Give a book as a gift

This Christmas or for a birthday or anniversary, what can you give your loved ones who already have everything? A simple but meaningful answer is: give them a book about themselves.

On Sept. 18, Saturday, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Manila International Book Fair in the SMX Convention Center of the Mall of Asia, I will give a free seminar on “Write a Book as a Gift to Your Loved One.”

The new technology called “Print on Demand” and the new business model called “Publish on Demand” have made it financially feasible to print only a handful of copies of a book.

In the past, in the era of offset printing, you had to order a minimum of a couple of hundred copies to make printing worthwhile. It used to be extremely cost-inefficient to print just a few copies, even if you wanted to print a book only for your relatives. Today, you can print one copy as easily and practically as cheaply as printing a thousand copies.

In the past, you also had to have all kinds of business permits in order to publish a book. You could not get an ISBN (the number you see on the copyright page of a book) if you only wanted to publish one book. If you wanted to sell your book in bookstores, you had to spend too much of your time talking to branch managers. If you wanted to sell a lot of copies, you had to have a large room or even a warehouse to keep the unsold books.

Things have changed radically in the last few years. Because of the new technology and the new business model, self-publishing has become easy and inexpensive.

Self-publishing is not something to be ashamed about. After all, many great authors published their own books. Here are a few examples of self-published authors that have become household names: T. S. Eliot, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway, F. Sionil Jose, D.H. Lawrence, Ezra Pound, Marcel Proust, Jose Rizal, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoi, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Virginia Woolf. It was not just ego that motivated these authors, but a real desire to share with the world something they knew was of lasting value.

A lot of books and articles have been written about self-publishing. These books and articles tend to focus on the mechanics of printing. Not much has been written or said about the process of writing a book meant to be self-published.

In my seminar, I intend to focus on one type of self-publishing that is increasingly becoming popular in our country – gift books. Some families want to put their family histories down in a book. Some want to immortalize the favorite quotations or photographs or stories of their grandparent and to give the book as a birthday or anniversary gift. Some want to commission a famous writer to write a biography of themselves or someone they love. Some give away a book about themselves at their wedding or birthday celebration. Whatever the reason (and there are many such reasons), many individuals and families have decided to spend a little money giving a gift that lasts longer than food, appliances, or trips.

I want to help those that are thinking of embarking on such self-publishing projects, by discussing the various phases of book writing and publishing. I will give practical tips on how to research, write, design, and print a book. The sponsor of the seminar, Central Books, one of the major players in the field of self-publishing in the Philippines, will give practical advice on how to publish, promote, and sell a book, in case you want people other than your loved ones to read it.

Another sponsor, the Book Fair itself, donated the use of the lecture hall. My writer-friends that are in the business of writing Books on Demand have generously shared their secrets (including their asking fees) with me, so that I can refer the audience, if they want, to professional biographers.

Why will I do a free seminar? Because in my experience of writing books on commission or as my own gifts to my friends, I have seen how happy people are when they receive a book about themselves or their families. I also know how happy I am while I am writing a book. I want to share that happiness with you.

The seminar room is not very big and not everybody can be accommodated, so please text 0917-5049977 for reservations. There is no entrance fee, but you have to be serious about writing a book as a gift to your loved ones.

TEACHING TIP OF THE WEEK: Here’s a tip from Australia’s Creativity Web about how to make your students more creative.

“Ask each student to adopt a genius as a role model.”

For example, a student can choose to study the life of Albert Einstein and do what he liked to do (he always thought of the bigger picture). Jose Rizal is a natural model for Filipino students (he was never afraid to try his hand at something new and, of course, was always ready to die for the country).