Book lovers, authors and indiepublishers, today starts the platform for your voices to be heard. The theme “Claiming Indie Spaces in Challenging Times” speaks of the opportunities seized on by indiepublishers at the time of the pandemic — Filipino book lovers locked down in the own homes reaching out to more and more books as they have so much spare time not locked down in traffic which were the norm prior to the pandemic.
Borne out of the pandemic, the consolidation, collaboration and cooperation of indiepublishers will hopefully continue and grow in strength even post-pandemic. The rationale of coming together of indiepublishers in the Philippines is akin to that of the children’s story written by Tom Agulto and Rene Villanueva, “Sina Linggit Laban Kay Barakuda,” where small fry have to band together to address the threats from Barakuda.
Threats and challenges faced by indiepublishers come in varied forms — marketing, financing, distribution and book quality resulting from limitations in funds. The threats may be myriad, but the unity among the indiepublishers who comprise The Indie Publishers Collab PH is strengthened in the face of adversity. And this unity forges the resolve of indiepublishers to be sensitive to the readers, especially those from marginalized communities not acknowledged by mainstream publishers.
The various events and discussions organized around the five-day convention from November 19 to 23, hope to bring forth the voices of readers and indiepublishers to help pave the path of book writing, authorship and publishing in the times to come in the Philippines. The word “transgressive” comes up again and again. Precisely because as “indies”, there is the freedom to break out from the bounds of conventional markers — is the book profitable, is it written by a world-renowned writer, does its content conform to the status quo?
For its part, Southern Voices’ latest published book, “Mga Munting Babae,” a Filipino translation by Prof. Rowena Festin and Sophia Perez from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, debuts its official launch during the INDIEPUBCON2021 and Cultural Center of the Philippine’s PERFORMATURA on November 23, 2021 between 1:30 to 2:30 pm.
As #INDIEPUBCON2021 unfolds, we listen… and act on the myriad voices formerly unheard.###
*To participate and avail of freebie bookbundles, register here: https://tinyurl.com/indiepubcon
Southern Voices Books 