through the support of the masses, so there is no bond formed between the elite and the masses. To be acceptable to the colonizers, you had to distance yourself from the masses. Our historical experience has resulted in our elitethe educated and highly literatebeing alienated from the masses, i.e. the reading market. According to Hidalgo, what we have today is the books written by the nations brightest sitting untouched while the masses feed on a steady diet of tabloids, escapist romance novels, and formulaic TV shows that do nothing to uplift them. Its not just in the choice of language either. This alienation also manifests itself in the cover designs, which are often done along Western styles and fail to take into account Philippine popular taste. Were all aware of fictionists who try to do, say, Latin American magical realism without regard for cultural tastes, says Hidalgo. The masses think, This isnt for me. This is written for them. Intersection of life In this context, Milflores Publishing, Inc., established in 1999, has formed its advocacy. We look for the intersection of life between the masses and the intellectuals. The best writers in the country have much to offer readers, provided that they address the needs and wants of readers and the obstacle of language in their writing. We advocate cultural development by getting our best minds to talk to the masses, and I guarantee the latter will appreciate it. In fact, Hidalgo strongly suggests that writers learn to write in Filipino, which he himself did at the age of 56. In writing his highly popular sabong series, he discovered that when he translated the books into Filipino, the sales of the books jumped. The masses cannot learn to read English because they wish to read the best minds. You, the best minds, are the ones who can adjust. Besides the language barrier, the same SWS survey Hidalgo referred to in his paper found that 91 percent of Filipinos read to gain information or additional knowledge, while only 9 percent read for amusement. While Filipino writers concentrate on writing fiction or poetry, 9 out of 10 buyers are looking for information books. Again, Milflores tried to bridge that disparity by getting the best minds to write about the experiences that all Filipinos have in common, no matter what class they come from. Their lineup of books now includes the best-selling English Grammar series and books on themes such as Filipinos migrating to the US, insomnia, the gay culture, etc. Milflores, Hidalgo says, has hit upon a win-win situation. We need to profit so that we can continue publishing books, which in turn help the readers by educating them. Pandering to the masses craving for escapist romance novels, for instance, will not help develop minds. On the other hand, in our books we dont simplify the subject. We tell it as it is.

Hidalgo believes then that the definition of independent publishing has nothing to do with size. A vanity press that publishes self-aggrandizing autobiographies of rich people may be small, but is in no way independent. Neither is a huge company that produces formulaic work solely to make a profit. Independent publishers are those who are independent from whatever influences might force them to sacrifice the quality of their work or compromise their standards for any reason. In the same sense that the Philippine Daily Inquirer is independent, then Milflores, a small press, and even Anvil, a large one, are independent. Obstacle course Given the challenges of the Philippine readership, how do publishers, especially smaller publishers, succeed in the business? Surviving financially is very hard, says Rodriguez, who had to learn accounting in order to maintain Giraffe. In his blog, Charles Tan, a self-confessed bibliophile working as editorial assistant for the Fookien Times Philippines Yearbook, gives a general description of the financial hoops a publisher must jump through in order to sell a book. There is the consignment fee required by major bookstores before they agree to display your books on the shelves, ranging from 40 to 50 percent of the price of the book. Other costs include securing the books ISBN, transporting the books to all the bookstores branches and monitoring sales, giving your author his or her 10-20% royalty and paying your illustrators and editors, plus, of course, the cost of printing the book. It helps to have your own printing pressGabriel can attest to thatbut even PSICOM still has to cope with the rising costs of paper and materials. For Giraffe, having good relations with a dependable printer is the key. The publisher ends up scraping by with whatever is left. There is also the fact that nobody will buy a book that is too expensive. The 2003 SWS survey has shown that 58 percent of Filipinos who do buy books only spent P200 a year or less. Both Gabriel and Hidalgo suggest minimizing overhead to lower costs. Sandoval, for his part, stresses the importance of marketing. Ive been telling publishers, both mainstream and independent, that you have to allocate a budget to promote your books. You might have published a good book, but if no one knows about it, it wont sell. He urges publishers to explore other avenues, such as direct marketing or selling through other places besides bookstores. The first thing I learned in the book publishing business is that a book unseen is a book unsold. Banding together An encouraging development for the smaller publishers is the move to form a cooperative that could enable them to pool their resources, especially when it comes to marketing and distributing their books. This is where ROD is headed through their initiative, the Independent Press Philippines, or the Koop. In fact, Mandigma is excited about the upcoming 28th Manila International Book Fair to be held at the World Trade Center from August 28 to September 2, because the National Book Development Board and the BDAP have both given the go signal to small, indie publishers to sell their books at the Fair through the ROD. Its a chance for small publishers to get their books promoted, says Mandigma, who urges small presses to register for the Fair at their website. There are plenty of talented writers who deserve to be published and we need an alternative forum for them to be heard. If we can diversify the publishing environment, we can help develop the Philippine readership, our writers and literature itself. You have to love what youre doing, Rodriguez counsels budding publishers. The returns are often intangible, but there are many. As many returns as there are giraffes in her office.