(Para hindi masyadong nega.)
1. YOU ARE PROVING THAT PINOYS READ.
Readers used to say this (and I'd argue with them on the internet about it). "Pinoys don't read. Because I don't see them read on the train. Because I don't see them read in coffee shops. Because I sell books and nobody buys them. Etc etc." HELLO - I don't read in buses or trains (kasi nahihilo ako) and I don't read in coffee shops (unless may hinihintay ako), and are you writing a genre I actually want to read? And yet I read 40 books a year. Your community in Wattpad is proving with actual numbers WHO READS, WHAT YOU READ, HOW MUCH YOU LOVE WHAT YOU READ. Kung walang readers, bakit 20M reads ang ganito at ganyan? Hindi yan isang taong 20M times nag-refresh.
2. YOU ARE PROVING THAT YOUNG PEOPLE READ.
Kasi majority sa inyo dito, considered young. :)
3. YOU ARE PROVING THAT YOUNG PEOPLE READ PINOY AUTHORS.
Nung nagstart akong magsulat (six years ago lang yon but the world seems so different), ang sinasabi sa amin, hindi click ang Pinoy authors. Unless magsulat ka in Tagalog. Unless ganitong klaseng libro lang ang isulat mo. What you're showing here is that you support Pinoy authors NO MATTER WHAT THEY WRITE. May romance, may fantasy, may Taglish, may English... there's a reader for everyone. Siyempre may mas sikat at mas malaki ang fan base, pero even a small fan base is better than nothing -- and believe me, back then, they were telling us there would be NONE. ZERO. NO FAN BASE. Haha. :)
4. YOU ARE PROVING THAT PINOYS BUY BOOKS.
Sales figures and the long lines at book signings pa lang eh.
=========
Do you realize what you've done? You've overturned so many things that the book industry thought were true. But in a good way, because you showed that something was there, when they kept saying it wasn't there. And pati ako, na hindi naman nag-umpisa sa Wattpad, nagkaka-readers. Nakakatulong sa lahat ang ginagawa ninyo. I'm forever grateful to the readers here who contacted me and read my books.
So yeah - I guess minsan may mga drama kayo sa community dito na nakaka-stress, but I also like to think of the good you're doing and have done for reading in general. I owe so much to your community. Please enjoy for a moment how you made writing as a career a reality for many people, at wag muna ma-stress. :)
BINABASA MO ANG
Publishing and Self-publishing: Advice for Writers
Non-Fiction[FILIPINO/ENGLISH] Advice for writers based on my experience self-publishing (more than 20 novels as of now) and traditional publishing (more than 10 novels with a traditional publisher, and consulting for other fellow authors). Read and learn, but...
