By Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net

BEFORE aspiring writers would need thousands of pesos in order to publish a book.

Today, being published is just a click away. For some, they only need to pay P25 for computer rental.

Blog has revolutionized the way people get published on the Internet. It has opened a window of opportunities to amateurs and professional writers. During the Pistang Panitik at the 29th Manila International Book Fair, literary writers Vlad Gonzales, Marne Kilates, Dean Alfar, Vic Nierva and Sonny Villafania shared their experiences on how they use their blogs and how it helped them promote their literary works.

Gonzales, a professor of Malikhaing Pagsulat at the University of the Philippines Diliman, said that he incorporated blogging in his lecture in Panitikang Popular.

“Sa blogging, hindi lang tayo tagatanggap [In blogging, we’re not only the receivers]. Blogging has the concept of interactivity, [where] there is a space for comments,” said Gonzales.

On the other hand, Alfar used blogging as a venue for expression. Through blogging, he rediscovered himself as a writer.

“Having a blog helped me become disciplined,” said Alfar.

Alfar related that he used “guerrilla writing technique” whereas he writes vignettes for 15 minutes. Aside from Alfar, Kilates uses his blog to write prose.

Despite the risk of being plagiarized, Kilates said that he doesn’t want to work in fear.

“The risk of somebody stealing your work is the just the same outside of the Internet, in real time. The benefits of having other people access your stories or poems, I think they far outweigh the fear of being stolen, being plagiarized,” Kilates said.

Also, Alfar suggested that if one is afraid of being plagiarized, then one should not blog about it.

“By blogging, we consciously expose ourselves,” Alfar said.