My Haliya x MIBF 2019 Experience

Here’s my super late 40th Manila International Book Fair event recap and book haul!

Hi, everyone! Please don’t hate me for being inactive here for a month 😅 A few weeks ago, I participated in a major book fair for the first time as a bookseller. It was tiring as much as it was fulfilling. I had a major burnout afterwards because it was 5 straight days of selling books and dealing with big crowds and socializing. The event itself is successful, we sold a lot and made a lot of new friends. More than the physical stress, the experience may have been too much for an introvert like me. 😅 Does that ever happen to you?? I went offline for a week and then little by little started reviewing books in Goodreads and in my Instagram. Now I’m also finally getting the groove back in blogging again ✨

The Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) is one of the largest and most anticipated book fairs here in Manila and I went there as part of our independent publishing house Haliya Publishing. We are grateful to Visprint Inc. who was kind enough to share their booth with small publishers like us. Special thanks also to Tepai Pascual of Meganon Comics for the beautiful garden cafe setup of our booth. 🌿

I think the best way to share the experience with you is through LOTS of photos! Let’s go 💗

It really made me happy to see so many readers browsing the shelves!

Here are more crowd photos so you can see how intense Pinoy readers can be:

Of course it’s not a book fair if I don’t get to see my bookish friends. I met these wonderful people online through the bookstagram community. I’ll be linking their names to their pages so you can also check out their gorgeous feeds 💗 It’s always fun when we meet and we mostly just bond over books, authors, food and anything under the sun, really.

My BGPH book club Titas: From left to right: Faye of @berttiebooks, Diane of @backpackreads, Kim of @fairygodreader_, Lindsey of @unopenedpages, Angele of @feysanded, and (honorary Tita) Jem of @jeemreads

More Titas! Left photo is Meds of @middayreads and right photo is Cerize of @cerizeseries

Here with Danica of @thehogsmeadereader and Raf of @theroyalpolarbearreads. Raf left me copies of his commissioned art prints to give away for free during the event. He’s adorable like that 💗 I grabbed the above photo from his event recap, and you can read it all here.

These are the prints from Raf, awesome art by @astrojimbo.art

First photo is me and my husband with Donna of @sirenareader. Second photo from left to right: Dexter of @dexterous_totalous, Jenny of @levicorpvs_, Donna (again), Amiel of @libraryofamiel, and myself. Photos grabbed from Donna.

Photo grabbed from the lovely KB of @bookbed

Left to right: mermaid Jasmine of @bibliobanshee and @mermaidcrate, Theia of @designsbytheia, myself and Rica of @annyeongbada

At the end of the event, this is how our shelves looked like. Almost cleaned out! Thank you, dear readers!

Last but not least is our book haul!

• City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang  
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong 

• The War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas #1 (Variant Cover Featuring Wave)
• Swamp Thing comics back issues
• House of X #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz 

 

• Talik by Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles

• Si Janus Sílang at ang Hiwagang may Dalawang Mukha (Janus Sílang #4) by Edgar Calabia Samar

• Garden of Sunflowers by Patricia G. Aviado 

 

• The Truth About Twinkie Pie by Kat Yeh

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

• Kanto Inc. Unang Aklat by Joanah Tinio-Calingo, J.M. Valenzuela, Melvin Calingo

• Shadow Witness (Trese, #7)  by Budjette Tan, Kajo Baldisimo

• Sa Timog ng Alameda by Lola Larra, Vicente Reinamontes 

 

• Blacksad: A Silent Hell  by Juan Díaz Canales, Juanjo Guarnido 

• MIND MGMT Omnibus Part 1: The Mind Management Comprehensive Report 1 of 3 by Matt Kindt

Sharing more photos of Cats of the Louvre (Les Chats du Louvre #1-2) by Taiyo Matsumoto because it was so hard to find. There was just this one copy left and I really wanted to get it for my husband as a birthday gift after he told me he wanted it but left it on the shelves 🙄 It is worth the effort. Such a gem! 

Book fairs are really the best time to hoard great titles (both local and international) at discounted prices. However, since half of these are gifted to us by good friends, I must say the husband and I are really getting better in controlling our impulses and practicing mindful book buying. 👍🏻

Overall, the most important takeaway for me is still all the learnings about book selling, book display, customer service, and other useful strategies during events. We are so fortunate to be able to share the space with other respected publishers. I’m used to a lot of comic conventions and weekend fairs, but the MIBF really is another dimension. Thanks to everyone who joined in and got sucked in in this intense bookish blackhole. Hope to see you all again next year!

I’ll stop here since this post is already longer than I usually make. I think this already makes up for my absence 😅 If you have any questions on the event, or on my book haul, or if we met but I missed to mention you in this post– kindly let me know in the comments!

Haliya Publishing titles and Biblioflora bookmarks are available through mervstore.com — links are also in the blog menu. Thanks so much for reading! 💗