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

...and this, too--Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid

Love this--Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head

Jerry Araos, finis; the garden lives

Melen and Jerry

Jerry solo

Photos by Babeth Lolarga
November 2012

Joshua Bell, Billy Preston & other faves

A gallery of one's own

If the once moribund fine arts program of the Philippine Women's University at the main campus on Taft Avenue, Manila, now enjoys a high profile, a lot of it has to do with its overhauled curriculum, marketing chops and the fairly new PWU School of Fine Arts and Design (SFAD) Gallery.

Noel Soler Cuizon

Noel Soler Cuizon, visual and performance artist, curator, and fine arts program coordinator, said Francisco "Kiko" Benitez, PWU president, wanted to revive the printmaking tradition of Manuel Rodriguez Sr. Rodriguez once taught at the school and had a print workshop there for him and his students.


Cuizon, himself a PWU graduate, has had several solo and group shows under his belt, had represented the country in art exhibitions abroad. He was once a grantee of the Asian Cultural Council at the San Francisco Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco. He also spent time in New York City where he did freelance networking with museum curators and galleries.


The space of the gallery from which one can enter at PWU's back door on Leon Guinto street was once the same workshop space that another university head, former Sen. Helena Benitez, gave to the Philippine Association of Printmakers (PAP) whose original batch included printmaking vanguards like Virgilio Aviado, Ofelia Gelvezon Tequi, Rodolfo Samonte, among others.


The younger Benitez wanted a Center for Visual Printmaking along with the gallery so it could exhibit workshop outputs. Printmaker Jesus Flores, who also teaches at PWU, is center director.


When Benitez presented Cuizon with an offer of gallery space, apart from his helping revitalize the curriculum, the latter's first thought balloon was: "I'll turn it into a playground." 

Since then, Benitez has not missed a show and has expressed his intention to buy works by students and faculty members. He also looks forward to the gallery collaborating more with the students.

"Hapi B-day Mang Maning" by Imelda Cajipe Endaya

"Ukit," an exhibition that paid tribute to 100-year-old Rodriguez, was put up and a portfolio of 30/30  prints was gathered featuring works by Ambie Abaño, Aviado, Benjie Torrado Cabrera, Cuizon, Fil dela Cruz, Imelda Cajipe Endaya, Brenda Fajardo, Vic Fario, Jess Flores, Raul Isidro, Lenore RS Lim, Angelo Magno, Sam Occena and Josephine Torralba. The exhibit and folio were made possible through the school's collaboration with the group Tutok FOE (Freedom of Expression).


All the participating artists donated their works. Inside the folio are 40 works by 14 artists, some of who are PWU faculty members, the others the old guard and members of the PAP. There are still some folios on sale at the gallery at a cost of P68,000 each.

Proceeds from these will go to the purchase of facilities and to sustaining the center so it can offer workshops and outreach to other communities apart from teaching students etching, intaglio, rubbercut, woodcut, collograph and other print forms.
 
He said high in the priority of the gallery is showcasing the works of the school's fine arts students, faculty and alumni. After three years, he foresees the gallery opening its doors to non-PWU artists, too, and becoming more inclusive.

Pencil marking by anonymous student artist from a show called Plan B

Currently on view until Jan. 3 is "Kamay-an: Works on Paper" with students and teachers alike exhibiting works in boxes with contents as low as P500 a piece. Cuizon said the presentation of the works is such that it "looks like a photo montage."

He said the strength of the SFAD curriculum  is its balance of art theory and practice. Students have to go through classical drawings and at the same time allowed to experiment towards their senior years. The curriculum is shaped in such a way that students learn visual problem solving and explorations. But it can all be very exhausting when assessment time approaches because PWU is on a grueling trimester schedule.

Furthermore, Cuizon  said, the new curriculum and syllabus fixed the foundation courses, e.g., techniques, materials and visual perception were consolidated and the thesis program  geared towards mainstream or industry practice.

Cuizon conducts his thesis and art theory classes at the gallery where the atmosphere is congenial with him serving lunch or snacks. When he joined PWU in 2010, he said there were only three painting majors. Today it has 32 painting majors.

He is proud to see that these majors are united and have formed an official painting organization called Pintab. Their recent activity was a show called "Plan B" because the original artist/s lined up for a show backed out.

More pencil markings on a gallery pedestal

What 50 students did on the gallery's walls were markings using pencil. Some may call it graffiti; some may feel that these drawings should've been preserved on longer-lasting, non-acidic pieces of drawing paper. But the stress on the ephemeral quality of these markings was the whole point. They were later erased and whitewashed with a new coat of white paint.--Text and photos by Elizabeth Lolarga

First published by Vera Files / Yahoo Philippines, Dec. 19, 2013

Strength

"Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind..."
--William Wordsworth

Photo from the Facebook page of LIWA ARAOS

Where Democratic Left fits in the scheme of things

In many parts of the world, especially in Europe, where socialist and communist parties are part of the mainstream and discussions of Marxism-Leninism do not cause some members of the upper and middle classes to cringe in fright that they would be pounded and slashed to kingdom come by the hammer and sickle, the Democratic Left (DemLeft) has defaulted. It has failed to engage in governance and has conceded this to the elites and technocrats there.

Lacson-Paguio

Sabyte Lacson-Paguio quoted this earlier assessment by Brid Brennan, fellow of the Transnational Institute and member of the Global Campaign on Dismantling Corporate Power, at the dialogue on "Redefining Common Ground Among DemLeft Groups" at Ateneo de Manila University's Social Development Complex Hall.  

This kind of focus on issues, instead of an overarching one grounded on social justice, has weakened many democracies, she echoed him.

Bello

Akbayan Party-list Rep. Walden Bello, an ideologue of the Global Left, said the DemLeft in the Philippines could follow the examples of international progressives in Asian countries where an armed struggle was "the center of gravity in the countryside, and the strategic offensive was to bring down [an oppressive] regime to usher the way for a socialist state."

He cited the histories of China and Vietnam that have since grown "to accommodate capitalism." He said the Philippines could be considered a liberal democracy. The DemLeft's role was to "use its spaces and contradictions to build up the party in a parliamentary kind of struggle," he advised.

He said the DemLeft must ally itself with President Aquino in his anti-poverty and anti-corruption drives but oppose him in the cyber-crime law some of whose provisions are wrong, including that of libel.

He warned Aquino not to drag his feet in carrying out the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Law, saying the DemLeft's role is to push for CARP's full completion, adding that "there are more struggles ahead. Close to a million hectares of land have not been distributed. We don't know how long the Akbayan alliance with Aquino will last. If our goals are not met, we must rethink our position vis a vis the government. We must sort out points of unity, points of disagreement."

He said old socialist models have failed, but "what we are fighting for is an economic system where different kinds of markets co-exist like state and private ownership. This system can include transnational corporations in private enterprise, but we must have popular controls like labor unions. While state agencies must project the development process, there is no substitute for a good progressive state that leads in the development process and enjoys the people's democratic voice."

Under such a state, he said, civil society has a decision-making role. There will be a mixed economy whose feature is more democracy, less state control. He said, "The key thing is democratic control from top to bottom," adding that if this is truly socialist or not, "I leave it to those who like to do combat in definition[s]."

He stressed that the market has a role to play, and it couldn't be abolished "to give way to central planning. It didn't work for the Soviet Union." He has seen the flaws of a capitalist market system in the financial collapse of the US and many parts of Europe with hundreds of thousands, even millions, left jobless and under-employed.

Bello questioned the soundness of making business process outsourcing the centerpiece of economic growth in a mainly agricultural country. He said it follows that the government must shift its focus on agriculture as the center of economic growth.

He said it is to the DemLeft's advantage to be part of a "democracy that is expanding with state technocrats receding." He cited the issue of climate change, saying, that it has proven that the dominant capitalist model has "transformed the loving of Nature into dead products. In the interim, there is a grand battle between the US and China to cut down on [carbon dioxide] emissions."

He challenged the DemLeft to support a "benign relationship between Nature and production" that emphasizes regionalization and reinvigorates local markets.

Bello said in a situation where "capitalism is moving to a more democratic economic focus and with a de-globalized economy, do we leave it to the capitalist elites or to popular groups to take over?"

He said it was time to accept that "globalization is a thing of the past." Regional cooperation and integration with progressive forces will usher in a new era. 

He said, "These are exciting times, a time for experimentation, a time for breaking away from neo-liberalism and old Left models. We are groping in an exciting way, feeling our way. Our goal: how to grow in harmony with other people and with Nature."--Text and photos by Elizabeth Lolarga