I write sweet and steamy rom-coms with tear-jerker happy-ever-afters.
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This is where we talk all about writing.


I'm still new to indie / self-publishing, but if there's a question you'd like to ask me, please feel free to do so. 
Contact me here.

My Road to Publication

Eyes on the prize

5/15/2016

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It’s been a while since I last wrote here, so sorry for that. My only excuse: I got really busy doing things AND worrying about doing things. (insert appropriate emoticon here)
In those days – weeks – though, I did think of blogging from time to time, and whenever I do, I’ve always tried putting myself in your shoes – you, being whoever happens to have stumbled upon my blog.
I think my website is one of the first-page links that comes up when you Google for ‘self-publishing’ in Philippines or Filipinos so I guess that’s my starting point. If you’re here because you’re considering self-publishing, I’ve written several beginner-friendly posts about this. Just click on the "self-publishing" listed under Categories (right sidebar), and hopefully you find one or two things useful.
I’ll try to come up with more self-publishing 101 posts, but please continue with your own research as well. That’s how I started, too. No one really spoon-fed me knowledge about self-publishing, but I also learned early on to outsource what I can afford to outsource. In hindsight, I also believe that not being spoon-fed was a good thing because it taught me to persevere. So don’t worry if things seem too daunting – just keep at it. Continue with what worked, try another alternative for what didn't. Your journey to self-publishing can be shorter or longer, but either way you'll get to your destination as long as you keep moving forward.

As for my own writing journey, I recently came across this post by the Christina Dodd. I remember a high school classmate recommending her to me – or was it in grade school? I can't be sure entirely, all I remember is that she's been around forever. (Please don’t think that’s a dig at her age. Rather, I think the longevity of her career is spectacularly awesome, and I can only hope to achieve even a fraction of her accomplishments.)
 Anyway, there was a part that really struck me--- 
Wonder if readers realize I’m a fraud, unable to start a story because of lack of will power, inspiration, and most of all, competence. Go for a walk.
I feel like this all the time. No exaggeration. ALL THE TIME. Even with all the stories I've written, even after all the sweet messages I've had from readers, I still feel this and honestly it’s what more often than not which cripples me and prevents me from finishing a book. Generating ideas isn’t hard. It’s whether I can execute them the way I want – and the way readers deserve – that hinders me.
Thankfully, though, I've come to learn that it's just a phase. I'm not sure if you call it writer's block because when I see that as being unable to write at all. But I do get to write. I just don't think it's good enough. 
Mm.
Maybe that's writer's block, after all.
Anyway, it's a phase that I do overcome eventually, and when I do it always turns out that time away from my manuscript did me good. Like with Prince of Darkness for instance. I struggled with writing it for a really long time. It's actually the first time that the original, handwritten draft for this (literally penned years ago, like many of my stories were) didn't work. I ended up writing various versions of the story, but none of them worked either. Eventually I was forced to set the story aside.
This month, however, I finally got back to working on it and the words just flowed. And the more I write, the more I was convinced it was the story I wanted for POD. Of course, the real test would come when I release this book to the wild. We'll see then if the readers agree with me.

While other books take forever to write (Hello POD), others seem to finish themselves on their own. This was the case with Devoured, which was my book for the Kindle Worlds launch of Melody Anne's Billionaire Universe last month. Surprisingly, it's still at #1 in Kindle Worlds: Romance - the longest time any book of mine's maintained any kind of #1 spot in rankings. So I'm pretty happy about that but if you ask me if I expected it - NOPE. 
And that's why I'm sharing it with you guys. Since there's no really telling how a book would do until you release it, there's also no point worrying yourself to death while writing it. You'll have a harder time finishing it that way (like I inevitably do, when I let the doubts get to me). Worse comes to worst, you might not even finish it at all...WHEN YOU CAN. It's just a matter of shutting down the side of your brain that keeps entertaining doubts. 
I always say this to those asking me for advice about writing, but really, it also applies to mid-career writers like you and me.
When you write just keep your eyes on the prize.
Repeat after me.
Eyes on the prize.
Eyes on the prize. 
​Eyes on the prize. 

And you'll be done before you know it.
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Oh hey, I'm an indie midlist author!

1/19/2014

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I stumbled across an excerpt of Indie Author Survival Guide by author Susan Kaye Quinn, which posted an interesting chart of sorts to gauge your success as an indie author.
  • 1. Breaking Even
  • 2. Breaking 1000 sales
  • 3. Reaching tens of thousands of sales - over 1000 sales a month - indie midlist
  • 4. Amazon Top 100 - Indie Rockstar - tens of thousands of dollars a month
  • 5. NYTimes Bestseller

I fall under the categories of #3 (based on personal / solo achievements) and #5 (because of my involvement in Billionaire Bad Boys). I find that weird and cool. :D

One statement had my eyebrows raising ---
...the royalty on 10,000 sales for a 99cent self-pub novel is the same as the $3,000 advance on the 10,000 sales for a "successful" traditionally published novel noted above.
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I feel like traditionally published authors should be earning more, when you consider that they have paperbacks in bookstores AND ebooks while indie authors like me mainly rely on web retailers and POD sites like CreateSpace for paperback sales that rarely enjoy shelf life.  
*shrug*  

I know how to do the math for royalties for indie sales, but when you compare it to trad sales...funny what you get to find out thanks to the Internet and the growing culture of transparency among authors nowadays. Veteran indie author friends would probably rag me about being surprised at all but I really am. 

Discussing sales figures used to be taboo - I think it still is here in the Philippines - but I love how indie publishing / self-publishing has changed this abroad. :) I hope it continues and when I have sufficient data, I promise to do the same as a way of paying it forward.
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Once upon a time...

12/4/2013

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I wrote this post. Go on, you can check it out. I'll still be here. 

So...done? Basically, it was a post about how I dream of hitting the bestselling lists one day. Weeeeeeell...it happened.

A few weeks ago, the bestselling of USA Today came out and the boxed set I'm in - The Billionaire Bad Boys of Romance Boxed Set - and we debuted at #57.  Second week was our highest at #50 and third week (last week) we were still in it at #95.

Two weeks ago, we also made it to the NYT bestsellers list. Not just for ebooks but for the COMBINED PAPERBACK AND EBOOK bestselling list! We were #22 in that list and we've made it to the NYT's bestselling list for ebook (fiction) for 2 weeks. :) 

Now, before you think that we cheated, simply because there are 9 of us in one book...consider this. As of 11/18/2013, Amazon's Kindle store shows---
  • 763 results for "romance bundle"
  • 857 results for "romance boxed set"
  • 1239 results for "romance set"
  • 3631 results for "romance trilogy"
and a whopping 5,601 results for "romance collection".

It's December 5 now and...
  • 799 results for "romance bundle"
  • 919 results for "romance boxed set"
  • 1,314 results for "romance set"
  • 3,683 results for "romance trilogy"

and...5,837 results for "romance collection". In the span of 2 weeks or so, over 200 books (most of them presumably bundles, too) have been uploaded to Amazon! 

My point is, it's understandable to think that boxed sets are a sure and easy ticket to bestselling lists, but it's NOT. You're probably thinking that by pricing a boxed set at $.99 is enough to get into NYT or USA Today, but no. That's not it either. If it were, then all $.99 bundles on Amazon's Kindle store would have been bestsellers, too. But they're not. 

So...what made our boxed set different? 

I'd like to say that we have the best collection of stories, but I KNOW it's not that. I mean, sheesh - you can take a look at our one-star reviews and you'll see how some readers absolutely think we do not have the best collection of stories there is. 

To be honest, I really DON'T KNOW what makes our boxed set different from the other multi-author bundles out there. I'm just really, really happy that we made it as high as #11 on Amazon and #8 on Barnes & Noble. 

What I do know, however, is that
  1. I would never trade this experience for anything else. I learned so much from my co-authors and that knowledge - that experience - is priceless.
  2. It's important to have a plan. A boxed set won't take off all on its own. 
  3. You enjoy working with your co-authors. For almost three weeks, my co-authors and I were emailing each other like crazy, updating each other about rankings and marketing stuff. Imagine having to do all those with someone you hate! Not good!
  4. There has to be an element of trust. After all, there's the financial aspect to consider. If you don't trust each other about money matters, then I don't see how your plans for a boxed set would get off the ground.

So, with all that in mind I just want to give a shout out to thank my co-authors - Selena Kitt, Tawny Taylor, Ava Lore, Anna Antonia, Nelle L'Amour, Amy Aday and Dez Burke. I know my dream of hitting the bestselling lists wouldn't have been possible without them. 

I also want to thank the other authors who helped me promote the bundle. The one thing I love about today's writing industry is that EVERYONE IS HELPING EACH OTHER. So my next shoutout is for the ladies behind the Unraveled Boxed Set, Shifter Romance Boxed Set, Romance Super Bundle, Dangerous Attraction Romantic Suspense Boxed Set, In Harm's Way, Love in a Small Town, Young Ladies of Mystery Boxed Set, and Western Kisses.

Also, there are a couple of authors who did not have boxed sets but still promoted ours - R.E. Butler, Liliana Rhodes, Arabella Quinn, Julia Kent, Pepper Winters, Arianne Richmonde, K.T. Fisher, Mina V. Esguerra, Adriana Hunter, Krista Lakes and Cassandra Zara, Pamela Richter and Maddie James. :) But sssh...we are not going to tag them. I'm kinda shy! lol.

Lastly, I owe a lot to The Passionate Proofreader and CT Cover Creations - they've been with me since almost day one. 

And of course, I always think that EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE WITH GOD. I know that we wouldn't have made it to these lists without His help. So again, Thank You God. ;) You're the best!




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Interview: Denny, Author of Diary ng Panget (Diary of an Ugly Girl)

6/9/2013

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Mahirap maging maganda. 
It sucks to be beautiful.
- Diary ng Panget -
Diary of an Ugly Girl

1We have a lot of international readers who might get to read your interview and would love to know more about Diary ng Panget (roughly translates to Diary of an Ugly Girl). Could you give us a blurb for it?

Hello! Thanks for the interview! Diary ng Panget is a light rom-com novel about a girl who thinks she's ugly, it's one of those cliché stories about an ugly girl meeting a hot and rich boy. It's really a very simple story but I think what really caught a lot of people's attention is its "humour" and it's a book that's very relatable to teens having confidence issues.

Ooh! Just that one line has me hooked. No wonder your book's super popular! Now, I love how your writing career skyrocketed from Wattpad, but it's best I leave the honor of talking about your path to publication to you. Could you let us know when / how you started writing and how you eventually found yourself published?

I started writing when I was 13
on a used school notebook then when I was in 3rd yr high school, a friend of mine introduced me to online writing. I wrote in various forums and sites, using different usernames and then I somehow landed in a website called Wattpad, I registered there and posted Diary ng Panget and other stories of mine. I received an email from PSICOM publishing last 2012 inviting me to publish Diary ng Panget and that's it! 

So I've just started reading Diary ng Panget - one thing I can say for sure - you write in Filipino amazingly well for someone who's living and studying in Italy! Why did you choose to write in Filipino and not English?

Thank you for reading! Well yeah, a lot of people are asking me how I can still write in straight Tagalog when I'm already living in Italy and I'm just like "Why? Just because I went abroad, I should already forget my own language? Dr. Jose Rizal will not approve that!" Even though I'm already having problems with Filipino grammar and using Google translator just to remember a few Filipino words I still try my best to write in Filipino, I feel comfortable with it. I don't really like writing in English, my grammar in English is bad and I don't know how to express myself in English, I rarely speak and write in English. It's either Filipino or Italian.

Any chances of Diary ng Panget being translated to English so that non-Filipino readers could enjoy it as well?

I don't know because Diary ng Panget has the Pinoy humour in it so I don't really have any idea how it will turn out in English version. I will bet on my other stories like Voiceless and She Died to be translated in English.

Now, about the sequel...personally, I hate writing sequels because readers' expectations can be so tremendously high. But maybe that's just me. How was it writing the sequel? When will it be out? And maybe you can share with us even the shortest teaser from Book 2?

Well, book 2 is just really the continuation of book 1, it's the whole story cut into series because if the whole online story is published in only 1 book, it will be thick and very expensive. We thought that maybe we can cut it into series and release a book per month so it'll be less expensive and my teen readers (who are only hoping to buy the book from their school allowance) will have a month to save up for the next book. Diary ng Panget book 2 will be out by late June or 1st week of July, same price with book 1 (150php) and it'll also be available in bookstores nationwide.

Last question - what are your future goals? Any new books coming out after the sequel? 

Future goals? Ahh, I don't know, I only know that I have to finish school and find myself a good job after. :P
Yes, my online story She Died will be having a manga adaptation. I am collaborating with Filipina mangaka Enjelicious (who has already published other Filipino manga). Our target date of release is September, our target book price is 150php (not really sure, but hoping) It'll also be available in bookstores nationwide. :)

======================================================================================================

Denny is a 19-year-old Filipino author currently studying in Italy. Diary ng Panget, her debut novel, started as a story on Wattpad. You can learn more about her at her site. 
Other ways to keep in touch with Denny: Author Page and Book Page on Facebook, Wattpad, Twitter, and email at [email protected]
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    Welcome!

    * Starting February 1, 2014, this blog will be dedicated to providing publishing tips for aspiring Filipino writers.
    * This blog is also where I share my theological views and how it affects my life and work as a writer. I consider myself an open-minded Catholic as I also have an uncle who's a Christian pastor. Luke 9:50 Jesus said to him, "Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you."
    I believe with all my heart that it is our personal relationship with God that saves us and NOT RELIGION.
    * Readers, the stuff you want may be found here.

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