THE big crowds that visited during the three days of the recent Manila International Book Fair are positive proof that there is a market for readers of books in the country. While not as large as the crowds before the Covid-19 pandemic, the huge turnout nevertheless indicates that the market is there.
has done a lot to bring books into the hands of more readers. Executive Director Charisse Aquino-Tugade said that providing subsidies and discounts to publishers enabled them to sell more books and explore e-commerce platforms. Readers nationwide bought the books that Philippine publishers sold at Shopee with discounts of as high as 90 percent, since the
shouldered the books' selling price.The is negotiating with the Department of Education , which is an institutional buyer of locally published books. The Education department has a list of mostly foreign textbooks for purchase as supplementary textbooks. But if the subject matter and content are also found in local textbooks, why cannot the DepEd patronize the local books? Textbook writers in the major publishing houses are vetted quite thoroughly and the books undergo a stringent process, from writing to editing to book production.