Mina V. Esguerra's Blog, page 17

Another episode of “read and recommend your peers”

Sharing a thread I tweeted yesterday, which comes at the end of months of being in panels, watching panels, possibly being panel-fatigued. The point of the thread being, when people tell you that your book is a disappointment because it doesn’t have something, tell them about the books by your peers that do have that thing. Also, read your peers.

In fact: When asked for recommendations, have a list ready, and make sure you mention people in your community, writing the same genre, who’ve published within the last five years if not the same year as your book’s release. This is what brings the best readers to you, I promise.

An individual book won’t have everything everyone is looking for, so it’s good to always have recs to books that may have the other things. Just the act of recommending opens awareness that the stories and perspectives are many. It helps everyone.

When my first 2 books (pubbed 2009/2010) started showing up in classrooms, and I was invited to speak, I would hear a lot of what my books were not. (Not in the local language! Not about social issues! Where is ____ and _____? It’s set in Manila ugh.)

Back then if I responded I did say “what’s wrong with that? You’re not going to tell me how to write my story.” Not those words but essentially that.

Later I got it (sorry it took a while). All of that was privilege.

There’s a lot of privilege in getting chosen for nationwide distribution and happening to write cis straight mf secular upper middle class college educated set in Manila in English. Years later I met writers who didn’t want to, but felt they had to, write that just to get pubbed.

*Wattpad and the internet in general changed this, btw. Now we know what Pinoys really want to read. And it’s a whole lot of NOT what corporate pubs thought.

Writers like me who were given a shot because we happened to fit that preferred aesthetic: We can make choices. The easiest of which is recommending the books that have what our books don’t.

The next harder choice is deciding how to open the door wider. We should. Especially if we know what being on the other side of a closed door is like.

…And I should rec things. What my books don’t have, you can find here:

Big Filipino families – books by Carla de Guzman

Not Manila settings – C.P. Santi, Agay Llanera

Filipinos singing – Jay E. Tria, Tara Frejas, Six de los Reyes

Class conflict – Brigitte Bautista

Erotic rom in Taglish – Mandie Lee

Filipinos going to church – Ana Tejano

Teen characters (I have a few but I can’t do this anymore lol) – Ines Bautista-Yao, Angeli E. Dumatol, Danice Mae P. Sison, Catherine Dellosa, Clarisse David

Also, I still need and will support this

#romanceclass Reminder that I'm still waiting for the multibook contemporary romance series entirely set in Cebu (heat level 3) thanks

— Mina V. Esguerra (@minavesguerra) November 22, 2017

And this offer

First author from #RomanceClass to write a historical romance based on this prompt, finishes it, and wishes to indie pub it: I'll pay for your editorial (dev edit, copy edit, proofing, and sensitivity reads), publishing, and blog tour. Start a series, please, thank you.

— Mina V. Esguerra (@minavesguerra) April 17, 2019

Originally tweeted by Mina V. Esguerra (@minavesguerra) on December 14, 2020.

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What saved 2020 for me, as a creator

All the conferences and panels are online now, and I may have done more speaking engagements in 2020 than I ever have in 11 years of being an author. Each time I’m asked to speak, I prepare a presentation about #RomanceClass and my books, and usually I don’t need to update that until the following year.

This year though, every speaking engagement I’ve needed to add something to the “about RomanceClass and my books” because the coping and evolving has been so quick and consistent. Literally a few weeks later we’ll have tried a new thing (as a response to the impossibility of another) and when it works I want to include it when I speak, so others know it’s possible.

At a panel I did in November, I presented this at the end of a summary of 2020 activities and stats.

At the beginning of lockdown, I was asked what about my writing and publishing process would change, now that we have to stay home and can’t do events. I said then that actually, not much would change. So much of the corporate publishing side of this industry relied on distribution and promotion channels that many of us self-publishers and indies didn’t have access to anyway. So, we had to find other spaces, to keep creating. Many of these spaces were online. We were already digital and shipping books direct to buyers. And we were already doing this together, sharing what we learned and what we were capable of, because that way is easier and more fun than going at it alone.

The flipside of saying “hey if you don’t have a complete corporate publishing team then join a community” is that then some people think “how can I get in on that community action while doing the least” and…and nope. When people form communities (especially in response to being excluded from something), they want to welcome people—but are also careful of this welcome and access being exploited. I say this for #RomanceClass but it can apply to other communities too. Definitely I encourage people to find communities but don’t be that person who sees a welcome mat and then helps themselves to the labor and resources and good will. Obviously as moderator I’ve encountered these people. And I’ve taken action. We need to trust each other.

One way to build trust is by making consistent and intentional choices. Many creative communities work consistently and intentionally through trends and cycles. We are here even when a thing is not “hot” or “sensational.” We’re around for people even when numbers drop or corporate support is withdrawn.

Even in a year like 2020, apparently we can still make books and new stories happen. I’m a writer so this’ll heavily favor writing but look at the impact of a single writer continuing bit by bit. Words become chapters, chapters become manuscripts or scripts, which then generates activity and work for editors, artists, photographers, models, actors, and then becomes something that a reader in your city or a city on the other side of the world can enjoy. Impact. On many, many lives.

I ended my last speaking engagement with this, because I had a feeling people were wondering what the future holds for publishing. The future is being made by creative communities today. Support them. Buy them, read them. Give them resources and space to thrive.

As always, thank you to the ones who already do. And the ones already creating. You’re getting so many people through a crap year. And you will determine the future of anything.

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Kiss and Cry audiobook, narrated by Rachel Coates

Kiss and Cry has an audiobook edition! This was produced through the Findaway Voices and Scribd Choice Authors Program, and I’m grateful to have been selected. The team at Findaway Voices and Scribd also supported the decision to hire my choice of narrator, Rachel Coates, for this project. That’s wonderful because, as it is, there aren’t a lot of Filipino books in audio, and when we actually produce them I feel we should be prioritizing Filipinos as the narrators.

Why aren’t there a lot of audio editions of books by Filipino authors? Because it’s expensive. We need a good narrator, access to a studio or recording equipment, someone who can edit audio. Novels take time to record, and checking it requires listening to an entire book and then going back and forth with revisions. It’s a production! We want everyone involved to be paid well for their work. It is its own format and having an audio edition introduces a book to so many new readers.

Kiss and Cry will be available on Scribd (upon release), and then eventually at other audio retailers. While we’re waiting, I’ll share some chapters. If you don’t have Scribd yet, here’s a link to get a 2-month free trial: scribd.com/ga/38qf0k

Chapter 1 Kiss and Cry by Mina V. Esguerra narrated by Rachel Coates

Definitely the plan is to have audio editions of all of my books, of all the romanceclass books, and develop a narrator pool of Filipino talent for romance and YA books. Do you want this? Or do you want to help? Let me know!

Listen to the audiobook of Iris After the Incident (also narrated by Rachel Coates).

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About RomanceClass (2020 Update)

Script and slides of an About RomanceClass presentation updated in 2020. Video version embedded above.

Hello! My name is Mina V. Esguerra and I will be talking about romanceclass, a community of Filipino authors of romance in English. 

About Me: I live in Metro Manila in the Philippines, and I write and publish English-language romance books mostly with Filipino characters in the Philippines. I was first published in 2009, and this year released my 25th book. 

I started the #romanceclass community when I offered a free contemporary romance class online in 2013. Since then we have helped over 80 Filipino authors write and publish over 100 contemporary romance books. In my country there is a huge audience for international romance in English and also a huge and separate audience for romance in Tagalog. For Filipino authors writing in English, not so much. Yet. For many Filipinos, English is a first language, it is the medium of instruction, we have our own English because of our colonial history. We’ve imported so much romance in English and we love it but don’t see ourselves as lead characters in it. It’s been the challenge of my author career to have audiences accept and love Filipinos as main characters of an English language romance book. I had to come to terms with that myself, and then with the community that formed after the class, work with them to create books that help us define our place in the genre.

The short version of how we do it is this: Over several years we developed guidelines, representing what the community stands for, and should be a consistent experience across different authors and different books, because most of us will be self-publishing. Once we decide that our book’s characters will be Filipino and the setting will be the Philippines, we know that we very likely will be self-publishing. Those main guidelines are: requiring the HEA/HFN, consent, agency for their Filipino characters, and that they work with romanceclass readers in their beta reading or editing stage. Authors are encouraged to identify gaps in the growing catalogue of our books and write what’s missing. Over the years we’ve provided support for authors to write, for example: higher heat levels, older characters, settings within the Philippines but outside of Manila the capital, and more queer romance.

Apart from this, we’ve stepped up our support for the authors and books with more…fun stuff. We’ve invited experts to talk about querying, marketing, bookstagramming, as a group we’ve sold our books at fairs, organized performances and our own events. We’ve even done our own cover shoots.

In 2020 quarantine has meant we don’t get to do in-person workshops and events, but we continue to provide support online in writing, editorial, design, promotion. Right now I’d say we’re at a new level of just providing emotional support and reminding Filipino authors that there is still an audience for their romance book because writing is a struggle for many right now. 

Information about our books and everything else we’re doing can be found on romanceclassbooks.com.

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How #RomanceClass “met” Shinta Mori, who is fictional, or is he

First of all: “Shinta Mori” is a character created by Jay E. Tria. The character is a Japanese actor who becomes the love interest of Filipino indie musician Jill, in a book called Songs Of Our Breakup, the first in what is now a five-book series. Shinta and Jill are the main couple in two books, but they’re recurring characters in the other books, and have since made appearances or have been referenced in #RomanceClass books by other authors.

Working with Bold MP, and making more use of our video channels this year to replace/supplement events we would have been doing, has led to…this. We found out that we would get the chance to work with actor Kurt Sanchez Kanazawa in time for #FeelsFest2020 in October. Tara Frejas asked if we could do a promo video of sorts, “Shinta Mori reading Thirst Tweets” or something like that. The script for the fictional “thirst tweets” came in mere days later, a hilarious mix of stuff we might tweet about Shinta, and things characters from #RomanceClass books might say to Shinta. If they wanted to make fun of him being hot and all.

Kurt Sanchez Kanazawa, Jay E. Tria, and Tara Frejas

“So here are the tweets, and then you react to them. As Shinta.” Is not the comprehensive and simple direction that it looks like, in retrospect. An actor could react to the scripted tweets any number of ways and it would be fine? We’d find it funny. We’d give a tip or two to guide them. Fill them in on character things from the books that they of course wouldn’t know when jumping into this. AND YET. In the making of this we…saw…Shinta become a person??? What??? Kurt’s responses are brilliant, hilarious, sweet. We’re not over it.

We’re also not over the fact that we asked an actor-director-writer-Juilliard-grad opera singer to say “Grabe yung abs ni Shinta Mori pwede akong maglaba” but yeah. He said it. Exactly how he was supposed to. That was when I realized that this was art. (Huhu thank you po.)

Kurt Sanchez Kanazawa will be part of the program of #RomanceClass #FeelsFest2020, reading as Shinta Mori. Save the date and be on kilig.pub./twitch on October 10, 2020 at 1 PM PHT. (Or earlier…we have a pre-event thing earlier!)

What this is for

The title of this post is confusing, most likely. I’ve given this topic a lot of thought because recently I’ve had to say versions of this to people, and even with practice I’m not sure if a post summarizing all the thoughts will adequately explain it. So I’m putting it here on my blog, instead of an official explanation on the romanceclass website.

“How do I become a #romanceclass author?” someone will ask.

Attend the class is the easiest answer, but we don’t always have an ongoing class. (There is a textbook of sorts, available on Gumroad, with guidelines and a writing schedule, but some people want a teacher teaching them and this year I don’t have the energy for it. It won’t be me.) Read the books has been the other thing I say, but that isn’t detailed enough an instruction, right? Sometimes I say that and people come back expecting to be personally mentored, now that they’ve read the minimum number I’d said. Okay, no.

Here’s an attempt at being clearer about it. Because, I’m going to assume people want not just to write a romance book, but have access to the things that authors in the #romanceclass community have access to. These things are, but not limited to: critique partners, editorial support, designer recs, photo shoots, launch opportunities, learning opportunities, group selling inclusion, performers reading their work for an audience, readers actually reading. This has a lot of value, we know now. (We often think we’re just having fun and it is. But also valuable.)

So, here. To become a romanceclass author, here’s a suggested path:

Enjoy reading contemporary romance in English.

Read 5 or more contemporary romances in English by Filipino authors. And the more #romanceclass books the better.

Consider romanceclass readers and fellow authors as critique partners, and be ready to actually revise based on comments you might get, even if they fundamentally change your manuscript. (Tip: It’s okay to consider us as customers only. We buy and read all kinds of books! But if we’re not part of your writing process before the marketing and selling then we’re not your writing community.)

I’m looking at the list above and depending on how tired I am, may see it as too much work or not enough. As I’ve had to say a few times over the years, all of this is not meant to make things difficult. If you love the genre and like the way we’ve been writing it and appreciate how the books look and find the things we do to boost readership fun, then this will not seem impossible. It will, I’m hoping, seem like you finally located people who appreciate the things you do and worked together to make certain things easier.

Over the years I’ve had to reply to a thing in my email and say in various different ways that I know what they want, but that’s not what this community is for. That’s not fun, and those words get stuck in my head for days.

I don’t know if writing any of this down will help. But I feel like I should say it, in case it actually saves me from having to get on your replies. (I can be a lot more, um, frank about this in private replies.) When you say you want to be part of this, are you thinking in terms of what you’re going to get, or what you’re going to give? (And does it make sense when I say that it’s both, together?)

So Forward (Six 32 Central #3)

Hi, book! So glad to see you.

Book description:

Colin Valerio has been performing practically all his life. From national team figure skating, to underwear modeling, and now posting (shirtless) selfies daily for his adoring audience. Many don’t know though that at 29, he’s quietly earning his MBA degree—that is, if he can fix his final paper. It’s got too much heart, not enough business.

National hockey team medalist, outstanding young professional, MBA prof on leave…Lexa Lorenzo is determined and driven, and did all that by age 32. She should be her family corp’s next CEO. But she’s all business, not enough heart, and her mentor/boss/aunt wants her to be more accessible, approachable, “charming.”

As luck would have it, Lexa’s alma mater calls her in to help a graduating MBA student—and it’s Colin Valerio, fellow winter sports athlete, walking/talking ball of charm. She has the sports and business background he needs. He is a natural at all the things she’s told to improve on, and may be able to teach her a thing or two. Let the lessons begin.

[Part of the Six 32 Central series, but can be read as a standalone.]

Tags: M/F, bisexual MMC, mba, strama, ex hockey, ex figure skating, Pinoy company performance shenanigans, set in Manila, RomanceClass heat level 3 (on-page sex scenes), English language

Buy links: Amazon Gumroad (epub/mobi) Google Play Kobo Apple Books B&N Print (PH)

This cover was designed by Tania Arpa, with photography by Chi Yu Rodriguez (romanceclasscovers), styling by Alex Lapa, makeup by Layla Tanjutco, featuring cover models Samantha Aquino and Raphael Robes.

Hello Ever After episode 1 (I wrote it!)

In my book What Kind of Day, one of my main characters, Naya, works in tourism, has her own travel business, although there is a hint of what could be a future career for her beyond the business. In this episode of #HelloEverAfter that I wrote, I give an update on that. Naya’s business has closed, the job offer isn’t happening, and the possible career…needs to be rethought.

This project was about writing our characters in quarantine, and I could have (was really tempted to) use characters whose lives weren’t directly affected. That would have been the happier, easier. But the senator’s staffer and tourism entrepreneur had more to say.

So much to say that I wrote it all down in mere hours, and I think the other #RomanceClass authors who wrote #HelloEverAfter episodes would say the same. Sometimes anger and frustration can lead to this. We can still turn it into romance and hope. (Well, we try.)

Episode 2 of Hello, Ever After is “We Will Be Okay” by Celestine Trinidad. It goes up on Friday, July 3, at 7 PM at kilig.pub/youtube.

[Reposted from this Twitter thread.]

RomanceClass Books and Bold MP

This week I made a major change to my author bio: Adaptations rights of my books are now represented by Anna Liza Recto-Ruth at Bold MP. (Which means any inquiries on adaptations should be sent to annaliza [at] boldmp.com, thank you!) This was a fun, exciting thing that Anna Liza and I have been working on for about a year, and I’m glad I was able to get certain things in place right before quarantine.

One of those “things” was how to work out a partnership so that other #RomanceClass books could be represented, and get a shot at the same adaptation opportunities that my books would get. And frankly, go in all the other directions beyond the scope of my books. It makes sense to me, and it’s how we’ve been doing things anyway. So now there’s a formal aspect to it, and I have become the agent representing adaptation rights for over 70 independently published #RomanceClass books.

(Some of the) RomanceClass authors at the meeting with Bold MP.

It’s been suggested to me way before now to make RomanceClass a publisher, and I’ve resisted that for a bunch of reasons. The primary reason being, publishers make decisions based on what makes them money, and even though we’re very aware of that fact and swim in that world every day, I didn’t want to have that influence the way the community wrote and released and celebrated our books.

I’m grateful that Anna Liza and the team at Bold MP not only appreciate this, but found a way for us to work together with every author still retaining literary and publishing rights (and freedom to pursue book projects they want to do). We’re here for the books they’ve already written, to find out where else in the world they can go, and any future books they want us to represent in the same way.

As soon as I posted this on social media, I got some questions, and here are some answers too:

– I didn’t become a literary agent. I still publish my books, and will keep doing that, but just my own.

– I will only represent #RomanceClass books (ie books written with the community, following guidelines we’ve set, and in a way that’s responsive to feedback by the readers of the community). As of this announcement, I’ve already made an offer to all the authors whose books I would like to represent.

– Joining #RomanceClass and writing/publishing a book with the community doesn’t mean I now automatically represent it. I have to make an offer, and the author has to accept.

I’ll update this page with answers, if I get more questions. Excited for future things, and I’m glad to be doing this with these lovely people.

I’m angry so I wrote a thing: “Make Good Days” for the Hello, Ever After web series

Yes, it’s kind of sudden. But hey…we’re producing a web series! An official announcement is up here at the romanceclass website. This post will be more about the feelings that led up to writing what would be an episode for a sudden #RomanceClass web series.

I actually have been working on my books throughout quarantine. Not with as much time as I would have been able to, if my daughter were at school and there hadn’t been an actual pandemic to deal with, but I did major revisions on a book, got started on the publishing process for it, and am several thousand words into book 4 of Six 32 Central. I’m not sure if anyone has noticed but the books in the Six 32 Central series are set in a somewhat concurrent timeline, with What Kind of Day, Kiss and Cry, and the upcoming So Forward happening in 2018 (but the epilogue of Kiss and Cry is in 2019). Book 4 is comfortably happening in 2019 as I write it, so the plot hasn’t been affected by 2020’s COVID-19 all that much.

But the other, tricky thing that maybe only I care about, is that I set up Six 32 Central as a series about people who are challenging and changing systems. I’ve managed to populate the maybe-4 book series with Filipinos who happen to be: a senator’s staffer, a tourism enthusiast, winter sports advocates. (And in the next books: business school and family corporation rebels, a tech education startup co-founder, a sustainable-fashion entrepreneur.) Fine, the timeline for the series ends in 2019, but they would be the types who’d care about 2020 wouldn’t they? They would be as angry as I am about the massive failure of the systems they’re part of, or serve, or were trying to change.

I was/am angry about a lot of other things too, so I set aside the WIP and wrote a conversation between Ben (the senator’s speechwriter) and Naya (the tour guide) from What Kind of Day. Set in the present day, so it’s sort of a new epilogue, checking in on their (obviously strong because HEA) relationship since the end of their book.

This anger/frustration/helplessness cycle is a daily thing that I’ve not managed to keep to myself. I’m constantly in touch with fellow authors, talking about the ways we’ve all had to adjust our expectations of productivity and really just try to cope. I did my heated writing sprint for myself. It felt good to write this down.

And then…within days? Seven other #RomanceClass authors wrote their scripts. Tania Arpa had been testing this web stream service. I asked actors Rachel Coates and Raphael Robes to perform as Naya and Ben on camera, just to see what we could do with this…and they did that. So now, Hello, Ever After is happening.

Raphael Robes and Rachel Coates at the “Make Good Days” rehearsal

I don’t mean to be flippant, like we just stumbled upon a web series idea. It really is sudden. But we also do consider the actors/live readers we work with as part of #RomanceClass, and their industry (theater, stage, film, live performance) is facing an uncertain future right now. It’s great that while we’re figuring so many things out, we’re able to come up with a new project that still includes them.

If this is something you want to help us make, you can buy us a ko-fi at ko-fi.com/minavesguerra and put “Hello, Ever After” in the message field. We’ll produce as many eps as we can afford to. I’ll have news on the “premiere” of this series very soon.