Breathing life into a dead book

In September of 2018, the Chavacano version of The Little Prince was launched. How the book came into existence was nothing short of a miracle.

In 2013, one of the people reading my blog about Chavacano sent me a message about the idea of translating The Little Prince into Chavacano. He introduced me to a publisher which publishes the same book in different languages. I was disappointed to learn that the project did not involve any compensation so I shelved the idea. I think in the academe sector (where most translators come from), most people do things with the purpose of adding feathers to their cap as oppose to monetary compensation.

In 2017, I no longer had a job and met a linguist (through my blog about Chavacano) who again, presented to me the idea of translating The Little Prince into Chavacano. Since I already had a lot of time on my hands, I tried doing the translation slowly, one sentence at a time. 

After a few months, the translation was complete. We toyed with the idea of selling the Chavacano translation to a publisher but it quickly became clear that no publisher will gamble on a book written in a minority language. The publisher who I spoke with in 2013 offered to give me a few copies of the book as compensation but I didn't think that was enough so again, I declined.

By the middle of 2018, I decided to self-publish the Chavacano edition of The Little Prince. 

I could have gone with a company that offered complete packages for self-publishers but I chose the hard mode and decided to do everything myself. I designed the book cover, did the layout, marketing, sales, customer service, everything. 

In the following months, I watched tutorials on how to design book covers and layouts. I also spent several weeks editing and proofreading with the help of my friends and family.

When people use the term self-publish, what comes to mind usually, are print-on-demand services like Lulu or Cafe Press. Since I decided not to go with these services, I had to speak with several different printing presses and it was very difficult to get them to entertain me because I clearly had no idea what I was doing. After negotiating with several printing presses, I finally learned the printing press jargon and could finally sound knowledgeable enough for them to take me seriously.

In August, I learned that the publisher who I spoke to earlier had contracted with another translator and will be publishing a different Chavacano translation of The Little Prince. 

My linguist friend told me that I should not have told that publisher anymore that I would be self-publishing my translation. I felt really sad and upset about the whole thing but adversity breeds success and in 2020, the initial print run of 500 copies were sold out.

The Little Prince in Chavacano was launched in September of 2018. 

With inflation rising, I decided to turn some of my cash into inventory. In 2022, I had another 500 copies of El Diutay Principe printed. 

Most of my sales came from Shopee. Before the BIR registration requirement became a thing, I saw no reason to sell the book in bookstores because sales were robust even with just an online shop in Shopee.

A month ago, I moved to a new place and experienced the horror of lugging several boxes of unsold books. After that experience, I couldn't wait to get rid of the books and finally considered selling the book at a bookstore.

Yesterday, I visited one of Manila's gems, the Solidaridad bookshop. I had previously spoken to them over the phone and I agreed to consign a few copies of El Diutay Principe with them.

Solidaridad is probably the last standalone bookstore left in Manila. I was delighted to see that they had a very nice display window!

Having recovered the printing costs from the second printing of El Diutay Principe, I'm no longer too concerned about the sales figures. Today, due to the higher selling cost, the books no longer sell like hotcakes. I also had to stop fulfilling orders from abroad due to an unfortunate incident with the post office.