Interviewed by Lottie Eve, and a few questions for her

Book blogger Lottie Eve recently interviewed me, and it's now up on her blog. Go check it out!

One of the things I enjoy about reading reviews of my books is seeing which parts the reviewer chooses to mention. I can't predict what a reader will single out as memorable. And I actually want to know how a reader discovered my books. So I actually asked Lottie Eve! Thank you so much for answering! Here's what she said:

If I'm not mistaken, you discovered my books because of a friend book blogger from the Philippines. How did she get you interested in reading a book set in another country? 

Well, I first got interested in reading your books when Monica mentioned that Fairy Tale Fail perfectly described her life in the Philippines. That got me interested rather quickly. We had a quick conversation about the book and then I bought it. Then I read it and fell insanely in love with the book. Now I am a fan of your's :) 

I find it really cool that you say you can relate to Ellie, when you live on the other side of the world! Is there anything about the books that surprised you, like in terms of how similar and different things are here and there? 

What surprised me the most was how social people were in the workplace (the books I have read of your's took place in a workplace fairly often). Everyone on the same floor knew each other. It made me feel like I was reading about a group of people living in a small apartment building! There is also the use of the word barkada- a word that I learned the meaning of very quickly. Now I find myself using it (which kind of confuses my friends but they started catching on too)!

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Something about these answers makes me so giddy. :) There are a lot of things that we take for granted, even as writers who are aware that we're writing for the world now. Lottie Eve is the second person (who isn't in the Philippines) to point out that our workplaces seem so social, and I didn't even intend to make that a thing. It's just how it is here.

But barkada I deliberately didn't translate. I'm glad it's being understood in context! I wonder if we can make it a thing?  

Maybe you have the answers: Book marketing and promotion in the Philippines

A few months ago I met Miriam College Communication Arts students Julhean Divinagracia, Moira Estrada, and Meredith Marcelo (and their friend Bea). We talked for a bit about books and publishing and writing, and yesterday they sent me a copy of the school project that came about from it. It's called "Books in Action: A Production Thesis on the Effectiveness of Book Trailers in Promoting Local Works of Mina Esguerra and Karen Francisco."

Some interesting bits from their paper:

"...it can be inferred that their reading preference is the books that are known and famous. For a book to be known and famous, aside from its good plot, it has to be marketed and promoted well to the public..."

"The main purpose of the study with the use of book trailers is to motivate and encourage the Filipino youth to read and acknowledge the country’s own literature through the experience of reading Filipino literary works that were written by young contemporary Filipino fiction writers just as much as they read other foreign literature."

"Romance emerged as the most preferred genre of the second year students from both sections 6 and 7. Other genres like Inspirational, Comdey, Adventure, and Mystery also got huge numbers in the result, the researchers can say that the respondents also likes variety in their reading choices."

"...the top five things the respondents do before buying a book are first, looking if the book interest them and second, reading the summary presented on the back part of the book cover. There is also a big number of respondents who see if it’s affordable or ask for their friends’ opinions before buying a book or any reading material."

"...it shows that the second year college students of Miriam College think that it is very important to get information about a book and the plot is the most important information they must know when they buy a book. So far, the students are not particular with the author and are more interested in the story."

"Based on the results presented in the table, the students who do not buy books online outnumber those who buy books online."

"...students who read E-books outnumber those who don't read E-books. The result can not classify which of these students are the ones who buy in bookstores and those who buy online but it can mean that some students, whether they buy their books online or not also reads E-books that are downloaded from the internet."

"In the result, beside the other chic lits made by Filipino authors, books by Bob Ong are the only local books the students have read."

I love that they did this, and will continue to read their paper with nerdy fascination. I think it's wonderful that they chose to do this, and I am convinced that young Filipinos will read more once we write what they want to read (if we aren't doing that already) and let them know that these books are available.

Oh, and the book trailer they produced for No Strings Attached? Martin Escudero (of Zombadings) was Dante. My heart fainted. My heart needs smelling salts. Or white flower. Wake up my heart.

Any other Comm majors want to take on this book marketing challenge? I'll help in any way I can.

Another take on the Interim Goddess

FEU Fine Arts student Richard Cy created and designed an illustrated edition of Interim Goddess of Love for his thesis. Here's a sneak peek.

It's beautiful. :) Not for sale, but beautiful. His Twitter is @richardjaracy if you want to contact him about his art.

Some pie, the chart kind

Queen of the Clueless the ebook has been out for a little over 20 days, and it's been downloaded over 1,700 times. That number includes discounted, borrowed, free and full price versions. So far it's only available on Amazon (more retailers soon!) but I just wanted to share the breakdown of which Amazon country stores grabbed the most copies.

No surprise that Amazon.com got the biggest share (Filipinos can buy ebooks while in the Philippines using an Amazon.com account). But was pleasantly surprised with the interest from the UK and Germany. Hi, UK and Germany!

"Other" actually means Spain, Italy, Japan and Brazil. I still give big hugs to the people who took a chance on my book there, and hope you try out the others soon.

Summit's Interim Goddess of Love

In case you're a first-time visitor to my blog, here's the short story: I wrote Interim Goddess of Love in 2011 after challenging myself to come up with my first YA fantasy trilogy. In January 2012, I self-published it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and elsewhere, and sold special edition paperback copies.

Months later, my traditional publisher Summit Media offered to distribute it in Philippine bookstores. This meant that the book I wrote for Filipino young adults finally got the platform that'll help the most Filipino young adults (and maybe the not so YA) discover it. Thank you, Summit. I also made an effort to thank the people who supported IGoL in its "indie" phase (aka the First Edition Club), and I named names. They're found at the very last page of the Summit edition.

Of course I forgot a few names apparently, and will make up for it in the next book. Sorry! And thank you!

Get your copy of Interim Goddess of Love, available in local bookstores now(ish)!

Interim Goddess of Love, Queen of the Clueless (Tania edition paperback)

Now accepting Philippines-based orders for the Interim Goddess of Love and Queen of the Clueless international cover editions (aka the TANIA edition). Each book sells for P350, and I will buy you a cupcake per book you get. Am serious! But you have to be nearby (or willing to go to Eastwood QC) because I'd rather not mail cupcakes.

Also:
- Add P60 for shipping within Metro Manila, P90 for elsewhere in the Philippines
- Get an IGoL and QotC set for P650.
- Want to group order with friends? Order 6 books and the 7th is free. (And the freebie can be the NEXT book, IGoL 3: Icon of the Indecisive, when it comes out. Work out among yourself who keeps the freebie heehee.) Please note that shipping may be more expensive, but we'll have to check first.
- This is different from the SUMMIT edition (retailing for P175 and available in Philippine bookstores) and the KAMLA edition (P300, first paperback edition ever, available on request).

Email minavesguerra@gmail.com if you'd like to order. Specify please which edition you want, as this is getting complicated to explain. :) But - cupcake!

If you're outside of the Philippines, you can get the TANIA edition paperback on Amazon, for $8.99.

Contemporary Romance Class: A story by the numbers

We had our first face-to-face "class" yesterday. "Class" is being used loosely here -- it was more of a group of people sitting around a table talking. We met at Balkan (Yugoslavian Home Cooking) at Legazpi Village, Makati, and talked for a little over two hours.

On the agenda: Everyone got to introduce their story, spoil everyone else for how it ends, and ask questions specific to what they need to do to finish it.

My "lecture" was really just guiding them through the outline I used for Fairy Tale Fail, based on the hero's journey/morphology of the folk tale. It pretty much identifies all the necessary scenes in a certain linear sequence, and hopefully it leads to a fully outlined novella for everyone.

I asked two people in the class to share how they did their first assignment. One of them was writing a male main character and I enjoyed how she pretty much storyboarded her submission -- it gave me a really clear picture of what she planned to do and how it was going to end. The other had so very detailed visual and behavioral pegs for her characters, so I felt that I really knew who they were, and it seemed like every decision they'd make could be traced back to that "character bible."

We also discussed some trends I saw in the story submissions. Some of them:
- Family: In my own novellas (7 published so far) I haven't given as much weight to how a main character's family affects her romantic choices. I don't think I've factored it in at all. But that's because of my own upbringing (my family never told me who to love) and also because I wanted to avoid that trope, which is so common in Philippine media. But I didn't discourage anyone from doing this, as it's common in media for a reason. It's actually true in many cases.
- Romance by coercion/compulsion: Related to the family trend, there were a few pitches that relied on an external force "compelling" the Main Character and Love Interest to a certain decision. Usually a dying wish, or parental pressure. This I gave comments on, in some cases leading the writer away from it, or at least asking how we as readers can feel confident about the Love Interest's love if he's being coerced/compelled into it.
- Gay: A few stories mentioned the "Mistaken for Gay" trope, or the "Transparent Closet" trope. Told them to reconsider, unless they really know what they're doing.
- Mary Sue Main Characters: In the form of main characters who are remarkably similar to the author in terms of: physical appearance, career, certain behavioral traits, "no boyfriend since birth" etc. This isn't necessarily wrong, but authors overidentifying with their main characters could lead to the bad things about Mary Sues (too perfect, too defensive, too tailored for one person's wish-fulfillment).

It was fascinating! And I thank everyone who came over, some from very far, on a Sunday afternoon to talk about the crazy idea of actually finishing a romance novella.

Next assignment is due on March 9, and the next face-to-face class the week after.