WHY A PUBLISHING INDUSTRY WILL HARDLY FLOURISH IN AFRICA

As a writer, trainer and book writing consultant, I have been involved in training, coaching and book writing consultancy projects. I observed and made various conclusions about writing and publishing in Africa, especially in Nigeria. There is hope, but we must work hard to provide local solutions.

1. Most of the writers who are willing to write are not interested in the long-term perspective of becoming professional authors.

2. The reading culture is often low because many don’t need continuous reading to progress in their careers. Compulsory reading to pass exams is more popular than willing reading for personal development.

3. The exchange rate is terrible for hardcopy printing (especially in Nigeria). The high cost of local printing makes the value chain very hard.

4. The dominance of books from outside Africa. The faulty mentality that “foreign is better than local is disturbing.” It will take a long time to correct that.

5. It will take some time to develop a continuous flow of the midteam professionals responsible for polishing raw contents at the mass and industrialized levels.

6. Language barrier. Writing in the English language reduces the expression confidence of many writers. No matter how hard they try they still compete with those who are native speakers of the language.

7. The business aspect is not well-known by many writers. Continuity in sales and reproduction are serious areas of setback.

There are other reasons but these are the few challenges we need to provide adequate local solutions to if we want publishing to flourish in Africa.

That is why we have added a few of our personal development courses to our book writing training. People will always behave the way they do until they are exposed to a different way of thinking. African writers must first become more in capacity before publishing will flourish in Africa. It is not about the publishing, it is mainly about the people who make it happen. Most of them are not professionally ready. Therefore, a flourishing publishing industry will not happen until the local players are developed and ready. Foreign books in Africa in the name of African publishing are helpful in some ways, but not the way forward.