Interview with GMA News Online

Recently I met with Meann Ortiz (writer for GMA News Online), and then this happened:

Mina V. Esguerra: Young publisher in pajamas

PS. -

I've lost a few of those notebooks. :( Or rather, someone lost them.
Katrina Ramos Atienza's book that started it all was Pink Shoes.
Before I ended up on Amazon, I considered releasing the book as mobile phone content. (Still open to that.)
Interim Goddess of Love will be in other online ebook retailers in April.
More info about That Kind of Guy will be sent to my mailing list -- on Monday!
Based on my informal survey, half of my reader respondents found me through bookstores. (Still accepting responses. How did you find out about me? People who send in answers become part of a giveaway!)

Props to Barnes and Noble and Nook owners

I don't mention Barnes and Noble all that much, when I talk about publishing my ebooks. Even though some of my books have been on their Nook store for over a year, the sales weren't significant enough (less than 5% of total) for me to sing their praises.

2012 has been a different story so far. Without any special marketing targeted to Nook owners, my books have been doing very well on Barnes and Noble this year. On some weeks, even better than Amazon. A mere two months ago, I had all but written off my B&N presence -- I live in the Philippines, and we can't even buy books from the B&N site. Who else would buy a contemporary romance novel written by a Filipino there? 

I don't know the answer to that yet, but they are buying.

This just shows me, again, that I was wrong, but I am glad to be wrong in this case. Ebook publishing is still the Wild West in many ways. 

What I should do is give props to B&N and the other retailers. It cost me nothing to place my books on Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iBooks, Sony, Goodreads, Flipreads... Even just one sale is a good thing. That means someone took a chance on me and my books, and that was the original goal, really. For people to read the books. 

So thank you, and here, have some hugs!

Love, 
Indie Author from the Philippines

What would Ellie wear? (office romantic)

Ellie Manuel (of Fairy Tale Fail), styled by Katrina Ramos Atienza.

I guess I never thought that much about it before, but the romance, the practical but girly gear, it all makes sense. How did you imagine Ellie?

Ellie by kratienza featuring summer dresses

Paul Smith summer dress, $545
Dries Van Noten longsleeve shirt, £420
CALYPSO ST BARTH long shirt, $225
Pleated skirt, $50
Stuart Weitzman high heels, $365
NV London Calcutta leather handbag, £135
Ben Amun glass necklace, $75
Kate spade bangle, $59
Jamie Joseph rose ring, $860
Yellow gold bangle, £70

Pajamas Tip: Become an ebook retailer affiliate

Another way to earn while in pajamas. Or your choice of sleepwear.

There's a column in one of my ebook sales reports that I always see, but never really thought about: Affiliate Sales.

Smashwords, the incredibly helpful publishing/distribution platform for ebooks (I use them for all of my independently-published books), also offers their members to option to become an affiliate. Meaning anyone -- through websites, blogs, or social media accounts -- can earn money by successfully referring an ebook to someone. The standard percentage is 11%, but it can go higher depending on the author/publisher. This is credited to a Paypal account.

I understand why some will decide against doing this, but if you actually are, and as an affiliate you've been responsible for helping my sales go up, please tell me about it? I would like to say thanks.

Signing up as a Smashwords affiliate, by the way, means you can earn from referring any Smashwords book, and not just mine. (For the record.)

Amazon also has an affiliate program, although I don't get any reports from them. But all the same, if you're an Amazon affiliate and you've actually helped sell my books, tell me, please!

Love Your Frenemies on Smashwords
Fairy Tale Fail on Smashwords

The Lam-Ang Experiment

Not sure how many couples do this, but you know what my husband and I talk about while stuck in Makati traffic? Stories. Novels, short stories, screenplays, you name it. They're always in the idea stage, and sometimes they can get wildly impractical and crazy.

For example, the idea of retelling Filipino epic poem "Biag ni Lam-ang" as a sci-fi graphic novel. My husband Mike has a thousand and one ideas like this, and for this particular story he actually knew what he wanted to do and how he was going to write it. But it sounded like such a wacky project. How could we even get that off the ground? Who would draw it? How would it even get distributed and printed?

And then, lo and behold --

A year after I first heard his story outline, likely somewhere along C5 or Buendia, it is here, and it is called The Lam-Ang Experiment (Book One: Alan M.G.). Written by Michael A.R. Co and illustrated by the talented guys at Creative Media and Film Society of the Philippines, this is just the first of three graphic novels that put the Lam-Ang story in space. 

Since its release on Amazon last week, it has made it to #1 on Amazon's Hot New Releases chart for Sci Fi Graphic Novels a few times. And yes, I'm very proud. :) 

Thank you for the support! 

Girl next door

Source: chictopia.com via Mina on Pinterest

H is my oldest friend. And by that, I mean the friend I've known the longest. We met when we were four (but on the year we turned five) and were neighbors, playmates, classmates, schoolbusmates. Eventually we went to different schools so even though we lived next door to each other for years, we barely saw each other. Then we ended up at the same office right after college, and started hanging out again, for payday dinners, beach trips, anti-Valentine's Days.

She is, by the way, ten kinds of fierce. Stubborn, tough, driven, brutally honest, and by now probably makes as much money when she sneezes as I do in a day. These are things I don't feel bad about. I enjoy having a friend like her, and have said so to the HR people who call and ask about her character. (She's made me a reference several times. This is me taking credit for her fab career.)

She is NOT Kimmy, or any other character in Love Your Frenemies, but she's one of the reasons I enjoyed writing about unapologetically confident and frank people so much.

New look and layout for the blog

So the blog looks more fun now, yay!

Layout change
I retired the old template and decided to go with a standard one from Blogger's selection. Didn't need to really sit down and customize it, just needed for it to be pretty. Red was pretty enough.

Tabs!
The blog, which is where I dump info about my books, writing, and other stuff (maybe pie, as the tag above says), is still the main focus of the site. But there are tabs now that quickly lead to my contact info, the books, and...

Character pages!
I've taken my Pinterest/Polyvore inclinations and have started creating boards and looks for my characters, starting with the pages dedicated to Ellie and Kimmy. Jasmine, Carla and Hannah (and soon, Julie) coming soon!

Goodreads Author Widget
If I did it right, it should be showing up as the first item on the right sidebar. Looks nice, and is an easy way to see all the books and visit their pages on Goodreads.

Mailing List signup button
I moved the signup form for the Mysterious Mailing List to the sidebar, right underneath the Goodreads widget. It was a mailing list for Interim Goddess of Love news and exclusive info, but now it'll be just for any news and exclusive info. :)

New title
Publishing in Pajamas isn't just the title of the series of talks I've been giving -- it's what this blog will be about too, and is a bit of an advocacy now. Have decided that make that clear in the banner.