“Done is better than perfect,” says Chandler Bolt, or what still runs in my head a few days after our successful book launch. Saturday wasn’t a star-studded night. We were just surprised though by no other than the renowned artist and poet, Richard Gappi, sneaking into the crowded function room of Scrapyard Café and Restaurant in Angono, Rizal.
Upholding its identity as ‘the art capital of the Philippines’ with its numerous and still progressive museums, art galleries and houses, and street artworks, and being the hometown of two national artists, Lucio San Pedro and Carlos ‘Botong’ Francisco, Angono is but a perfect venue for a book launch. So, without any second thought, we had the opportunity grabbed and didn’t expect the warmth of their welcome. Viva Angono!
Soon the ‘makata at manunulat’ got the mic, his words of delight and affirmation reverberated the room. “Wala pang nagdaraos ng book launch dito sa Angono. Kayo pa lang,” he said. “Hindi hadlang ang pagiging baguhan upang magsulat at mag-publish ng libro.”
Despite our bunch of paperwork and other SHS deliverables within the weeks that were supposed to eat up our weekends, we still found a three-hour break from 7-10 of Saturday evening for our book launch.
It wouldn’t be that successful without the support from our students, our friends and relatives, and the Southern Voices team. Salamat sa pagpapaunlak sa aming paanyaya!
As it goes, a book launch is not predominantly about selling off copies of a book. It can rather be making an investment in the long-term marketing and brand awareness of the publication. With a successful book launch, authors can get a leg up for the promotion from the attendees, hence making purchase recommendations across their personal networks.
While we didn’t hit our target sales during the book launch, we are confident that we satisfied our attendees with the taste of the telltale millennial literary works through our excerpt presentations and all those song numbers from our co-teachers. Minsan lang ‘yan mangyari!
*****
PUSUAN MO: An Anthology of Literary Works for Millennials is a 195-page compendium of telltale literary works categorized into essays, short stories and flash fiction, and poems – all written and edited by young millennial school teachers for millennial (and nonmillennial) readers. Read reviews from other writers here.
If you haven’t grabbed yet a copy of our Pusuan Mo: An Anthology of Literary Works for Millennials, you may send your request to [email protected] or contact +63945-7189-050 (Globe) and +63923-5928-752 (Sun Cellular). A copy is worth PHP 250.00. We also process book shipment anywhere in the country once payment through our Metrobank account is made.
If you want to know more about how we published our book – how we managed the editing, applied for ISBN at the National Library of the Philippines, partnered with Southern Voices Printing Press, and how much it costs publishing a book, feel free to read our article, How to Publish a Book in the Philippines.
Photos by Jason Recto, SHS Teacher and Photography Enthusiast
Be the first to comment