How I exist in this world of creating, selling, and katipiran in 2024 (Komiket BGC)

Your mileage may vary as an author/publisher/bookseller, but this is how it is for me and most of RomanceClass:

1. We sell more on digital, on most days. Regular days, special days. “Pre-pandemic” and still today, in this age of pandemic-but-we’re-outside.

2. Our best ever book event sales were at MIBF 2017 (via a free booth from a book org), and usually AprilFeelsDays and FeelsFests, which are events that we organize. Meaning we only do exceptionally well when the event attendance is extremely large, or extremely targeted.

I’m primarily a digital buyer myself, so I understand what it’s like to visit a book fair or convention and gravitate toward buying titles I already know (because I heard about them online or maybe read them even). I understand what it’s like to see an interesting book and want to buy it, and then not buy it because it’s too expensive. I’ve seen creators say that this is a sign of an audience disappearing, but I can’t co-sign that because I was always careful with my purchases. I’m big on advocating for Filipino authors but I also can’t afford to splurge indiscriminately and fully expect others to be practical about their book money too.

So how do I live in this world of creating, selling, and also katipiran:

1. My publishing strategy is digital first, and whatever is accessible to the readers. I’m on social media, I update this blog, I’m on Wattpad. Students and teachers get free books. If anyone is reading this or has followed my career and considered me successful, please know that many people who have read me probably never paid for one of my books. At the same time, the people who’ve bought the most print books are also the ones who have many digital or free books.

2. I didn’t plan to start a romance writing community, but that’s what happened after the first #RomanceClass, and having this community is why I’m still at this! It’s exhausting and repetitive to keep talking about your own books, and many authors will eventually stop doing it when they get busy with other things, and/or feel that people are no longer interested. Being able to help another author while I’m not working on my own thing is refreshing, and good use of my time.

3. Because I’m busy with other things (family, job, writing, etc), I’m picky about public events I have RomanceClass participate in, and one huge factor is that the event should have more readers than authors. If the authors are also readers, awesome. If the authors don’t read (you know this when you’re in the room with them and it’s not great lol) then everyone is selling, some books may be bought, but no books will be read. Sayang oras.

4. Being an author and self-publisher and community founder for this long, I get invites, opportunities, and partnerships that work better when the community and the other authors are part of it. It’s easy and seamless to extend the opportunity to other RomanceClass authors because we’ve agreed already on what our books stand for (romance with HEA, Filipino characters have agency, depict consent in all aspects of the romance).

All of this, plus I actually love handselling books and talking to readers and observing buyers, is why we’ve been doing Komiket.

Enjoyed my three-day weekend selling books at Komiket BGC, in Market Market, where high school students were browsing at 10 AM on a Friday (bakit??? lol), but also families and office employees and tourists and every age group of person and their pets walked by our table. It’s so exhilarating. I think as an author who publishes books it’s important to actually see who is buying your books and what makes them notice a book to begin with. (Hint: anything clearly a queer romance is going to get noticed, then picked up, browsed, returned to with a friend who will say “bilhin mo na,” then bought.)

If you, too, are figuring out how to exist as an author, selling things, and also trying to be practical about money: do your thing online, find people who are on the same journey as you and believe in the same things, create and sell things with them (not just to them), and when doors open bring people inside with you.

See you at the next event!

The post How I exist in this world of creating, selling, and katipiran in 2024 (Komiket BGC) first appeared on Mina V. Esguerra.