BBM-DA – Please, Don’t Quit On The Filipino Farmers And The Whole Country On Climate Change – “Don’t Say Die Until You’re Dead!”

Why am I writing this? Someone I know just quit along the way to desktop publishing (DTP) a book on Regenerative Agriculture (RA) on a very commercial crop – sayang! Me, I have never quit in my writing, editing, blogging and publishing books & journals applying my self-taught digital abilities, from draft to DTP products printed commercially. I have always said, “Don’t say die until you’re dead!”

(“Don’t Quit” from shutterstock.com)

My most memorable DTP works are (a) 7 books as writer from home (WFH) on the aims & accomplishments of ICRISAT when William Dar was ICRISAT Director General (2000-2014), and (b) the coffee-table book I was asked to produce by Executive Director Jovita M Corpuz for the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) – and so, we made publishing history in the Philippines and abroad! History: We came out with commercially printed copies of The Filipino Farmer Is Bankable (150 pages) right on the date of the 25^th Anniversary of the ACPC: 25 April 2012.

[Note: JMC picked me from out of nowhere and I had less than 2 months to prepare, from page proposal to preliminary printed pages for public perusal – the works! That in effect actually tested the speed and quality of my digital abilities in writing, editing, desktop publishing – which included trips to photograph pinpointed places & projects. Immediate results: Title, texts and 50% of the photographs in that ACPC coffee-table book were mine – approved by the ACPC naturally. (If you want more details on that story, you can Ctrl+click this link: frankahilario.blogspot.com.)]

Ancient: I’m 82+, and I have been praying to the Almighty to, please, give me at least 28 more years – please don’t quit on me! Genius: The phrase “Don’t Quit” has in itself embedded the alternate and A-OK act: “Do It.”

Somebody’s unfinished book would have been The World’s First in RA in that crop. I guess the major reason for that fellow quitting in producing that volume is that the author’s allied DTP work is exhausting. I know that. If you ask me to DTP your book, you will experience repeated editings – up to 12 or more times – each time I ask you to read line by line exactly like I do it! Patience, my friend. Remember: Patience is a Virtue, producing pre-eminent pages.

Here are my pertinent personal digital experiences since 2000, some lessons to learn:

(1)   Have patience, patience, patience!

(2)   Have help from a person who knows what he’s doing – and believe in him.

(3)   Digital is the key – No need for physical appearances or meetups, not even virtual.

(4)   Know (or get to know) your target readers well.

(5)   Know your subject well – if not now, you’re not ready!

Regenerative Agriculture (RA) – if I had the funds, I would publish within 60 days a single-authored volume on the many methods, practices, principles and philosophies of RA that farmers can adopt to help solve Farmer Poverty for themselves and simultaneously help resolve Climate Change for the whole country!@517