THE latest Philippine Book Festival held from Thursday to Sunday last week proved one thing. That people are buying books written, designed and published by Filipinos. There was a crunch of people in many of the book stalls, and it is gratifying to see that many of the book readers are young people. So, it’s not true that they have been gobbled up by TikTok and other such diversions.
Moreover, the Department of Education (DepEd) has just allocated P19.5 billion for free textbooks in all public schools for 2026. Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said that “under the 2026 national budget, we have ensured that no student will be left without a book. If before, more than one student used each book, that is now no longer the case.”
For decades, public school students had to share textbooks because of limited government supply. The new funding aims to establish a one-to-one ratio across all grade levels under the DepEd.
The DepEd also has a reading materials acquisition program, which means it is buying Filipino-written books. The following is the list of books that DepEd wants to buy for our libraries: general fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, middle grade, young adult, academic or scholarly, comedy, comics and graphic novels, poetry, screenplay, religious and spiritual books, self-help, drama, action, science fiction, fantasy, horror, autobiography, biography, mystery and crime, history and historical fiction.
This list is generic, even expected, until we reach the part about new adult and romance — boys’ love (BL) or girls’ love (GL). New adult fiction deals with love and sex among people above 18 years old. BL or GL refers to romantic books about boys who like boys, and girls who like girls. The Thai entertainment industry has made billions of baht from producing and streaming mostly BL films on YouTube and Netflix, aside from racking up advertising income from the series shown on Thai television. GMMTV is the leading producer of BL in Thailand, whose popular stars even have sold-out concerts around the world.
Education Secretary Angara reiterated the call to publishers to produce quality textbooks during the opening of the Philippine Book Festival last Thursday. The festival is a showcase of Filipino-authored books organized by the National Book Development Board.
He said: “While we are moving forward toward digital transformation, we remain invested in what continues to matter — encouraging our learners to strengthen their literacy through books.” He also noted the 289-percent increase in the delivery of books and encouraged the publishers to produce more titles attuned to the call of the times.
The same call was echoed by foreign publishers to the Filipino writers who attended the Frankfurt Book Fair last October. I had meetings with several publishers, literary agents and translators, who praised the talent of Filipino writers. But in the realm of global publishing, content is still king.
To a man — or woman — they asked me if I have written, or am writing, the following novels. The focus on global publishing is still on the novel. But more and more, it is the novel as a handy piece of reading, usually not exceeding 200 pages, unless it forms part of a series, or it belongs to fantasy or romance fantasy (romantasy).
The people I met at Frankfurt asked me if I had a novel with cats, a special request from the Japanese gentleman I met. He said that if I finish one, I should email it to him, handing me a business card. They would take care of the translation and the production of the novel, not just in Japanese but also in manga form.
The Turkish and the Hungarian literary agents asked me if I had a spy thriller, preferably set in Eastern Europe and Asia. I said I have written 20,000 words; and they gleefully handed me their business cards and told me to email them if I have finished 30,000 or 40,000 words. The gentleman from Thailand asked for a copy of my novel, “Boys’ Love,” for possible translation into Thai. He also gave me the storyline for a novel set in the Philippines and Thailand, with a happy ending, for “your next BL novel.” He said it would be great if I could finish the novel before he returned to the Philippines in September, for the Manila International Book Fair.
The British publisher wanted a book of gay fiction, which I had just written for Central Books. My Filipino and British publishers are now negotiating for a UK edition. Two publishers in Germany asked me for a gay book as well, after they read a review of my novel, “Riverrun,” that was published in the German press.
Many of them approached me after they listened to my talk on translation and writing held at the Asia Stage of the Frankfurt Bookfair, organized by Gwenn Galven and sponsored by Rex Books. They lined up after my talk, and I thought it was just the usual hi and hello, until they talked to me. They seemed to be clocking themselves, for every conversation ended after three minutes.
The gist of those conversations centered on the book genre, am I writing it now, and when can I submit it to them? I passed on the contact details of these ladies and gentlemen to the other writers from the Philippines who were with me at the Frankfurt Book Fair. May we all write books for the Filipino and global readers, and show them the ebullience and glory of our works.
Danton Remoto has just published “Green Roses: Gay Stories” and “How to Read and Write Better’” for Central Books, available at the website of Central Books, and online through Shopee and Lazada. His books with Penguin SEA are on sale at National Bookstore and Fully Booked; Kinokuniya in Asia; Amazon in the rest of the world.
