Writing for the Manila Bulletin Online, Annalyn S. Jusay captured some essential elements of the production of Kwentong Tambay in her interview with blogger and author Nicanor David, Jr. aka Batjay.
When asked about how the blook came to be, Batjay replied:
An initial manuscript was developed by Adam [Batjay's nephew who works in the publishing industry] based on my blog entries and I just edited it after it was completed. We then submitted it to PSICOM, the company who published the book. They assigned an editor, Sarah Grutas, to work on the manuscript. We tweaked it even more over the next month or so, until it got to the point where the material was good enough for publishing. [Sarah, it turns out, was also Adam's girlfriend (Pinoy Expats)]The final manuscript was created and proofread and PSICOM printed an initial run of 1000 copies, just in time for the Manila International Book Fair. All in all, the whole process took almost two months from conceptualization to the final product.
Batjay admits that he had to do some more writing to pull all the posts together.
I did create “exclusive entries” in the book that you won’t find in my blog. Besides the fact that it’s a major reason for people who read my blog to buy the book, the additional entries unify all the stories together into, hopefully, a complete book.
Jusay asked him, "How does it feel to be the first Pinoy blogger to be a book author?" I think his answer may have surprised her - it did me. "I don’t think I am the first Pinoy blogger turned book author. Bob Ong once blogged but stopped when his work got published. So, I guess he is the first."
I chased down Bob Ong [Don't shake your head. You expect me to do this, so I do.] "Roberto 'Bob' Ong is a Filipino author. He started the Web site Bobong pinoy (now dissolved) which eventually became the inspiration for his first book ABNKKBSNPLAko!" (Wikipedia).
In 2004, Batjay was named Best Blogger in the Philippine Blog Awards, and again in 2007 Kwentong Tambay was hailed the Best OFW Blog. [OFW: Overseas Filipino Worker]
Will there be more blooks from Batjay in the future? In a deal with his publisher, the blog survives and Batjay says, "There's enough content to make 3 or 4 more (Pinoy Expats).
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