Gantala Press’ relationship with the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) began in 2017 or thereabouts after the release of our first two books — one a collection of new writings by women in the country and abroad; the other a set of essays by women on Mindanao and the Marawi Siege. As a newly formed small press, we were looking for spaces in which to sell the mere 300-ish copies, combined, of our two books (we could only afford to print 200-300 copies of a title at a time). So we were glad to take the opportunity offered by a writer friend to sell in the booth of one of the independent presses at the MIBF, a fair I enjoyed going to. (It was at the MIBF where I got my copies of old Philippine literary books, such as Gilda Cordero-Fernando’s The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker and other books from New Day Publishing and Giraffe Books, for example.)
We had to supply our own staff to mind our stocks, although the payments would be centralized to the host press. So, on the first day of the fair, I lined up for 30 minutes or so in the heat along with the general public (they wouldn’t let me through the sellers’ door even if I was technically a seller because I didn’t have a seller’s ID; the arrangement with our host press was all informal), lugging my heavy box (or boxes?) of books to sell. Then, I stood in the cramped space for hours trying to sell our books, which remained in the box/es because the shelves were full. I had to move out of the booth every so often to give way to the buyers and browsers, especially when the author signing came up and there were long queues to the male “rockstar” comics artists that the host press was publishing at the time.
Although we were able to sell most of our stocks, it was a humbling yet traumatic experience that made me swear never to sell at MIBF again. For sure, the experience contributed a lot to Gantala’s decision to organize its own book fair along with the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2018. At the Gandang-ganda sa sariling gawa! (GGSSG) all-women fair, the booths are free (first come, first served); women creators are front and center; and the atmosphere is relaxed and fun.
When Gantala Press began gaining traction, small book companies offered to sell our books in their MIBF booth on consignment. This went on for one or two years. After the pandemic, the Independent Publishers Collaboration (TIPC) endeavored to get a proper booth at the MIBF and invited us to join them. The TIPC had received a subsidy from the National Book Development Board (NBDB) that is why they were able to afford a small booth.
We know that the MIBF is a huge moneymaking enterprise not only for the big publishers that can afford to get 15 or more booths, but most especially, for the organizer, Primetrade Asia Inc. A booth measuring three by three meters costs at least P74,000. While SMX, the semi-permanent venue for the MIBF, is massive (seeing that it is built on reclaimed land), there are still more booths than open spaces to walk or sit or fall in line in (for author signings). As a small not-for-profit press without its own space that could not afford even the tiniest available booth, we find ourselves always having to rationalize why we should continue selling at MIBF, if we can—that is, if we don’t need to shell out more than a few thousand pesos and we could make the long trip to and from the Mall of Asia.
One reason is, we really are able to sell books and make a dent in our stocks, which we also have to pay storage for especially now that we managed to increase the volume of our printed books. And sales translate to money for printing the books that we want to publish, which are often not “commercially viable.” Such books include Saloobin: mga akda ng/para sa kababaihang bilanggong pulitikal, which we published as part of a campaign to free women political prisoners. The proceeds of the book were donated to the women political prisoners for their personal needs such as hygiene supplies and medicines. (There are still hundreds of copies of Saloobin and similar books to sell at the upcoming MIBF.)
Two, the MIBF is an opportunity to reach new audiences, especially librarians and teachers and students, who may not know of us and our work. It is also an opportunity to meet our authors who visit from other parts of the Philippines, and to bond with our fellow small publishers at TIPC, who are some of the hardest working book people that we know.
And three, it is a great opportunity to distribute alternative narratives in hegemonic spaces. We use quite the same reasoning as we do for continuing to sell on Shopee despite it being endorsed by a celebrity “BBM” devotee: a pro-Marcos online platform that still has progressive books to offer is better than one without. Having even one person who isn’t on any side buy our book and learn something is already something. While it is called an International Book Fair, majority of the sellers at MIBF are still the big traditional publishers and bookstores in the Philippines that sell mostly commercial or trade books or maybe foreign businesses that sell printers or any products remotely related to the printed word. Where are the Marxist or feminist publishers from other parts of Asia, for example? Or the small bookstores that sell the weirdest books? Nowhere.
That is why the recent mishap where MIBF organizers “mistakenly” sent out an email prohibiting sellers with “15 or less booths” from doing in-booth activities like author signings “to avoid disturbance to other exhibitors” really struck a nerve among independent publishers who have been participating at the MIBF. Our colleagues complained that, among other valid points, they have already booked flight tickets and accommodations for their authors who will be signing books at the fair (a problem that Gantala actually doesn’t have; we are so poor that some of our authors pay their own way in events related to their books) and that this directive from Primetrade came in too late for the publishers to reconsider their decision to participate. After rightfully receiving criticism from the public, the organizers released a lame clarification of the issue, the “higher ups” washing their hands off any knowledge of that email and saying that the main concern is “crowd control.”
Still, this issue opens up conversations that book people — authors, publishers, designers, distributors, book sellers, government employees, readers, etc. need to have.
One, how can the MIBF be true to its rhetoric and be genuinely inclusive of small creators and publishers? Small creators and publishers, each with their own agendas, are actually willing to participate. The organizers’ profit motive aside, the MIBF really is another opportunity for activists, for instance, to agitate, organize, mobilize, however small or slow or seemingly insignificant. As Roda Tajon writes in her PinoyWeekly column on the MIBF fiasco, progressive small presses participating at the MIBF is similar to progressives participating in mainstream politics to advance their people-oriented agenda.
Two, how can it be more accessible to the public? Should there perhaps be smaller expos simultaneously happening in different parts of Metro Manila and the Philippines during MIBF season, expos that need not happen in malls? (On reflection, the organizers might not like this idea because it will distribute and thus diffuse profit.)
Three, how can the NBDB support small publishers more, more than bringing them to even bigger fairs in Frankfurt or London (while a genocide rages on)?
Four, why not create our own independent book fair, one that celebrates our smallness rather than aspires to be 15-booths-and-above-big? We only have to look at the Better Living Through Xeroxography (BLTX) small press expo, which has been going on successfully for almost two decades now and which has inspired GGSSG and a host of small press fairs and art fairs organized by students or cultural workers, to realize that this can be done.
And five, why is it still important for us, as creators, to publish and sell books? Aside from earning a livelihood, why do we do the work that we do?
And if it is only profit that motivates us as it does the MIBF, why?
– Faye Cura
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