MONEY and writing are things that seem to be diametrically opposed. The conventional thinking is that if you choose to be a writer, you will end up in the poorhouse.
That might have been true years before, but things have fortunately changed for the better. English and communication arts graduates are quickly hired even before graduation, since they are prized for their ability to produce content. As they say, content is now king, and so I tell — and train — my students to produce writing that is accessible, snappy and attention-grabbing.
My own journey in writing has been going on for the past 40 years. I have published poetry, short stories and essays in the weekly magazines. In the 1980s, Focus Philippines magazine, edited by the formidable Kerima Polotan Tuvera, paid me P200 per poem and P600 per essay or short story. Those were princely sums then.
When that magazine closed down in 1986, I wrote art reviews and feature articles for National Midweek magazine, which was edited by Jose Lacaba. My short stories were also published by the eminent Greg Brillantes in their literary section. I got paid P700 for an essay or feature article, and P1,000 for a short story.
Rolando Tinio asked Thelma San Juan to hire me as a columnist for the Manila Chronicle after I returned from graduate school in publishing at the University of Stirling in Scotland. I called my column “At Random,” and I got paid P1,000 per piece. This was in 1990 — and I have never stopped writing columns since then.
When the Manila Chronicle closed down, I moved to the Daily Globe, edited by Yen Makabenta. I got paid the same amount as my columns in the Chronicle. And when the Daily Globe transformed into Today, I continued writing for them.
When it was the turn of Today to close down, I moved to the Philippine Daily Inquirer to write for Thelma San Juan, who had been hired by Letty Magsanoc to be the features editor. I was paid the same rate of a thousand pesos per piece. Magsanoc then hired me to be the Saturday Special editor of the Inquirer for P20,000 a month.
I stayed at the Inquirer for a year, and then I moved on to The Manila Times, with Malou Mangahas as editor-in-chief. I was paid P25,000 a month and assigned to be the managing editor of The Sunday Times Magazine. I also stayed there for a year, and then left to accept a stint as literary editor at Chimera. That lasted for only three issues, but it paid me the princely sum of P30,000 a month for editing poems, literary essays and short stories. In short, they were paying me a lot for doing something I wanted to do!
But publications in this country come and go. When Chimera closed down, I moved to the Philippine Star. I wrote a column on culture and the arts for Millet Mananquil for 20 long years. When the MVP group bought the newspaper, CEO Manny Pangilinan himself moved my column to the opinion-editorial section of the Philippine Star.
In 2022, I transferred to The Manila Times, where I used to work, to serve as its news editor. I also wrote an editorial once a week, and a column twice a week. Mr. Dante Arevalo Ang, or DAA, the dear patriarch of the newspaper, moved my column to the front page. And it was a thrill to see my writing on the front page of the newspaper, every Thursday and Saturday. I cannot tell you my salary, because it is covered by a nondisclosure agreement.
When I moved to the US in 2023, I had to leave my job as news editor, but management asked me to keep my column and write a weekly editorial. I was also assigned as the special reports writer. I wrote about culture and the arts, but mostly crime, which I turned into something that resembles a short story. I told my publisher that my point was to turn these crimes into cautionary tales — using the elements of fiction.
My publisher floated the names of Truman Capote, who wrote “In Cold Blood,” and National Artist Nick Joaquin, who also wrote fantastic crime reportage. But I told him I am just like a speck of dirt under the fingernails of Capote and Joaquin, and could easily be cut with a nail clipper!
I have written more than 40 books but none of them made a lot of money. Only in the last three years, when I turned 60 years old, did I make some money from my writing. Penguin Southeast Asia is my international publisher. They sell my books at global suggested retail prices — from P850 for my novels to P1,500 for the English translation of classic Tagalog novels. My royalty ranges from 7.5 percent to 10 percent. I have published six books with Penguin SEA, and the total royalties for the six books make me smile a little wider.
Who buys my books with Penguin SEA? In the beginning, my sales came mostly from readers in the United States and Singapore, which have strong economies. But lately, Fully Booked and National Bookstore have been buying lots of copies of my books, not on consignment but paid up front. So that has substantially increased my yearly royalties.
I am also making some money from textbooks. I have finished a set of K-12 textbooks on “Effective Communication.” I am now doing a set of textbooks in Filipino for “Araling Panlipunan,” also for the K-12. A generous advance royalty is paid after the signing of the contracts.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara has released P12 billion for book acquisition per year. This includes textbooks for all the students and literary books for the libraries of the public schools. This is a big boon for local publishers. My phone has been ringing for weeks on end, with publishers asking me to send them my finished manuscripts.
I wrote about the global market for publishing two weeks ago. The same pattern goes for the local market; they want finished manuscripts, not pitches. They want authors who deliver manuscripts, not concepts floating in the air.
And they want authors who help them market the books — before students in the classrooms, before teachers in seminars and online, in the vast marketplace of ideas.
Danton Remoto’s books are on sale at Fully Booked, National Bookstore, Shopee and Lazada, Kinokuniya in Asia and Amazon.