Thats why I feel so boorish when, 90 percent of the time, I dont answer, partly because of a foolish hope that, against all odds, I will find the time to read the work and give it a decent response, and partly because, like all Pinoys, I find it exceedingly difficult to say no. That is, unless I give a blanket "no" make that "so sorry, but no" which Im doing right now, for my own good and yours. So sorry indeed, but Im neck-deep in work, and every little request is (albeit sometimes pleasant and worthwhile) a distraction I can ill afford to indulge. Sending me a novel to digest will be consigning that novel to oblivion, to some bottomless well of benign neglect.
Over the years, Ive found that my reading habits or whats left of them have greatly changed. Since I have to read fiction as a professional chore, I turn to something else for pleasure to poetry for wonderment in words, to nonfiction (history, technology, crime, journalism) for the hands-on thrill of encountering and negotiating the material world.
If you want me to discuss your work, youll have to enroll in one of my classes (not this semester, though Im going all-undergrad, for a change), or qualify for one of the workshops I might attend as a panelist. In those settings, you will have my undivided attention for an hour (as well as that of a roomful of other people, more attention than you ever wanted).
This brings me to another point that came out of last weeks piece on publishing your first book. Reader Roy from Cagayan de Oro wanted to know what I thought of correspondence courses on fiction writing were they any good, and would they be of any help?
First of all, Roy, I havent seen the syllabus of a correspondence course such as you mention, although I can imagine that it would cover the usual basics plot, character, point of view, dialogue, and so on. Whats even more important than the syllabus which you can swipe from any number of writing self-help books on the market is the kind of mentoring youll be receiving from the other, the faceless, end. Will your instructor be sensitive enough to what youre trying to achieve? Will he or she be aiming to help you tell your story well, or will he or she simply be aiming to help you tell a good (read: generically good) story? Will he or she be critical enough to tell you or to suggest, in so many words, that you simply dont have it in you to be a writer, so you can still become a good actuary or dentist while you can?
I know, its odd for me to say these things after Ive just said I cant help people long-distance with their writing, but thats precisely why I said it: Im not convinced that writing can be taught or learned by connecting the dots and moving up from Lesson A to Lesson B. In the end, its the cultivation of a sensitivity and a sensibility that you already need to have, even before you enter the classroom. Its not something youre born with, either I dont buy that biology bit but its something you imbibe and become aware of as you grow up: A rabid urge to discover and contain the world through language, in language. That starts with reading, and I daresay that most people who became writers were readers first, and readers also. (Unfortunately, it doesnt mean, either, that good readers easily become good writers; this is where imagination counts more than reason a driven but disciplined imagination.)
A years subscription to the Writers Digest will give you many ideas and tips about the handling of a story, but it wont give you the story. That story has to come, in a way, from an unteachable part of you, some riotously rampant element of your being that demands expression. The challenge is to keep the idea potent and its message fresh after all the processing it has to go through to filter out the impurities. Call that "processing" the workshop, or writing school.
Publishers, writers, and editors have traditionally looked down on self-publishing as a form of self-indulgence, basically because it doesnt go through the process of being refereed or vetted by a panel of independent and presumably authoritative readers.
On the other hand, lets face it: You could wait forever to get noticed by an established publishing house, or you could have your book finally produced by a name publisher, only to find it horribly designed. If you cant wait, or want your book to look just so (marbled endpapers, deckled edges, and everything) and if you have a wad of money to blow then self-publishing may be the way for you to go, the snooty critics be damned. Its your book, your name, your call to make, and no ones going to tell you otherwise.
There is, by the way, a fine line, often blurred, between self-publishing and vanity publishing. According to the Society of Authors: "If you pay a printer to produce copies of the book (self-publishing), you will end up owning those copies. When you pay a vanity publisher, you are not acquiring the books. They remain the property of the publisher. You will be asked to grant the publishers an exclusive license to exploit the work. Your fee is for the costs of publication. The contract will probably entitle you to, say, 10 free copies of your work and the chance to buy more in return for (further) payment.
"Increasingly, vanity publishers print copies to order, so treat with skepticism arguments about the cost of warehousing and storage. In any case, their production costs unlike those of a conventional publisher have already been met (by you). There is inevitably less of an incentive for the publisher to sell the work."
Another option came up in a message from a fellow Mac user, Chu Sibal, who has a company thats offering a "Publish on Demand" service. "Our current distribution at the moment is focused on law books," Chu says, "but we do have a bookstore coming up in a few months in Glorietta that will be selling books both printed or published through our system. We are also setting up a bookstore website for local distribution. Im just finding the right balance of easy payment and delivery that fits the local market." You can check out a guide to the service Chu is offering at www.central.com.ph.
The e-Library is an initiative of Project Pantas Philippines (P3), a non-stock, non-profit resource center seeking to establish the ultimate digital library for Filipinos www.pantas.ph. P3 wants important works of Philippine literature, history, politics, technology, and education to be available online for millions of Filipino students to access.
I think this is a superb idea, long due, that should help bring Filipino books closer and more cheaply to our people (and the world at large as well). Theres already a pioneering effort along this line in the field of Philippine literature, spearheaded by the Dumaguete-based writer Ian Casocot (www.geocities.com/icasocot/home.html). The P3 project will expand this to other kinds of texts.
However as I cautioned the P3 people who paid me a visit they should take every care to observe and protect the intellectual property rights of the writers and publishers whose works they will be drawing from. This has been a major obstacle in the way of broader Internet publishing. Just as with music, putting a work online without the writers and publishers consent (except for works whose copyrights have expired) would be piracy, however well-intentioned. I was assured by P3 that they would take every care to keep this in mind, in which case I would be glad to give them all the help I can.
See you Friday at the Faculty Center!