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BY PETER SOLIS NERY
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“WHAT the heck, I’m going to retire. And as my last act of kindness, I will publish your book. I am also an Ilonggo from Negros; but more than that, I see promise in you.”
Gloria F. Rodriguez of New Day Publishers approved the publication of my first book, I Flew a Kite for Pepe in late 1991 before her retirement in 1992. The book didn’t see print until 1993; and in mid-1993, Mrs. Rodriguez started her own publishing company, Giraffe Books. Mommy Glo liked me so much (and I hope my writing, too) that I was among the first authors she invited to publish under her new label.
By the time I Flew… was published, I was already in Macau as a lay religious missionary working part-time as a high school English and Biology teacher. But while I Flew… was cooking at New Day, I was already preparing my second manuscript for submission. When Mommy Glo asked if I wanted to publish with her small company (small as compared to the established New Day), I readily gave First Few Notes of a Green Symphony. She published it in early 1994.
Because First Few Notes… is more universal in theme (ecology, environmentalism, planet responsibility) than the Philippine socio-graphic I Flew…, I was able to sell it to my school in Macau. With 300-plus students under my care, who were willing to spend what’s $4 now for an autographed copy of their favorite teacher’s book, which I also incorporated in my English reading and speech classes, I was able to sell the book like hotcakes. In fact, it earned “bestseller” status in Giraffe Books because I bought (and retailed) more than half the initial print.
And because I was a “bestselling” author in Giraffe, I had no problem selling my third book, The Essential Thoughts of a Purple Cat. By the time …Purple Cat came out in 1996, I was already repatriated in Iloilo. Luckily for me, …Purple Cat was a real beauty so that even without my Macau captured market, the book moved from the shelves.
Enjoying my status as a “well-performing” author for Giraffe, I managed to push for “Rated R” to be published by Mommy Glo. By that time, Giraffe was already producing more books, and publishing more authors, and Mommy Glo was starting to feel the strain of having more book titles than actual sales. But I was already calling myself a writer, so I was pretty unstoppable at that point. And why not? Seven books (and literary titles they were) in four years is really a good record for a beginning writer.
Enthused and encouraged by my publishing “success” with three books, I became most productive in the mid-1990s; and at one time, I even published four titles in a single year (1997). How did that happen? Well, there’s New Day, my first publisher, which saw my success with Giraffe, and wanted my manuscripts. And then, there’s Giraffe, which seem not to be able to just let me go even if the business was tough.
I gave Rated R to Giraffe, and New Day wanted a manuscript. I had Moon River, Butterflies, and Me, a memoir, ready; and I offered it first to Giraffe because it’s really a sort of sequel to …Purple Cat. Giraffe was sad to let Moon River… go, but Mommy Glo said she was having financial difficulties, so I gave it to New Day with her blessing. I also gave New Day Shorts, my collection of haiku-like poems.
And then, Mommy Glo said, she wanted a manuscript from me. I don’t know where that came from (because I really wanted her to publish Moon River…), but two manuscripts given to New Day suggest a lot. I complied, and gave Giraffe Shy Evocations of Childhood.
And so it happened that in 1997, I published four literary titles: Rated R and Shy… for Giraffe Books; and Moon River, Butterflies, and Me and Shorts for New Day Publishers.
Before I left for a year in the US in mid-1998, I published two more titles under Giraffe: the memoir-in-letters, My Life as a Hermit (which completes the trilogy …Purple Cat, Moon River… and …Hermit), and the lyric collection Fireflies for a Yuppie.
Then, I went to the US, and learned about small publications and self-publishing. When I came home in 1999, I prepared to self-publish A Loneliness Greater than Love for a 2000 release, and went on to become my own publisher under DreamWings Publishing.
In addition to A Loneliness…, DreamWings published Fantasia (2000), Rain as Gentle as Tears (2001), and The Prince of Ngoyngoy (2001). For the Palanca-winning play The Passion of Jovita Fuentes (2009), I returned to New Day Publishers. But New Day has redefined itself with a new direction, and they are not so keen with literary titles anymore. I even think …Jovita Fuentes was already an exception for them in 2009.
I immigrated to the US as a nurse in 2006. It took me years to adjust but in 2008 or 2009, I discovered CreateSpace. It’s a publish-on-demand platform of Amazon, my great supplier of books and DVD movies. At first, I wasn’t very happy with the idea of publishing on demand. After all, I have made it to Manila publishing with at least 600 copies initial print, if not thousands.
What changed my mind was my collection 100 Erotic Sonnets from Hiligaynon. I peddled it in Manila but no one was interested in such a scandalous title. So I decided on CreateSpace, and I loved the experience that I embraced publishing on demand so completely.
I love the idea that publishing on demand avoids waste. I’ve seen books stack up and gets stuck in small companies like Giraffe, and even in big, established publishing houses like New Day. Even with my 500 initial print copies for my own DreamWings titles, I had trouble selling everything. It’s a lot of wasted paper, and money tied down as stocks. I can’t afford that. And I can’t afford forcing my books to people.
I’m feeling good, and established, as a writer now, with 26 or 27 books under my credit, and counting. People will buy me, and read me; if they want, and can afford me. I’m not forcing my stuff on people’s throats.
I think Peter Solis Nery as a writer, and as a brand, is pretty democratized in the sense that I write stuff for the newspaper for people who can’t afford to buy my books; or who are not literary enough to be interested in what different voice I have in fiction, drama, or poetry. If people don’t care to know why I keep on winning these Palanca awards, they can settle for what I write in Panay News on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; and in Panay Balita on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays-Sundays.
But I also post on my website (www.petersolisnery.com) essential stuff that students need for their research work about me and my body of literary work. For the rest, there’s always the emails for my other works they can’t afford, or access.
Yes, I’ve actually sent soft copies of my Jovita Fuentes, Cory Aquino, and Imelda Marcos plays to a student writing a thesis on the strong women in Peter Solis Nery’s literature./PN
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