It’s true. All so true.
The above image was part of a slideshow I created for a Book Talk I was invited to recently. Most of the details are on this Instagram post, but long story short—I spoke about my self-publishing experience to a group of Grade 7-10 students and had fun. Yes, even if I had NO idea what I was going to do when I got the email invitation.
I mean…it’s a group of teenagers, and I mostly write adult romance. Heh.
So anyway, I built my presentation around my personal self-publishing experience, something I thought little Tara of the past would have appreciated listening to. (When I was younger I thought traditional publishing was the end-all and be-all for aspiring authors, and I’m glad I learned there’s an alternative.) I was winging it as I went, adding and subtracting slides while rehearsing things in my head. Often I would forget I would be speaking to a young audience, and so I’d adjust the content to make it more interesting and less daunting for them.
But throughout the entire process, there was one thing I knew for sure: I had to flex #RomanceClass, AKA the community that taught me EVERYTHING I now know about self-publishing. When I say it takes a village to produce one book, I’m talking about the #RomanceClass village. I told the students that self-publishing might sound like a tedious and exhausting journey to take, but having a thriving and nurturing community to back you up every step of the way makes the experience worth it.
So yeah, shoutout to this amazing collective of authors, readers, and artists! Couldn’t have done it without you.
And now for Tara’s Takeaways~
- During the talk, I tried my best to mention different kinds of reading/writing platforms online, wanting to encourage the students to view all of them as valid spaces. Wattpad got them kind of eh. There were small noises of disapproval here and there, which is understandable because Wattpad often gets a lot of flak for some of the content you can find there. Someone got audibly excited when I mentioned Tumblr, and another one even asked me for my Tumblr username. Some people at the back grew excited when I mentioned fanfic. When I mentioned Komiket. One student asked me if I ever published anything on AO3. These kids READ. They know where to find the stuff they like. If anyone ever told you Filipino kids don’t read anymore, they’re WRONG.
- All things above considered, I didn’t get the impression that they read a lot of Filipino authors outside of required reading. (When I asked them what they last read for fun, someone answered Noli Me Tangere.) It was refreshing to hear the principal remind and encourage the students to support local authors and works, though. And one of the teachers told me they have a student who always, ALWAYS went to Komiket. It’s too bad I wasn’t able to talk to that student and ask what they go to Komiket for.
- One of the students blurted out“I finally met an author!” after I signed one of the postcards I gave away. Kids are excited to meet authors! Who knew? 😛 How I wish I could bring the entire #RomanceClass community with me so they could meet some of the most amazing people I know.
- I was nervous doing this, but do I wanna do it again? Definitely. 🙂
