The African publishing industry is extremely tough, but business opportunities abound for shrewd publishers who are interested in buying and selling rights. 

This was the upshot of discussion between publishers from South Africa and other African countries at a session on how to expand publishing businesses, at the Cape Town Book Fair (CTBF) today.

The session was on Trade Day today (Friday July 30), the first day of the CTBF, whose programmes were reserved for publishers, librarians, bookshops and others in the industry. The CTBF opens to the public tomorrow (Saturday, July 31).

Giving an idea of the market constraints, Nelleke de Jager of Kwela Books, in South Africa, said that only 37% of books sold in South Africa are published locally. This was "huge growth" on the figure 21% to 32% a few years ago. Nevertheless, most books sold in this country are still published in the UK and Commonwealth countries, and four out of every five books sold in South Africa are in English.

South African publishers seldom wanted to buy rights, due to our small book-buying population, she said. And selling rights could be difficult, because South African bestsellers are not popular elsewhere. 

However, she and other speakers gave examples of many success stories that resulted from seeing things from a new angle. 

Kwela Books had bought the Afrikaans rights for international bestsellers including Op Pad Na Mandela, by Richard Stengel, she said.

The publishing right for Ann Landsman's The Rowing Lesson were split between publishers in several countries, including Kwela Books, "because her publisher realised she'd do better this way," said De Jager. "We would invest more time and money in the book, and bring the author out here regularly." 

Naveen Kishore, of Seagull Books, in India, described how he had decided to "change the rules of the game" by buying rights to sell books in other countries, where his company had no physical base.

"People asked us, ‘Why do you want those particular books for India?'" he said. "We replied, ‘That's not it. We want them for the world.'"

"It opened up a floodgates of people approaching us to sell rights. Our experiment is 150 books old, and has been reasonably successful. And all this buying and selling can happen without spending too much money."

The international market is very competitive, so it is hard to sell books in other countries, said De Jager. To do this, publishers need to build an excellent contact base, visit book fairs regularly to network. "And get good, hungry young sub agents in Frankfurt and London to represent your titles for you," she said. "They know their local industries."

Kwela Books had landed a six-figure deal for Lost Boy to be published in India, through a good sub-agent.

Zimbabwe-based Tainie Mundondo, of the African Publishers Network, gave more tips for doing business in Africa. Many small African publishing busineses were shunning sub-agents, to save costs, she said.

Chinua Achebe's literary classic Things Fall Apart had been printed in vast quantities in many countries, and was made a school setwork book in Zimbabwe - ensuring huge print runs. "So, look at the relevance of the content to your country when selecting a book to publish," she advised.

Purple Hibiscus was among the books co-printed by several African publishers working together to save costs, she said, and Sosu's Call, by Meshack Asare, which won an UNESCO prize, was reprinted in Ghana, Kenya, Germany and Spain.

"So, licences can travel if you have good content," she said. "It's difficult to achieve, but in the long run perseverance pays."

Issued on behalf of the Cape Town Book Fair by HWB Communications

For queries contact:

Claudia Kaiser

Director Cape Town Book Fair

Email: Claudia@capetownbookfair.co.za