Philippine International Writers Festival 2009 Day 1

I took a leave from work and managed to make it to the Philippine International Writers Festival after failing to secure my SSS ID. It was a lively event and I got to see faces both familiar and new. Highlight for me was meeting my old professors and writers in my own virtual anthology (and paying them!).

Here's a bullet-points recap of points that struck me in the panels I managed to attend:

GANITO KAMI NOON: WRITING THROUGH THE DECADES. |MP3|

• Many of the writers came into fellowship by drinking.
• Conflict and rivalries are prevalent no matter what decade you belong to.
• There were a couple of friendly jabs at various universities.

WRITING FOR A LIVING. |MP3|

• Common advice if you're planning on becoming wealthy through writing (whether it's novels, comics, movies, etc.): don't.
• Many writers have day jobs.
• Highly-paying sidelines authors take involves either writing/editing biographies or writing for politicians.
• Writers don't read contracts.
• Writers wish they had book agents here in the Philippines.
• Typical print-run of a book in Vietnam is 1,000 (same goes for here in the Philippines).
• Vietnamese haven't seen Miss Saigon.
  
• Royalties on Philippine books for authors tend to be 10~15%.

ATBP: WRITING OFF THE MAINSTREAM. |MP3|

• Publishing for the gay niche in the Philippines is lucrative (ten reprints of Ladlad, publishers willing to take a risk on gay poetry but not on a regular poetry book).
  
• Jhoanna Cruz is a lesbian writer despite currently being married to a man!
• Jaime An Lim is part of several margins as he's a) Filipino-Chinese, b) gay, and c) considers his writing regional.
• Chick lit written by Filipinos made it to the best-seller lists in Singapore.
• Initial run of chick lit books in the Philippines were 10,000 copies.
• "Speculative Fiction" as a term is accepted in other nations (Canada, Australia, Japan, etc.) but not in the Philippines.