Aklatan 2020: Links to local pubs' Shopee pages

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I have resurrected this blog in support of Aklatan: All Filipino Book Fair, which to me, is the little book fair that could. Aklatan started in 2019, organized by the Book Development Association of the Philippines. You can read a much better history and context than I can provide at Ruel de Vera's Inquirer piece for this year's Aklatan.

What you'll also read in Ruey's piece is that Aklatan is going online, given the--you know--pandemic. This is wonderful and laudable, and it hopefully signals the beginning (for some) and the doubling down (for others) of what I think is a necessary transition to more online selling, coupled with strategic digital marketing.

The event will be held on Shopee from Aug. 16-18, 2020. To help out, I'm summarizing below the list of participating publishers (got this from the list posted by Howie Severino, but alphabetized), and where I could find it, the links to the publishers' official Shopee stores. Would be happy to update this, so if you're a participating publisher and you don't see your name here, let me know. And if you also have a Shopee page that I couldn't find, let me know, so I can link. 

UPDATE 8/18/2020: Aklatan very nicely posted a summarized list with all the Shopee page links on their FB page, so I got the missing, uh, links there. And I deleted the publishers without links, as I assume they weren't able to participate. 

AKLATAN PARTICIPATING PUBLISHERS AND LINKS TO THEIR SHOPEE STORES: (link to Shopee Aklatan microsite)

Insights after searching for the publishers' stores on Shopee one by one:
  1. By golly, there are a LOT of booksellers on Shopee. Trade books, educational books, distributors, you name it. And I don't even mean the publishers above or the usual suspects. I mean there are a LOT of people selling books--print books! And judging from what Shopee tells you, there are a lot who buy them. I mean, I have no idea what rank the Books category is in the entire Shopee marketplace, but nevertheless, it looks like there's still a good market out there.
  2. If I can't find a publisher's store on Shopee, I check its Facebook page. Sometimes I find it if I scroll down, because it's in a post somewhere. Sometimes I don't find it at all. That, I feel, is a wasted opportunity. The best thing, I think, when I find it in the About page or it's a pinned post. Or if they have their own store plus the marketplaces, then it's in a website summarizing all the places where their books can be bought online. I'm already a relatively diligent searcher, but many people won't be. Why make it harder for them to find the stores or the books?
I'll stop here for now, because this post is all about you, reader, finding the stores of your favorite Philippine publishers. Though I understand there will be a banner on Shopee come midnight of Aug. 16. Which is great. But if you get lost and you happen to find this post, I hope you can use it to enjoy Aklatan and check out your preferred local pubs!

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