A few entries back, I posted my experience with The Book Depository, which was 100% positive. They offer free shipping to the Philippines and the package was delivered straight to my doorstep. My second package - a pre-ordered copy of Hot Dudes Reading - also arrived safe and sound, and yes delivered to my front door, too.
However, our THIRD package...ah, well, that's when I had an "encounter" with a customs officer of Pasay City's Post Office.

Our authorized staff went to Pasay's PO to pick up our TBD parcel. To be honest, I'm not even sure why we had to pick it up in Pasay when we live in Quezon City, and - believe it or not (sarcastic) Quezon City has its own post office, too (Also, I love QC's post office. I've never had any bad experience with them).

Here's TBD's official receipt.

Let's say the exchange rate is P47, so that's P4,319.3 when converted.
However, custom officer thinks differently.

The price of the boxed set ended up P7.7k+​!!!!
Even worse, the officer is charging me around P1,308, which is approximately 30% of the price TBD charged me for the boxed set.
Our staff called us, asking if he should pay for the taxes, and I said no. I told him to inform the customs officer that I'm a registered author with the National Book Development Board so I definitely know my rights, and as such I know that I can't be charged for any customs / duties where books are concerned.
Custom officer then told our staff that the rule ONLY applies to "educational books and cultural materials".
To emphasize (read: IMHO, parang gusto niya pa mag-mukhang tanga ang staff namin, but hey that's my opinion and sige, baka gusto niya lang maging properly informed ang staff namin), binigyan pa yung staff namin ng photocopy of BOC rules, with the appropriate text highlighted and encircled.

Above document clearly states that it doesn't matter how the books were acquired or shipped. BOOKS ARE TAX OR DUTY-FREE for as long as they're not more than the specified number of copies and they won't be used for advertising purposes. Our boxed set consists of various titles and it's for a personal collection (for my boyfriend's sister, actually, who's in the process of building her own home library). Also, nowhere in that document states that the books have to be educational or cultural in terms of content. Rather, the law concerning this (and I'm speaking to you, customs officer) is the AGREEMENT ON THE IMPORTATION OF EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND CULTURAL MATERIALS.
Aaaaaanyway, I told our staff not to bother paying for the parcel and simply ask for the officer's name.
Ayaw ibigay.
#alamnathis
​Following this, I then asked for my lawyer aunt's help and forwarded her all the necessary documents concerning my package. FYI: I am not the FIRST VICTIM of this type of...umm...encounter. Here's one reported by a netizen and shared by When in Manila, and which I also forwarded to my aunt.
Result:

I SWEAR TO GOD, SA SOBRANG INIS KO, KUNG HINDI PA DIN NIYA IRE-RELEASE ANG BOXED SET NAMIN, MAGKAKADEMANDAHAN TALAGA. To be honest, if they had just charged me P500, I would have paid even knowing that I didn't have to be charged. I know that's not right and that would mean encouraging this practice to continue, but that's what disappointment and frustration can do to you - sa bwisit mo, you choose the no-hassle-way out, even if it's wrong.
But...
Sobra naman kasi yung siningil. Even if we could afford it, nakakainis na approximately 30% of the retail price ang nicha-charge. Parang sobrang...umm...there's just one word that comes to mind, but huwag na lang natin gamitin.
Baka...hindi talaga naintindihan ng custom officer yung rule about books.
Pero...
30% of retail price talaga ang tax?
No comment na lang.
​Anyway, going back to the story, we had our staff drop by the post office again, this time armed with our politely worded legal letter.
Result:

I am not the kind of person to make waves. In fact, I am so ridiculously shy I avoid public appearances (as an author) at all costs. However, I feel that this is something I should share in case other people find themselves "encountering" the same thing. Paano naman yung mga bata na nag-save ng sarili nilang allowance to buy the books they love? Tapos icha-charge ng ganito? It's not right, not fair, not everything - which is why I'm also sharing my experience (just like the netizen with the Harry Potter boxed set) in hopes that it would give others leverage of some sort or just confidence even to let customs officers know that their book purchases shouldn't be subjected to customs / duties.
End of rant. >.<

A week or so ago, I had to turn down an invitation to be part of a major lit event here in PH, and for reasons that aren't hard to guess. AKA I'm shy  and never attend any public event as an author (okay, the sole exception was an in-person interview with Ms. Alma Anonas-Carpio, because she's the type of person you can't or shouldn't say no to, haha!).
Anyway, I've been thinking that I should at least write a blog post that could serve as my way of making up for missing that event (and missing out on the opportunity to help other writers, assuming that there are those who think I could be of help). I'm even more convinced now (of doing this), after reading a post on Facebook about the plight of several Wattpad writers and their (ongoing) battle for rights reversion.

Listed below are my suggestions for jumpstarting your Writing Career 2.0. Again, let me stress that all these are suggestions. NONE of it is a guarantee for instant success. Everything is only meant to improve your chances of selling your book.

• Consider the most popular trends in your romance sub-genre of choice. For contemporary, stepbrothers, billionaires, best friends are still / always hot. Athletes, CEOs, firefighters, even porn stars are pretty in demand. Rockstars are popular as well but to a lesser extent (those who have already established a name for rockstar romances still do amazingly well, though). In the end, focus on what you love and write best.
• Writing in English (not Filipino, not Taglish) is a must for an international market.
• Writing about Western characters is preferable and strongly recommended if you want to earn more quickly.  I also suggest the use of Western settings for the same reasons. (P.S. I have never been to Greece but I write about Greek billionaires. I have never met a werewolf or a demon, but I write about them, too).
• Writing steamy is optional but it's easier to sell when you do. Sex sells. Sorry, it's a fact. But if you don't enjoy reading or writing it, forget it. It's still best to write what you truly enjoy.
• Genre fiction is a means of escape for most readers, and this is especially true for ROMANCE. If you plan to kill off your major characters, I'm sorry but your book is unlikely to sell.
• When writing your book, set aside all thoughts of negativity and doubt. Just focus on writing a story that you would personally enjoy reading. For now, let's not care about grammar and what your peers would say about your work. Just. Focus. On. Writing. An. Enjoyable. Story.
• Write a standalone romance. Better yet, write a three-book series because readers prefer to buy authors who aren't one-hit wonders. Standalone, fyi, means a book with a non-cliffhanger ending. In romance, this means your couple gets their happy-ever-after (let's avoid the happy-for-now ending...for now, pun intended).
• For now, come up with straightforward titles that let readers know exactly what they can expect from your book. Ex: The Greek Billionaire and His Secretary (that's mine, by the way).
• Great looking covers are recommended, but yes there are exceptions (i.e. books that do spectacularly well despite having not-so-pretty covers). However, one thing I've noticed is that these exceptions tend to have compelling stories, and you know what they say: content is king.
• Editing is necessary if - after objectively evaluating your story - you know that your writing will likely prove incoherent to native English readers. Objective is the keyword here. OTOH if you're confident about your ability to self-edit your work then that's cool.
• Sign up for a free account at Mailchimp.com to build your newsletter. Research on how to do this.
• Learn how to format your story for e-publishing. Again, a lot of info is available online for this, and it's free. You can also outsource this if you're willing to pay.
• Work on your blurb. Basically, this is the product description of your book. It's the summary that you see on the product page. It can be short or long, up to you - just make sure it will get readers to click. Think about your favorite book. What about its blurb drew you in? Try to replicate the same thing with your book.
• Prepare front and back matter (basically this is marketing info at the beginning and end of your book). Let's say you have a three-book series.
  • For Book 1, start with an invitation for readers to sign up with your readers and explain why they should do so (e.g. exclusive sneak peeks of upcoming books, random giveaways). At the end, invite them again to sign up and add links to Books 2 and 3 once they're ready. 
  • For Book 2, do the same but link to Book 1 and 3. You get the drift.
• Give out ARCs to trusted readers or friends who are able to post reviews on Amazon. If they're also willing to buy the book on Amazon, SO MUCH THE BETTER! Verified reviews (this means reviews posted by people who bought the book) carry more weight than unverified reviews. And yes, we have a way of knowing this. Just check any book on Amazon. If you see a review tagged with 'verified purchase' then that's a review posted by someone who bought the book. REVIEWS are everything on Amazon and elsewhere so you want to collect as many reviews as possible and make a huge splash on your debut.
• Decide whether you want to take advantage of Amazon's Kindle Unlimited (KU) or not.
  • What's Kindle Unlimited? This is a subscription program that requires you to publish your book exclusively on Amazon for three months. After this, your contract expires (as long as you didn't tick the box for automatic re-enlistment), and it's up to you if you want to sign up for another three months. With KU, you are paid $.004 for every page read. But you can still also sell your book (it's up to you to choose the price of your book) on Amazon. So basically, when you're in KU you can earn from sales and pages read but ONLY on Amazon. This means you can't publish your book on Nook, Google Play, Buqo, etc. However, you can sell your book in print wherever and whenever. It's only the ebook distribution that KU cares about.
  • KU Benefit #1: Free days! During your three-month contract with KU, you can set your book for free for five days. You can do this consecutively or you can do this one day a week. It's up to you. Anything goes for those five days. This is an essential benefit because free books are another promotion tool. It allows readers to try unknown authors risk-free, and if they like what they read then they're more likely to buy the next book. Without KU, you cannot set your book for free immediately on Amazon. You need to wait for them to price-match. More on this later.
  • KU Benefit #2: More visibility. Not surprisingly, Amazon favors books that are published exclusively with them and so KU books are given better rankings. The better your rank is, the more people are likely to see your book and the more chances of getting sales or pages read.
  • KU Benefit #3: So many readers have subscribed to KU, and since your books are technically free for them to read (their subscription rate doesn't change no matter how many books they read), they're more likely to take a chance on your work even if they don't know who you are.
  • KU Disadvantage #1: The $.004/page rate I mentioned earlier is an estimate. It can go up or down anytime. 
  • KU Disadvantage #2: Since you're exclusive with Amazon, your book can't be published elsewhere. This puts you at Amazon's mercy, in case they change the rules again (in a bad way).
• My 2 cents:
  • If you're writing contemporary romance, I think you shouldn't jump into KU right away. You should see how your first books do by going wide (publishing everywhere).
  • If you're writing paranormal romance, I'll go with KU because they don't sell as great outside Amazon.
  • If you're writing young adult romance, I'll also go with KU because of the same reasons above.
  • If you wrote a serial instead of a series of standalone novels, I think I'll risk going wide.
  • Whether you wrote full-length books or serials, I would choose to make the first book free and then the next two books $2.99 each. This price point is my personal sweet spot, and I believe that my books are worth $2.99. This is also the minimum price you need to set in order to enjoy 70% royalty. Anything below this price point only earns 35% royalty.
• To publish your ebook, you will need to set up an account on Amazon and any other retailer. Again, do your research. Consider downloading the self-publishing manuals by David Gaughran for more tips

...does not require you to tweet or post constantly about your book. Instead, consider doing the things I've listed below.

• Set up a Facebook page, Twitter account and other social media accounts you're comfortable using for your author profile. Start a website or a blog if you can't afford to pay for your website's domain just yet. Please research about this.
• Set up your author account on Amazon's Author Central page. Add books to your author page.
• Post on your social media accounts just once or twice a week about your books. Interact with your readers. 
• Write your next book. This is the most important way to market your old books. Write as many as you can. Release regularly. Don't pay attention to bad reviews. As long as you've put your heart in your writing, then you did a great job. Continue writing. Continue reading. As long as you're objective with your work, then you'll be able to tell if you're not writing shit.

• Book cover design (self or outsourced)
• Editing (self or outsourced)
• Title (be strategic still)
• Blurb (work it!)
• Front and back matter (invite readers to sign up for your newsletter, explain why, give them a list of your older books, and invite them to review your books, too)
• Format your book (self or outsourced)
• Give out ARCs and remind them gently about the need for posting reviews ASAP
• Publish
• Send out newsletter to let readers know that your new book is out. Include an exclusive excerpt (not the first chapter because this can already be seen in Amazon's Look Inside preview) and high-resolution image of your photo.
• Update front and back matter of older books to include link to your newest book.
• Post on social media accounts about new release.
• Recycle and repeat.

​

I'm lucky that I came just early enough in the game that it was possible to build a following without having to shell out large sums of money on paid marketing. These days though, it seems like paid marketing to an extent is inevitable. Please research this on your own. I don't feel comfortable suggesting stuff that involves money.
​

If you haven't any idea about the lawsuit involving a self-pubbed book titled A Gronking to Remember, then you might want to read this first. 
I feel it's important to tackle since a recent discussion with another writer reminded me that there are still a lot of people - especially here in PH - who aren't aware of the ins and outs of self-publishing. More so when it comes to the legalities.
If you've read the article, then you know that the more pressing issue hasn't anything to do with the book at all. Rather, the big question is the outcome of this lawsuit could change the definition of 'publisher' where companies like Apple and Amazon are concerned.
(For the record: I do not consider Amazon et al as publishers. I'm the publisher of my own books, and they simply provide me with a platform or services to distribute my books to readers)
In any case, if you are self-publishing / have self-published your work, it's best to play it safe and consider yourself SOLELY RESPONSIBLE for everything that has to do with your book. If you don't take care with your choice of cover, use of copyrighted material in your book or marketing materials, you might very well be sued and imprisoned as well as fined for it.
If you are new to self-publishing---

• Always make sure you have the RIGHT to use a photo or illustration that you want to use for your book's cover. You may or may not have to pay for this right. 
• Even if you were the one who took the photo, it's also possible that you're not allowed to use it for your book cover (e.g. a photo of a celebrity). Same goes for your own illustrations (e.g. a drawing or even a caricature of a real-life senator, Mickey Mouse, or Sam Smith).
• You are almost always not allowed to use lyrics - no matter how short - of any song in your book without express permission. You may or may not have to pay for use. Same goes for excerpts for most books, plays, articles, and essays (basically any work created by someone else).
• You are definitely NOT allowed to include any company logo or trademark in your book cover without permission (e.g. Nike's check symbol or BMW's logo).

Last but not the least, when in doubt, ASK, and be sure to ask the right person/s (not me, though).

From time to time I receive questions about legal stuff related to self-publishing, and a recent email from a fellow writer made me realize that I haven't yet dedicated a post to this. As I'm neck-deep with deadlines this month and I'll be writing like a shark for most of June because of it, I thought today would be the best time to write a post about it.

• What's the royalty rate of Amazon for self-publishers based in the Philippines?

It used to be that if you can't provide Amazon with a tax identification number issued by the US, you won't be able to take advantage of the tax treaty between PH and US. That means Amazon will automatically withhold 30% from your royalties. If, however, you were able to provide them with an US-issued TIN, then you'll be able to take advantage of the tax treaty and have Amazon only withhold 15% from your royalties.
Due to certain changes with KDP, however, I think you no longer need to provide Amazon with a U.S. issued TIN. I can't help with this, unfortunately, but if you try signing up for a KDP account, you'll be able to see if they still require one or not.

• Does Amazon send royalties by check?

If you cannot provide them with a US bank account for them to deposit your royalties to, then Amazon will send your royalties by check. With the latter, you will need to open a US dollar deposit account. With the former, you can check requirements of US banks that allow individuals to open accounts with them online.
Please keep in mind that Amazon also has the same requirements for affiliate commissions. If you can't provide them with US bank details, they will also mail you a check for this.

• How do you pay your taxes? 

Unfortunately, this matter isn't as cut and dried as we like. A lot of factors have to be considered, such as whether you set up a sole proprietorship as a self-publisher, etc. For this, I strongly recommend you consult an accountant.

• How do I self-publish with other retailers aside from Amazon?

Most other non-Amazon retailers require you to either be a US citizen or have a US-registered corporation before you can self-publish directly with them. This is obviously a deal breaker for most, but don't worry - there's another way to get around it. Simply upload via websites like Smashwords and Draft2Digital. Just remember to send them a completed W8-BEN form so that they'll only withhold 15% of your royalties instead of 30%. 

I think that's it, but in case you have additional questions just drop me a line by email, posting a comment here, or using my website's contact form. Happy self-publishing!

I worried A LOT about this before - when I was just querying agents in fact. But when I got The Call - or in my case The Email since I'm from the Philippines - my then-agent told me that where I live doesn't really matter these days. It's all about the book!

But of course in the end there will be paperwork done. 

If you're thinking about being traditionally published, this will definitely serve as a great guide! She's a Filipino author, repped by Nicole & Rebecca (Helen Rees Agency) and has an upcoming YA horror from SourcebookS.

If however you're wondering about self-publishing in Amazon and how to get your money "out", you will find this FAQ page from Amazon helpful. Basically, you'll need a US TIN and sign up several forms. 

Also, keep in mind you are a self-employed individual in the eyes of the law. As for those who are worried that Amazon will somehow take away your money, no - that's not going to happen (glitches don't count since they get fixed sooner or later). Mina V. Esguerra - another Filipino author - says so in her video interview.

Hopefully, these links will help you get started. I'll try to make this post more comprehensive to serve as a complete guide next time.