When African Publishers ‘Lack Imagination’

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From Publishing Perspectives:

On Friday afternoon (June 14) at the  International Publishers Association‘s (IPA) “Africa Rising” seminar in Nairobi, one of the most carefully watched discussions is expected to be one called “Developing Africa’s Next Generation of Publishers, Writers, and Artists”—not least because that topic is so close to the overall bold intention of the Geneva-based IPA in its series of Africa Seminars: “transforming the future of African publishing.”

In the programming of the seminar, which is hosted by the  Kenya Publishers Association, the session is devised to “draw on the experience of younger publishers, writers, and artists to understand the current state of Africa’s publishing ecosystem, as well as answer two pivotal questions:

  • “How can the publishing industry be improved?
  • “And how can the ecosystem evolve to develop Africa’s next generation of publishers?”

The African publishing markets are hardly alone in trying to determine how to develop their newer, younger talent to the benefit of the business. After all, one of the most common criticisms of the comparatively huge English-language markets’ publishers during the digital disruption has been that they were behind the times, out of touch, prone to protecting tradition rather than accepting a changing competitive entertainment market.

Link to the rest at Publishing Perspectives

5 thoughts on “When African Publishers ‘Lack Imagination’”

    • They could if Amazon let them know the Kindle store existed, but consider my position.

      I’m a British ex-pat in West Africa. Thanks to my pre-existing Amazon UK account I get, once I sign in, all the benefits of Amazon KDP and the Kindle store.

      As an African resident if I go to Amazon there is no Kindle store. it is blocked from visibility.

      The same for Google Play and Apple, and with Kobo I only have the option to use the Kobo US store, at US prices.

      As an author I have no access to Paypal in this part of the world, and most aggregators only offer Paypal and US bank transfer as payment options.

      “Hitting the KDP upload button” simply isn’t an option for much of the world.

      Secondly. many Africans prefer to read and write in their own language, not the colonial legacy language. The ONLY African language supported by KDP is Afrikaans.

    • @ Deb

      Because they had a very cushy setup that worked for decades, thanks to timidity and groveling by trad pub authors under contract — or wanting to be under contract. No need to be creative or imaginative. Just avaricious.

      The self-pub tsunami is washing that away. Good riddance, but too bad for all the trad-pub wannabes who still desire to be published by the Big 5 grifters.

      • I worked for decades and continues to work because supply is so much larger than what the publishers need. Just like widgets.

        Ir’s easy to fix. Just have 90% of authors who currently submit to publishers stop. Then the remaining 10% can prosper because the 90% isn’t avaricious.

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