VP Sara’s Children’s Book – A Big, Huge, Gargantuan Lesson For Planning Before Executing A Publication Project! This Is The Editor In Chief Speaking As A Friend

“Isang Kaibigan.” Is that right? The children’s book authored by VP Sara Duterte will cost PhP10 million to print?

(Very Important Prior question: “How much did it cost to write, edit, desktop publish that book short of printing?” Oh, and how come Ms Sara suddenly is an author of a children’s book?!)
(image from media.assettype.com)

Cristina Chi writes (“Children's Publishers Decry 'Excessive' Cost Of Sara's Self-Authored Book,” 22 Aug 2024, PhilStar, philstar.com):

In a time of slumping morale among reading advocates in the Philippines, Vice President Sara Duterte's planned P10-million-print of her self-authored children's book is souring the mood of children's book publishers.

It's an "excessive" and "self-serving" endeavor (according to) one independent publisher, and a "wasted opportunity" to support existing writers for another. But above all, they ask: Why should the government cough up millions for Duterte's own children's book?

I The Editor In Chief ask: “Why were Ms Sara’s book advisers not aware enough for the prior need to package and promote the book months before somebody began writing it? So that the public would have been pleased!”

That PhP 10 million is supposed to cover only the printing – if 100,000 copies were printed, that would cost only PhP 10 each copy. Not bad. Even if only 50,000 copies were printed, at PhP 20 each, still not bad.

Still, my questions as The Editor In Chief are these:

1.    Why was the book written – what good was it supposed to do to readers, the children?

2.    What are the contents of Sara’s book, “Isang Kaibigan” (“A Friend,” my translation)?

3.    Where does it begin? Where does it continue? Where does it end? Is the book organization intelligent?

Ms Cristina says:

Two children's book authors and two independent publishers told Philstar.com that children's book writers often struggle to get their work into the hands of young readers because of the high cost of production and limited runs of local publishing houses, which contribute to steep book prices.

“High cost of production” – So, depending on the number of copies (not declared), the PhP 10 million is not that high?

I personally know every single step in the production of a book, from drafting to editing to rewriting to re-editing to desktop publishing to revising up to producing the portable document format (pdf); the pdf goes directly into the printing of distribution copies – it’s complicated and not easy, but can be mastered – I say that as a self-taught digital The Editor In Chief.

If I were the single writer, editor, and desktop publisher of VP Sara’s book, I would not have needed PhP 10 million to print copies – PhP 500,000 would have been enough to produce 1,000 paper copies; the remaining PhP 9.5 million would be used to produce/purchase digital setups to be shared among classes and schools nationwide for wider & more enjoyable circulation!

(And oh, yes, the contents would have been to encourage the children to discover their own geniuses!)@517