UPDATE (3 July 2021) : The wait time to unlock a chapter has been reduced to one hour! So that’s a shorter wait between chapters.
So I’m running a promo on my three-book series L.A. Players on the Radish fiction app. It was previously on a wait-to-unlock pricing method, which means that you can read the first two books and most of the third book for free if you can wait 24 hours for the next chapter to unlock for you.
If you’re not familiar with the wait-to-unlock method on Radish, this might be confusing. Which is why I did a livestream on my Twitch channel a few weeks ago to give a demo on how to read my books using the wait-to-unlock method. Also because the promo I’m running until November 5, 2020 means you only have to wait six hours for the next chapter to unlock, instead of 24 hours.
The video is also on my YouTube channel, if you’re not a Twitch kinda person. But I’m planning on doing more LiveStreams on twitch, and reposting the videos on YT later so if you want to join in the livestream and live chats, please do follow me on Twitch.
If you follow me on any of my socials, you may have seen me invite you to subscribe to my newsletter. I’ve had my newsletter for a few years now. I love it. I love being able to write an email and send it out to hundreds of my readers in one go. These emails can be as long, short, simple, or chock-full of info as I want. I like to send out news to my newsletter before I post it anywhere else. The newsletter also makes it easy to give away books to my readers.
Recently, it occurred to me that it might be fun if I figure out a more specific theme for my newsletter. It already had a purpose —to keep my readers updated on my book news and publishing news, and to give away free stuff. But because I’m a fiction writer, establishing a theme is important. That meant having a name for the newsletter. Because once it had a name, an identity would follow. At least, that’s what I hoped.
So I made a list of name ideas. I came up with a few. I wanted a name with the word “shipping” in it. Because… shipping! Right? Options included “Shipping News” and “Shipping Included”. I had also thought of using the name “’Shipping and Handling” but there was already a podcast with that name. And while I liked “Shipping Included”, I figured that anything with the word “shipping” in it would just confuse people if I were to talk about, say, how to order print books from me. So with a heavy heart, I nixed all the options with the word “shipping” in it. After a day or two, I added “W.I.P.” to my list of choices.
If you’re an author, you would know that W.I.P. stands for “work in progress”. Before I wrote books, I didn’t know this term, so I don’t expect all my readers to know it either. Still, I thought it might make a good name for my newsletter. If you think about it, aren’t we all works in progress? If that wasn’t a great theme for a newsletter where I talk about the books I’m serializing and the new recipes I’ve been trying ( just started including my cooking experiences in my last two newsletter issues), then I don’t know what is.
So that’s the story of how I rebranded my newsletter.
After I whipped up a simple logo, I was ready to send out my first email. And I did, a few days ago. I announced the promo I’m currently running on Radish for my L. A. Players series — reduced wait times. I also announced that I would do a live video tutorial on how to read my book for free with the wait-to-unlock model. Alas, I was pressed for time and wasn’t able to include anything about cooking. I will definitely do that next time.
I’m pretty excited about where this new theme and new direction will take me. It would be amazing if you can join me on this journey. So you haven’t yet, sign up to get The W.l.P. here. You’ll get a free short story ebook when you subscribe.
If, after one or two emails, you find that you’re not feeling it, you can unsubscribe (and keep the ebook and any other freebies you’ve already received at that point). In fact, you can unsubscribe anytime. Because that’s how newsletters work. Also, another way newsletters work — I will keep all your information private and confidential (is that redundant??), and will never give it away or sell it. I promise.
I’ll be sending out a new issue before the end of this month. Please drop a comment below if you have any topic suggestions. See you at the W.I.P.!
It’s not a new book. It’s a book I published four years ago, and pretty much the only novel I have that’s published wide. There are no revisions, the cover is the same. Most people wouldn’t notice anything new.
What I’ve done was switch print-on-demand and distribution services from Amazon print to IngramSpark.
It’s not really that big a deal. I barely make any sales of print copies of my book. If I decide to stop selling print copies of The Billionaire’s Price, I wouldn’t lose anything. Still, I do have the occasional reader who wants the book in print so I want them to be able to have that. Plus, as someone who grew up in an age where print books were there only books that existed, it was important to me that my book was available in print.
So why the switch? Amazon is evil, yeah, but they did a decent job of printing and distributing my book. My main reason is kinda ridiculous — I wanted my book in hardcover. Even if no one buys it and I’d be the only one who owns a copy. I don’t care. And IngramSpark is the only POD/distribution service that could d0 hardcover POD (print on demand) and distribution that I know of. A few successful indie publishers I know used IngramSpark, so I figured it was probably a safe bet.
The process wasn’t painless. In fact I was rather disappointed with the way it took them more than a week to setup my book imprint. I’ve used other book distributors — KDP, Smashwords, Draft2Digital, Publishdrive — and I could always create an imprint in under two seconds. IngramSpark has a button which says “create imprint” that doesn’t actually work and so you have to email them and ask them to do it for you. They told me it would take two days but which in fact took nine and only after I contacted support several times. Mind you, all these other services will let you set up books for free, while IngramSpark will charge you something like twenty bucks if you have to fix a typo.
(Luckily I found a discount code. You can use it too, it’s INGRAMSPARK2020. You’ll be able to do your uploads of new titles and revisions for free using that code, until June 30.)
Another thing I needed that I didn’t when putting up my books for POD on CreateSpace (it’s Amazon KDP now) was ISBNs for both versions of my book (paperback, hardcover). Yes, you need a different ISBN for different print versions/formats of the same book. Now, getting an ISBN here in the Philippines is a pain. Until recently, only registered companies could buy ISBNs. Now, you could buy an ISBN as an individual, but you have to be registered in the National Book Development Board as an author. If you go to the NBDB website, you won’t get anywhere. The site is a big ugly mess. The button you’re supposed to click if you want to register? It goes… somewhere. Just not to the online registration page. Or even a page that tells you how to register. I had to email them (helpdesk@nbdb.gov.ph) to ask how I could register. They replied eight days later.
It was pretty clear there was no way I could get an ISBN anytime soon. Fortunately, a few friends’ media company had a few they hadn’t used yet, so I asked to buy a couple. Thank goodness for friends, amirite?
Still, it took me weeks before I was able to finish the process of setting my book up on IngramSpark. And I thought the hardest part would be formatting the hardcover design! It was the first time I had to make a cover design for a hardcover (I picked case laminate, with a jacket) using IngramSpark’s template and specs. Since I already had an existing cover, it was just a matter of going back to the PSD file and moving things around and resizing elements. I won’t know how it looks until I actually get myself a copy. When I do get a copy of the hardcover, I may do a video to show you what it looks like.
All in all, the process wasn’t entirely painless. Am I happy I made the effort to publish my book in hardcover? Yes, definitely. Was this all worth it to move my print production and distribution away from Amazon KDP? Absolutely. Am I excited to hold a hardcover copy of The Billionaire’s Price in my grubby hands? You betcha.
Would I recommend other indie authors do the same? I do! But like I said, it’s not painless. That’s why I’m writing about it, so you can see if publishing your book in hardcover or switching to IngramSpark is something you want to do. I hope this has been helpful.
It was 3am and I was feeling peckish. Luckily, I had some assorted rice cakes in the fridge. I picked the sapin sapin. It’s not something I’m particularly fond of — I’m more of a biko and cuchinta kind of girl — but a nice, warm rice cake always makes a lovely snack.
Since it’s been sitting in the fridge for a couple of days, the sapin sapin was cold. I had a microwave but you don’t want to just pop it in the microwave because that always leads to a dry, unevenly warmed rice cake. I did have an electric steamer but I didn’t want to have to deal with the cleanup. Luckily, my mom taught me a microwave hack that works nicely with heating up rice cakes. It actually works for various starchy food like rice and pasta.
You put the sapin sapin in a bowl. Make sure the sides of the bowl is high enough that if you cover the opening with a wet paper towel, the paper towel doesn’t touch the sapin sapin. And then you take a paper towel, wet it with clean water— I like to fold it and run it under the tap, then unfold it — and cover the opening of the bowl. Stick the whole thing in the microwave and warm it for a minute and a half on 50% or until the sapin sapin is hot.
The result? Warm and gooey sapin sapin.
My mom taught me this as a way of heating up steamed rice but like I said, it works with any starchy food like pasta and dry noodles. It also works great for dimsum, which is usually steam-cooked.
Now go forth and never eat dry rice cakes ever again.
As of a couple of weeks ago,The Billionaire’s Game is no longer premium, but wait-to-unlock. What does this mean? It means that once you start reading the first few free episodes (basically what we call “episodes” on Radish), one locked episode is unlocked every 24 hours. It means that you can read every episode (except for the last ten) for free if you’re willing to wait 24 for each new chapter.
If you don’t have the Radish fiction app yet, you can download it on Apple or Google Play. Once you’ve signed up for an account, just do a search for “The Billionaire’s Game”.
But wait, there’s more.
I’m giving away three coupons for The Billionaire’s Game to each and every Radish fiction reader. Story coupons can be used to read locked episode, and one coupon unlocks one episode. Radish has this lovely Gift Box feature on the app. So just look for it and find your free coupons for The Billionaire’s Game and other amazing stories. Be sure to do it now because these coupons are only available and usable until December 10.
I made a nifty video to give you a better idea of how this all works:
As for The Billionaire’s Lie, it’s also wait-to-unlock. Because I love my readers and want to make my stories more accessible to you. I’m trying to get some coupons for The Billionaire’s Lie in the Gift Box sometime in the next few weeks, so check your Gift Boxes every Tuesday or sign up for my mailing list and get notified by me through email!
Are you an author or an artist who’s thinking of getting into a different medium to expand your audience? If you are and you don’t know where to start, you should totally join the online discussion hosted by #RomanceClass for #BuwanNgMgaAkdangPinoy today, August 17 at 7pm (Manila Time) on Twitter. I’m on the panel (@anselacorsino), along with video blogger and author Carla de Guzman (@carlakdeguzman), and the host of the Book Thingo podcast Kat Mayo (@BookThingo).
Apart from talking about our experiences podcasting/vlogging, we’re also taking questions from you! You may tweet us or send us your questions beforehand through this handy form. To join the chat, just log into Twitter at the designated time and look for the hashtag #RomanceClass .
Romance author Jay E. Tria and I chat about productivity, writing fictional bands and … eggs. Among other things! I also ramble on about fountain pens. Enjoy!
Episode chapters
00:00:00 – Welcome!
00:01:20 – Survey on illustrated romance covers
00:04:30 – I went to a workshop!
00:12:28 – I got new ink, (Not a tattoo.)
00:17:21 – Coming up: Jay E. Tria interview + what’s a live reading?
00:18:57 – INTERVIEW with Jay
01:06:19 – LIVE READING: “Ask Me Nicely” performed by Gab Pangilinan and Bibo Reyes
01:15:01 – Wrap up
(Please scroll down for the show notes.)
Guest
Jay E. Tria is an author of contemporary young adult, new adult romance and paranormal/urban fantasy. She is often inspired by daydreams, celebrity crushes, a childhood fascination of Japanese drama and manga, and an incessant itch to travel. Find a complete list of her books here.
Over a lovely breakfast at La Mere Poulard, I had a chat with F/F romance author Brigitte Bautista. We talked about how outlining made her a better, more productive writer, why writing fiction is kind of like programming (her day job), and her new book You, Me, U.S. (out now on Amazon KDP Unlimited, also available as a paperback on April Feels Day).
When she’s not chained to a desk writing software code, Brigitte Bautista writes lesbian fiction and poetry. She participated in Anvil Publishing’s very own #SparkNA writing workshop, where her first book baby, Don’t Tell My Mother, was born.
Brigitte is a huge sports freak and considers crying over sports strangely therapeutic. She has never met a doughnut she did not like and atones for the overeating by taking long walks or riding her bike around the city
00:16 Ansela:Welcome to Adulting for Authors. This is episode number 10. I’m your host Ansela Corsino, and I am a romance author. Adulting for Authors is a podcast about productivity. Productivity: you call it binge reading, I call it research.
In today’s episode, I interview Brigitte Bautista. She is an author of f/f romance books— that’s female/female. They are very adorable. I completely loved her first book Don’t Tell My Mother. It was funny. It was sweet. It was romantic and exciting and really hot.
00:57 And I generally don’t read FF romances, but her book was just … it was just wonderful. And I’m sure this second one —her latest book titled You, Me, U.S. — is going to be just as great. If not better. Because that’s how it is when you’re a writer: you get better with every new book right? Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading it. It’s on my TBR list.
01:24 Brigitte and I met up at this really lovely French place called La Mere Poulard. Apparently it roughly translates to “the mother hen”. I think. Anyway, they serve these really adorable fluffy omelets which we all ordered. We had a couple of other people along with us. And it’s a really nice place. It’s quiet in the morning, if you’re in the mood for a quiet breakfast. It got really busy as soon as lunch rolled in. We did manage to have our chat and I hope you enjoy listening to it.
02:08 Now before we move on to the interview, I will read the blurb of You, Me, U.S.
02:15 Best friends Jo and Liza are as opposite as night and day. Sex worker Jo swears by the worry-free, one-day-at-a-time dance through life. Salesclerk Liza has big plans for her family’s future, and there is nothing bigger than a one-way trip to the U.S. But an almost-kiss, a sex dare, and news of Liza’s engagement to her American boyfriend unveil feelings Jo and Liza never thought they had. Deciding between staying together and drifting apart puts Liza’s best-laid plans and Jo’s laidback life in jeopardy. When love clashes with lifelong ambitions and family expectations, someone has to give in. Question is: who?
03:09 And now here is my interview with Brigitte Bautista.
BREAK
03:23 Ansela: Hello, Brij.
3:24 Brigitte Bautista: Hello, Ansela. Thanks for having me on Adulting for Authors.
A: Yes. Thank you for coming. We’re here at La Mere Poulard. I hope I’m saying that right.
03:57 BB: Hello, I’m Brigitte Bautista. I’m a #RomanceClass author. So when I’m not chained to a desk writing software code, I write romance fiction. I write FF mostly. Like, 100% of the time.
BB: Yeah. So more recently I worked with #RomanceClass authors to publish the anthology Start Here: Short Stories of First Encounters. I served as co-editor with Ronald Lim for that. I also contributed a short story to the anthology.
04:54 A:What was the title of the short story?
BB: “Lemon Drop Friday”
A: Yes! It was so cute.
05:00 BB: Thank you!
05:02 A: I first listened to an excerpt during … I think it was Feels So Prom?
BB: Yeah, that was Feels So Prom.
A: And she has a new book coming out.
05:13 BB: I’m going to release my second novel, You, Me, U.S. on April 15. That’s the digital release. And then —fingers crossed, everything goes well —I can bring print copies on April Feels Day on April 27.
05:28 A: Yeah, that’s at the Loft, right? At Ortigas?
BB: Yes at The Loft.
05:32 So if you’re… if you wanna get print copies of Brij’s new book — You, Me, U.S...
BB: Yes
A: …they will be available. Yeah they will. I have faith.
BB : You have faith in the universe.
A: The annual April Feels Day.
BB: Yeah.
A: On April 27.
BB: So that will be a party!
A: Yes, I know!
05:53 A: So what did you have? We had breakfast. Sort of. I guess it was breakfast, right? ‘Cause it’s not noon yet?
BB: So I had puff omelette. You guys had the savory type. I had caramelized apples with my puff omelette.
A: How was it?
BB: Pretty good. It’s my first time here.
06:10 A: I had the one with potatoes and bacon. Because I figured that would make it breakfast. So I got one with bacon.
BB: We missed rice. We didn’t have rice with our omelette.
06:25 A: Probably later. They have risotto here.
BB: Later na lang.
A: Yeah. I like this place because it’s quiet. I think they have more people in the evening. But it’s morning now so it’s mostly just us.
BB: Yeah.
06:41 A: I actually didn’t know that you worked as a programmer. I had no idea.
BB: Surprise!
A: Hello, fellow STEM girl!
06:51 A: I have to ask … what kind of technology software do you work with? What do you develop?
07:09 BB: Yes. Because they use COBOL for mostly for like high-volume transactions like banks, financial institutions. They use COBOL because it’s more accommodating of, yung nga, higher volume transactions and it’s hard to migrate that many … that much data into the newer technologies. So we’re still in demand for, like, a good 20 years. I’m still gonna be relevant for a good 10 to 20 years. After that I’m going to retire and just be my girlfriend’s wife.
A: Yes.
BB: My lawyer girlfriend’s wife.
A: That’s the dream.
07:55 A: It’s so weird ‘cause, like, in school I did take up computer science in school. I don’t think we actually took COBOL but we did take it up in history. That’s why I’m really surprised.
BB: Yeah.
A: Because normally a lot of languages… they get obsolete.
BB: Uh huh.
08:13 A: I’m sorry we’re talking about… We’re not talking about writing anymore.
BB: Adulting for programmers!
A: Yes. Maybe that could be another thing. I dunno.
08:25 A: You know, this is important. Because you have a regular — what’s that — a nine to five job?
BB: Yeah.
A: So how do you balance the writing and your programming.
BB: When I’m working on a project, I really carve time to write. So either … it depends on my current situation. Sometimes I assign writing time early in the morning before I get the work. And sometimes it makes sense to, like, have an hour in the evening before I sleep. Just forming that habit every day. Showing up whether on the schedule that you impose on yourself.
09:11 A: Do you think about your current work in progress while you’re at your day job?
09:18 BB: Yeah! Sometimes I write — sorry. Sometimes I write on my day job because they don’t pay me enough to be overly serious at my job so… I think I made most of Don’t Tell My Mother …
A: *laughing*
09:38 BB: Please don’t tell my employer. Don’t tell my employer, but I know I did most of Don’t Tell My Mother on company time.
09:49 A: Well, you’re still employed so you seem to be doing a good job.
BB: Yeah.
A: Good job.
BB: Yeah.
A: I think it’s a writer thing that no matter what we’re doing …
BB: Yeah.
A: We’re sometimes still thinking of our WIP. So that happens.
10:03 BB:That happens that happens to me too. When I’m working on a project, I think about it all the time just… The writing time, obviously, the writing time that I carve or that I schedule— it’s more for the manual work like typing. Typing stuff. Putting words in. But the brainstorming, the scene storm, conceptualizing dialogue— it happens all the time.
A: All the time.
BB: Yeah.
A: Like, when you’re trying to sleep?
BB: Yes.
A: Right.
10:34 BB: And then you wake up and, like, “Come on, let me sleep! That scene can wait.”
A: Say you’re trying to sleep and you think of something that you feel that you have to write down. What do you … what is the first thing you reach for?
BB: Paper. And pen. It doesn’t matter. Well, I always have a notebook naman in my bag, but sometimes it can’t wait. So I just use backs of receipts, tissue paper. I’ve used tissue paper, scratch paper — anything to write. And sometimes my phone but I don’t … it doesn’t work for me … typing on the phone. ‘Cause when I write, that’s when, like, my mind and my hand are more in sync so…
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I interview romance author Mina V. Esguerra about her writing process and how she manages to hit her word count goals. We also go in-depth about her difficulties with her latest book Kiss and Cry (which is available now so go get it). While we chatted, we had a yummy lunch at Mom & Tina’s in Greenhills on the Lunar New Year (yes this episode is super late sorry).
But wait, there’s more! At the end of the episode, there’s a recording of a live reading from last year’s #RomanceClass FeelsFest of an excerpt from Mina’s book What Kind of Day, the first book in her Six 32 Central series. The live reading was performed by Gio Gahol and Graie So.
Mina V. Esguerra writes contemporary romance novels. Visit minavesguerra.com to learn more about her writing, publishing experiments, events, and advocacies.
When not writing romance, she is president of communications firm Bronze Age Media, development communication consultant, publisher, and publishing mentor. She created the workshop series “Author at Once” for writers and publishers, and #romanceclass for aspiring romance writers.
Her young adult/fantasy trilogy Interim Goddess of Love is a college love story featuring gods from Philippine mythology. Her contemporary romance novellas won the Filipino Readers’ Choice awards for Chick Lit in 2012 (Fairy Tale Fail) and 2013 (That Kind of Guy).
I spoke with poet and professor Paolo Manalo about how he makes words happen. It turns out writing fiction is a kinda different from writing poetry, who knew? If you love words, you’ll enjoy this episode.
Paolo Manalo’s first collection Jolography (2003) received recognition from the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and the UP Diliman Gawad Chancellor. It will be re-issued in a Retconned edition by UP Press this 2019. Manalo has received fellowships from the UP National Writers Workshop, the Taboan Writers Festival, and the MacDowell Colony. He teaches English, literature, and creative writing at UP-Diliman.
01:25:54 – Who’s the next guest on Adulting for Authors?
01:26:33 – Thank you for listening
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