How to turn a manuscript into a bestseller

Editors today generally spend less time in editing because time is money. This is the observation that novelist Ken Spillman gave at a panel discussion on "Uncut: Issues in Editing" at "Read Lit District," the Third Philippine International Literary Festival in Makati City's Ayala Museum.

Spillman

Spillman, author of the successful Jake series for young readers and whose novel Advaita was described by Young India Books as a work of "sheer genius" that "gently pushes the boundaries of language," qualified that "the best writers respect and respond well to the editor's work."
 

Because he also accepts editing jobs, he said that as a reader, he first tries to get "a feel of the manuscript. I look for cop-outs or parts where the author is struggling with a point of view or if he is able to sustain it and be effectively consistent if he switches it."
 

A good editor, he added, "becomes a little bit more of a writer, a partner of the writer. He is inside the work already, not outside."
 

Spillman said a good editor always prefers "less is more." He advised writers, "Don't overwrite. Give the reader space. Help the book become the best it can be." This can be done by reducing the original draft by maybe 10 percent without anything essential getting lost along the way as the writer learns to edit himself."

McKirdy reading from his book of poems

David McKirdy, poet, author of Accidental Occidental and former director of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, said the editor's work is always marked by invisibility. He agreed with Spillman that the better writers respond well to editors.
 

Although he said he had limited qualifications since his daily job is editing a motoring magazine, he had been with Chameleon Press that has put out, among others, poetry books. He has worked with poets whom he described as "completely insane but are great souls." He met one such poet who, apart from submitting a manuscript for publication, demanded that when it was in book form, it must be sold with a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of Jack Daniels.
 

He said writers who want to be published "must have a clear vision of what you're trying to sell," adding that the trend in Hong Kong is now print on demand. It is also important for a book to be made available overseas for wider readership.
 

Like Spillman, McKirdy was in favor of simplicity where a writer aims to achieve something clearly when he sends a manuscript to a publisher. For example, a writer must not demand that his book be too big; otherwise, it is hard to display it on a bookstore's rack. "Be practical," he said, "and do research apart from keeping everything simple."

Grames

Juliet Grames, a crime fiction editor based in Brooklyn, New York, said writers who aspire to be authors must consider "career curation" or finding the right literary agent. She added that she is one of the few editors who like being one because she enjoys working with authors, saying, "There is a book for every person and a person for every book."
 

She said as an editor of Soho Press, an independent publisher in New York City, she liked to receive manuscripts that tell "multi-cultural stories which is our bedrock." As for the saleability of a book as an object, she ascribed it to "the person who matters--the reader."
 

She assured the audience that "publishers are not evil people," and they, too, would like to find the right readers for their books. For readers, she said, what matters were the intersecting factors of words, story and issue or message, while for writers, the factors involved are passion, message and money. For publishers it's money, cache and ideas or ideology.
 

Grames also said that every writer always needs a good copy editor and critic even as the publishing model is changing with the advent of e-books.
 

Her employer, Soho Press, puts out from 40 to 50 titles a year, and she bewailed the fact that of that number there are "not many submissions from Filipino authors." She said it was time that Filipino writers look around for their agents who could manage the publishing and financial aspects of their career. An agent gets at least 15 per cent of a book's earnings.
 

She said she would welcome crime fiction submissions from authors from the Philippines and other Asian countries. She added that this genre of fiction could carry the issue of social injustice that troubles  countries from this part of the world.
 

She cited the crime novel The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis, published by Sohol and a bestseller worldwide, that deals with the issue of child trafficking.--Text and photos by Elizabeth Lolarga

First published by Vera Files / Yahoo Philippines, Nov. 24, 2012

356 political prisoners go on hunger strike

356 political prisoners go on hunger strike
that was the piece that won the chit estella journalism prize, print category.

thank you to the simbulan-estella families (the late chit was roland's wife), the u.p. department of journalism & vera files. mabuhay si chit estella!

to the philippine daily inquirer, it was great fun, but it was one of those things. i raise my glass of good cheer & wish thee another 27 years of being numero uno.

love & squalor,
your contributor since 1992 B-)

From left: Anonymous woman in dark Calvin Klein shades, cotton top, linen slacks and ergonomic working woman's shoes; Prof. Roland Simbulan; University of the Philippines President Alfredo Pascual who also happens to be an Upsilonian (woot! woot!); Dean Roland Tolentino of the UP College of Mass Communication; and Prof. Raul Pangalangan, former UP College of Law dean and the new publisher of Philippine Daily Inquirer. Photo courtesy of Vera Files/Yahoo Philippines

“Opera vs. Broadway” for Sendong’s survivors

LISTENING to a mishmash of operatic arias and Broadway hits, as though an iPod shuffle was being executed as a “sensurround” experience, is a lovely way to spend an evening. It turns lovelier because this one happened on a Monday, unexpectedly and pleasantly jump-starting a week of hard work.

When visiting Hong Kong baritone Wayne Yeh and the Philippines’ Lissa Romero de Guia, with dependable piano accompanist Mary Anne Espina, engaged in a mock battle called “Opera vs. Broadway,” it was in the name of philanthropy. EDSA Shangri-La Hotel offered its capacious Isla Ballroom rent-free for this benefit concert for Typhoon Sendong survivors.

Yeh and de Guia are volunteers of the Art of Living Foundation, a non-government organization (NGO) that continues to give trauma relief to adult and child survivors of the disaster in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities. The foundation has 145 chapters worldwide with the Philippine chapter involved in helping rehabilitate Bilibid prison inmates and survivors of super-typhoons.

Denise Celdran, the foundation’s breath works instructor, said what sets this NGO’s work apart is its focus on removing stress and negative emotions through simple breathing, sound meditation techniques and yoga stretches. An audio-visual presentation before the concert showed how the survivors became calm and more optimistic after they learned these exercises in the tent cities or basketball courts.

She added that these exercises put smiles back on people’s faces and peace in their minds, enabling them to function better and relish donated food, clothes and temporary shelter.  Celdran pointed out how many thousands more need to be reached and empowered.

 LISSA ROMERO DE GUIA

 Thus, what de Guia called “a ping pong between opera and Broadway” was thought up to raise more funds for volunteers who will help restart other lives.

A sidelight was a silent auction for the same cause featuring works donated by these visual artists: Tosha and Gus  Albor, Wesley Valenzuela, Stephanie Lopez, Felix Bacolor, Kidlat and Kabunyan de Guia, Oliver Olivete and Marisa Romero.

Observing how people get mired in past traumas and worry unnecessarily about the future, Celdran said the foundation teaches people “to be in the present, to be in the moment” so they could them live “artfully, gracefully, peacefully.”

She said these are possible by learning how to manage the mind, emotions, stored memories, intellect that passes judgment, ego that expresses and processes bad memories. This management of all layers of experience, she said, leads to a self that can contribute to improving society.

 WAYNE YEH

Lanky baritone Yeh, whose credits include singing as a lad before Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and appearing in Opera Hong Kong’s productions of Turandot, Mozart’s Requiem, Carmen, among others, continues to train with voice coaches Rita Patane and Pietro Spagnoli in Milan, Italy. That night, he entered from the back of the ballroom, clad in black tuxedo and pants, white bowtie and dark glasses. He held a cordless mic and warbled “Figaro” from The Barber of Seville while shaking hands with some members of the audience.

The rest of the evening he alternated use of the center stage with de Guia. Her theater experience includes being in the original German cast of Miss Saigon in Stuttgart, the Narrator in the original German cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (the first Filipina to play that role on the international stage), and playing Gigi in Miss Saigon, United Kingdom tour.

Semi-retired from theater after going into writing, she showed that she still had “it,” a wide vocal range. She moved from alto in South Pacific’s “Bali Hai” to middle range and to a belter of a soprano in “Home” from The Wiz.

She displayed her acting chops without a costume change. In her black and gray long dress with a panuelo top, she was a flirt in “I Enjoy Being a Girl” from Flower Drum Song, a besotted Eliza in “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady, a tragic Eponine in “On My Own” from Les Miserables, a noble woman in “Something Wonderful,” a wistful illicit lover in the medley “I Have Dreamed” and “We Kiss in a Shadow” from The King and I, which she reprised with Yeh in a duet after an earlier song on one-upmanship with him, Berlin’s “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better” from Annie Get Your Gun.

The practice of breath work enabled de Guia to hold notes far longer than possible. This had a heavily partial audience cheering for her. Similarly, Yeh tried to match her with his solos of “Our Father,” “Ave Maria,” “You Raise Me Up” and encores (“O Sole Mio” and “Santa Lucia”).

Inspirational teacher Sri Ravi Shankar defined music as “sound in harmony, silence in clarity.” That night, silence and sound came together without clashing.--Elizabeth Lolarga

First published by Vera Files/Yahoo Philippines, March 31, 2012
Photos by  RONALD VERZO