130:) and "commercial literature", Tagalog romance novels generally follow a "strict romance formula", meaning the narratives have happy endings (a factor influencing the salability of the novel), the protagonists are wealthy, good-looking, smart, and characters that cannot die. Normally, the hero or heroine of the story falls in love and "goes crazy" over the admired person. However, later authors of Tagalog romance novels deviated from portraying so-called "damsel-in-distress and knight-in-shining-armor characters". Contemporary writers also turned away from writing "rags-to-riches plots". The stereotypical norm had been replaced by the incorporation of storylines with "interesting scenes, characters , dialogues, and new angles to old plots". Authors such as
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distribution-related issues, the publication of
Valentine Romances was resumed after one year. The sales of the pocketbooks increased from 8,000 copies within a 3- to 4-month period to 10,000 copies over a period of 2 to 3 months, including provincial sales. In 1990, Anvil Publishing, the sister company of Books for Pleasure, targeted the
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programs. Apart from writing about ideal lovers (men and women) and ideal situations, other novelists wrote about true-to-life settings, or at least based the stories from personal experiences. Thus, Tagalog romance novels came to mirror or replicate the "roles that women and men play" in
Philippine
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Readers of
Philippine comics, the popular literature in the Philippines from the early 1900s through the 1990s, moved into reading inexpensively priced Philippine romance novels. In terms of sales, Tagalog pocket romance books were winning over the Philippine comics industry. Among the readers of
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Most of the writers for
Tagalog pocketbooks are females. However, there are also male novelists. In this case, there were publishers who required male contributors to use female pseudonyms because of the belief that female readers prefer female authors, and that women know other women better than
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readers. Although Books for
Pleasure, Inc. closed down in 2002, other publishing companies came to produce Tagalog-language paperbacks. Among the contemporary and most popular Tagalog romance novel brands released in the Philippine books market was the Precious Heart Romance (PHR) line, a Tagalog
190:. A regular Tagalog-language romance pocketbook is composed of around 120 pages, with a dimension of 10 by 16 centimetres (3.9 in × 6.3 in), giving the book its characteristic portability, light-weight, and easy to pass on to other readers. The current price per book ranges from
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pocketbooks line in the country. Ocampo thought about the concept of selling
Filipino romance novels in book format in 1983. In 1984, Ocampo's company published the Tagalog-language Valentine Romances line with a preliminary release of 5,000 copies. Although discontinued temporarily due to
520:"...About: Kristine is the most successful series in Philippine romance pocketbook history with over 50 books in its library and new volumes still on the way. Penned by well-loved romance novel writer, Martha Cecilia, Kristine now moves to epic story of love and family to television..."
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readers by publishing Pinoy
Suspense, a pocketbook line that featured "original Filipino paperback thrillers". Later on, after eight months of producing Pinoy Suspense pocketbooks, Anvil Publishing released its own Tagalog-language paperback romance novels that were geared towards
243:, Helen Meriz, gilda Olvidado, Ma. Elena cruz, Joi Barrios, Rosalie Matilac, Leo del Rogierro, Crisostomo Papa, Ernie Bueno, and Rosario Cruz Lucero. Apart from Maria Teresa Cruz San Diego (as Maia Jose or Tisha Nicole), other contemporary Tagalog pocketbook novelists were
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The problems of publishing
Tagalog romance novels included the issue of copyright violation. Among the methods used for infringing original pocketbooks were through scanning copies, changing the book covers, changing the titles, and changing the names of the authors.
268:. There are more female readers than males, and the female audience of Tagalog pocketbooks include young women and teenagers. Other readers set up a collection of Tagalog pocketbooks that they rent to other paperback enthusiasts for a designated fee.
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love story pocketbooks. The actual idea of publishing
Tagalog romance paperbacks in the Philippines was conceptualized by Benjie Ocampo, the proprietor of Books for Pleasure, Inc., the company that carried the English-language
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as a form of traditional or conventional romance stories of "rich boy meets poor girl or vice versa who go through a series of obstacles and finally end up in each other's arms".
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The books have been particularly popular with younger
Filipinos, in part due to the "oral and contemporary" character of the language used in writing the novels.
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Together with the airing of Tagalog-language television shows and films, the publication of romance pocketbooks in Tagalog helped to further establish it as the
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Tagalog pocketbooks nowadays are rarely being used. Some of the alternatives of such are short stories posted in the internet and social media sites.
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Tagalog pocketbooks novels had been adapted into film and television. An example of a Tagalog romance novel that was adapted into television was
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The Tagalog novels in pocketbook or paperback format became the contemporary equivalent of the serial novels that appeared on the pages of
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pocketbook brand name published by the Precious Pages Corporation since 1992. Other Tagalog paperbrands include Love Match.
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39.50 to PHP 54.50. The price of the pocketbook is dependent on the date of publication or the release date.
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genre, these popular romance novels were written, as described by Dominador Buhain in the book
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with English and Tagalog being the only official state tongues).
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516:(Filipino Series) Precious Hearts Romance Presents: Kristine
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men. Among the first Tagalog pocketbook writers were
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by Vicky Eleen (sample Tagalog romance novel online)
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375:Romansang Pinoy: A day with Tagalog romance novels
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182:magazine novels and the illustrated novels of
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486:"Particularity, Universality and Legitimacy"
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533:. Ethnologue. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
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430:Real people behind ultimate fantasy
104:: A day with Tagalog romance novels
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64:Tagalog popular romance literature
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577:Love Quotes For Life
467:100 Nobelang Tagalog
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258:overseas Filipino
241:Lualhati Bautista
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112:bookstores
100:Romansang
72:pocketbook
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434:Quickview
266:Hong Kong
175:society.
136:Maia Jose
68:paperback
470:Archived
328:See also
295:Kristine
180:Liwayway
144:politics
128:escapism
245:Camilla
198:History
148:ecology
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320:Modern
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102:Pinoy
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