Stranger Than Fiction

I've been offline these past few days because I've been jumping from first, printing press to printing press and then event to event, getting books printed and of course, going out there and interacting with our audience. :) For those of you who read this blog and haven't an idea yet about MoarBooks or what it is I do, I thought I'd share a tidbit from this weekend with you guys. MoarBooks is an indie publishing house/bookstore that I run with a couple of friends--we're a group of writers, cartoonists, artists, photographers and comicists (is that a word? if it isn't, I'm glad to make it up) interested in promoting quality work. I suppose what really sets us apart is that we're coming from a stand point that is more intimate and personal than big bookstores or publishing houses. It's important for us that a) the work says something (and says it well) about being alive in this day and age and that b) we get to meet and talk to the people who buy our books. So aside from posting our titles online, we also do events like bazaars and press expos. For instance, the photo below is of our booth at last week's Pride Street Bazaar 2012 in Makati last Saturday.

I won't lie--it is exhausting to get work out. Because we are both the talent and the management, we've all poured our hearts out into the publications and art that we make--and then some. I hardly got any sleep last week because as soon as the book manuscripts were done and the art files were sent, it was off to the printers to check different types of binding, paper quality and printing. (Plus, I had a chem exam.)

It doesn't help that most of these events are up north (or Makati at the nearest) and I'm from the innermost pocket of Alabang so it takes me an hour minimum to get anywhere. Travel time is the most unnoticed cause of exhaustion, if you ask me--the photo below, for example was at BLTX (a press expo) last Friday; I left the house at 4:30 in the afternoon and got to QC at 7:00 in the evening (an hour late for set up but turns out everyone was late so it wasn't too bad).

Photo by Adam David

But (cliche as this may sound) it was all worth it in the end. We were able to sell about half our stock and it was so nice to see people come together and really get into this lifestyle that promotes self-reflection and reading and appreciating art, if not making it. I had a great, great, great weekend. :D Thank you to everyone who helped us out and to everyone who bought books from us. :) I hope that all you WinaWonders readers had a great weekend as well! Here's to the week to come!