John Mwazemba is the managing director of Kenya’s Phoenix Publishers. He is one of the people who have been nominated to take part in Digital Book World in New York, USA from 13-15 January 2015. He will be there to meet and learn from booksellers and librarians to editors, publicists and CEOs. What they share in common is their dedication to making the publishing industry—and the culture of reading—thrive in an increasingly online world.
John is a member of the Kenyan Publishers association (KPA) so hopefully we should see some of things that he learns filter down to not only his authors but also other authors who are represented by the KPA.
Category Archives: Publishers
Cassava republic unveils Nigeria’s newest romance imprint
There is something about the relationship between two human beings and how they get together and hopefully live happily ever after. This is why some of the biggest selling books on the planet are in the Romance Novel category and at the top of that pile are Mills and Book and Harlequin series. This is also why Fabio that model dude is so so rich.
We started the romance novel discussion in Africa too. In 2011, the South Africans unveiled Nollybooks to fulfill the need for teenage girls to read about dreamy protagonists of the African variety. Then the Kenyans with Storymoja decided to get in on the action with their Drumbeat series where readers could get to feel the beat of East African love.
Our Nigerian brothers and sisters are finally in on the action. Cassava republic are famous for being one of the publishers of cool folks like Teju Cole and Mukoma Wa Ngugi. They gave us all a sneak preview of their new romance imprint Ankara Press on Saturday at the Lagos Book & Art Festival. This was at a panel discussion entitled ‘Romance in the Digital Age’ which included Cassava Republic publisher Bibi Bakare-Yusuf and Ankara Press author Amara Nicole Okolo.
The new imprint Ankara Press will be launched on 15th December 2014, with six brand-new romance novels written by African women. The romances will be published as e-books and easily downloadable to mobile devices. All six e-books will be available to buy from www.ankarapress.com from 15th December. So if you want to see what our Western African authors think romance should be like then I suggest that you register on the website now and they email you with details of a special launch discount price offer as soon as the books are available!
Amara’s novel ‘Black Sparkle Romance’ is one of six titles that will be published at www.ankarapress.com on 15th December 2014.
P.s. A dreamy Naija man… Less actor Mr Ibu and more singer Flavour no?
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Caine Prize signs with Nigerian publisher Lantern Books
There’s great news for all of you who will be at the Ake Festival in a few days. The good folks at the Caine Prize have signed a deal with Nigerian publishing company, Lantern Books, to publish the 2014 edition of the Caine Prize anthology, The Gonjon Pin and Other Stories. Lantern Books have committed to printing 5,000 copies of the anthology which will be available at Ake Book Festival on 18-22 November in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.
Lantern Books, an imprint of Literamed Publications, joins ten other publishers already selling Caine Prize anthologies in Europe and Africa. The Caine Prize anthology of short stories, which includes the five stories shortlisted each year, alongside stories written at the workshops, is published annually by New Internationalist in the UK and publishers in eight different African countries. They are amaBooks (Zimbabwe), Bookworld Publishers (Zambia), Cassava Republic (Nigeria), FEMRITE (Uganda), Jacana Media (South Africa), Kwani? (Kenya), Langaa Research and Publishing CIG (Cameroon) and Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana).
Now usually Lantern is a children’s publisher but this is an opportunity only the foolhardy would pass up if it came along. The company’s MD Tunde Lawal Solarin on the announcement on the deal, clearly delighted stated; “Lantern Books is excited that we have been given the opportunity to enter into collaboration with New Internationalist to bring you the Caine Prize collection.”
Commenting on the new partnership, Caine Prize Director Lizzy Attree says, “We’re delighted to be working with Lantern Books in Nigeria this year to publish The Gonjon Pin, ensuring that all 17 short stories are widely available to Nigerian readers, from a local publisher, and at an affordable price.”
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From the Nairobi International Book Fair 2013
Its not easy to do a book fair. You have to find all these publishers and convince them to come together in one space and flog their ware. Those folks have enough on their plate what with convincing the government to get their book on the ministry of education approved list. Then there is the case of the sad people who have taken the work of being a writer. They write books and then they have to find people who are willing to buy and read their drivel whilst at the same time paying bills and leaving some over for beers.
But somehow these the folks of the Kenya Publishers Association have been able to do a book fair bringing together publishers and writers in Nairobi for the last 16 years. It is no mean feat if you ask me. I have been attended this fair pretty consistently for the last half decade and I have to say the biggest achievement is that it is still there.
The fair had its challenges of course. Its never been one for the writers but one for publishers to hook up and make nice as they did their deals. The writers have always been a by-the-way as the publishers shone.
This year was even more full of challenges. The week before Kenya had just gone through some of the worst terror attacks in a long time as our Westgate Mall was taken down by some bad guys. This didn’t allow so many people to have so much confidence with the fair.
The guys organising the fair did their bit to mitigate the effects of these flaws. There was a lot of tightened security and this worked out quite well as the event is awash with school children with their schools and their parents. They were here to see a fair which was very child friendly as they saw some of the best that the country has to offer the kids. Catch them while they are still young seems to be the policy which everyone approves.
Then the issue with the authors seems to have been sorted out with the Authors Buffet which sees many writers launching books at the same time. It also allows many of them to meet and mingle and do things that writers do when they do which is exchange books and contacts. And drink perhaps?
The actual fair was the usual stuff I have gotten accustomed to with book stands with educational leanings with the usual suspects – East African Educational Publishers, Mountain Top Publishers, Longhorn Publishers et al – showing that their best educational book forward.
The creative writing guys were slim on the ground with Kwani? and their huge stand bringing showing off their latest Kwani 7 aka Kwani? Majuu about the way Kenyans fled abroad in the 1990s and how they fared out there. I got me a copy.
The fair ended with its traditional Jomo Kenyatta Literature Awards at the Intercontinental Hotel with Henry Ole Kutet winning the big English award for the his Longhorn publishers book Vanishing Herds.
I’m looking forward to next year’s fair as I suspect it will rock way much more that this one. But for one that happened just after we were attacked this one went pretty well. Kudos to the Kenya Publishers Association.
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Changes to the business of books in Kenya
The book business is a very exciting one to be involved in at any one time. The excitement however has just gone down a little notch for Nairobi based book lovers with changes in the tax code. Previously the book was a zero rated product which meant that it did not attract the 16% Value Added Tax (VAT) on most products we use. With the new changes this means that the price of books will be going up 16% which can’t be fun for book lovers.
Its not just where the price of books where there are changes. Our good friend Ng’ang’a Mbugua informs us that he has recently discovered that one now has to register with the Kenya Revenue Authority as a tax agent. This is when one wants to supply books to book shops. To do this one needs to go to the KRA website and follow the instructions as required. The thing to watch out for would be the “professional body” that one belongs to so that one gets the required accreditation. Alongside registering to be a tax agent one must get an ETR machine that allows one to give receipts to the bookshops as you sell them your product. This is a machine which the Capital FM Classifieds page says starts from Kshs23,000 in price won’t be ideal if you are starting out.
The people who would be most affected by this new requirement are those who publish and distribute their own books as it is a new cost one has to incur. The upside of it all is that it increases tax compliance where one is selling books and avoids one getting on the wrong side of the law.
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Storymoja Publishers join social media site Pinterest
One of the most innovative publishers in Kenya has to be the Storymoja Publishing left by Muthoni Garland. They have the most output fiction wise where some of the new companies operating in Kenya are concerned. They also have several initiatives to bring reading to the fore like Start A Library.
The biggest event in the firms calendar also happens to be Kenya’s biggest literary festival the Storymoja Hay festival. The festival is a few days of literary awesomeness with writers from around the continent and the planet. Last year’s festival was pretty cool one and I had a pretty cool time as did several of the people who showed up.
This year’s version of the festival is coming soon (September) . With this in mind the company is gearing up for the occasion with several new things. For one they have set up a the storymoja Pinterest page with several boards including Books from Africa, Know your African writers and off course a special board for the 2013 festival.