HeyJaredMariel Leister
Editor. Publisher behind AlònTala Publishing. Professional overthinker of other people’s words. Herein lie my unedited thoughts. If you find a typo, I left it there. Otherwise, five minutes of writing becomes five hours.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 5
- Latest publication
- Sep 11, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Sep 1, 2026
Latest issues
Some Thoughts on MIBF... (opens the original)
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The Manila International Book Fair, or MIBF, is a yearly thing. Around September, from what I know. And right now, it’s ongoing. I understand the appeal. Big event. Big venue. Lots of discounts. If I weren’t about six hours away, I would’ve probably gone every single year.Except, I only learned about it last year. I didn’t go then. While I understood the appeal and the importance it holds to so many authors, especially self-published and indie, I’m just… not emotionally
A Year Ago, I Was Ready to Quit (opens the original)
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Around this time last year, just over half a year since I started my indie press, AlònTala, I wanted to quit. I still believed in the dream, but my reality was closer to a nightmare.I couldn’t find a reliable book printer at the time. One promised two weeks from payment to print, but that two weeks turned into three months. And when the third month came and they informed me that the SAMPLE BOOKS were ready, it took another two weeks because they forgot to ship them out.<p style="text-align: j
“I Don't Think I Can Do What You're Doing” (opens the original)
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A friend recently told me, “I don’t think I can do what you’re doing.”On one side, it’s like a compliment. It’s a cause for pride, cos why not? It’s another way of saying, “You’re so capable.” But in hindsight, it could also mean that I’m doing way too much for one person.It’s true though.I am.I know what it’s like to have my dreams be taken from me. To years for greater things but be told tim
Nobody Notices When You Do It Right (opens the original)
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When I edit a book well, you shouldn’t notice me. You shouldn’t stop in the middle of a paragraph because a sentence doesn’t make sense. You shouldn’t have to go back three lines to figure out who’s speaking. You shouldn’t notice a misplaced comma or a typo that turns one word into another. You should just keep reading. The words should flow smoothly enough that you forget there are words at all.That’s the strange thing about doing certain kinds of work well: sometimes, the better you are at it,
I Started a Publishing House Because I Wanted Better Books (opens the original)
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I don’t think everyone else makes bad books and I alone have been called upon to save literature. I promise my ego has not yet reached those proportions.I just wanted to make better books.The trouble was that the more I learned about making them, the more things I found myself wanting to be responsible for.When I was a kid, I had no idea where books came from. As far as I was concerned, they came from my ninang and my parents, because they were the people who gave them to me.I was a kid in the ’
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