The presentation will explore some of the problems in setting up such a catalogue, and look at the implications for future.
There seems to be consensus in the book world that we need to build a culture of reading in South Africa. Elinor Sisulu, talking at a recent symposium on the Cost of a Culture of Reading painted a vivid picture of what such a culture would look like:
I would like to propose the following vision of a South Africa with a strong reading culture.
- It would be a nation of avid, lifelong readers who read widely and who value South African literature and languages.
- It would have a government that vigorously promotes the value of reading at national, provincial, regional and local levels.
- It would have an education system that integrates reading at the core of the curriculum, at all levels, and encourages reading for pleasure and lifelong learning.
- It would have a flourishing writing and publishing industry to support the heightened demand for books and other reading materials from the education sector and from the general public.
- It would have a strong library network backed by an equitable book distribution
system that ensures that everyone has access to a wide range of reading material,
regardless of economic status or geographical location.1
The Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan, is also concerned that writers are not finding ways of telling the stories that need to be told in the appropriate languages:
There are amazing stories to tell about South Africa - stories of amazing courage and amazing cowardice, about integrity and betrayal. These are the things that great works of art, drama are made of.
One of the big problems is that in African languages, publishing was done for the school market. The dime store novel - pulp fiction - in an African language doesn't exist.
If people are not receiving information in their mother tongue or reading for
leisure, how are we going to nurture a culture of reading?2
This paper looks only at the publishing part of this "culture of reading" issue, and in particular at the small-scale, community and self-publishing sector.
But before getting to that, let's get a sense of the bigger publishing picture.
General publishing, which includes all fiction, poetry, anthologies, memoirs
and creative non-fiction, is a relatively small market in South Africa, where
educational publishing is still taking the lion's share. According to Hannes
van Zyl3, a former CEO of NB Publishers:
- In the United States 20 publishers are now responsible for 93 percent of the turnover in book sales, while about 40 000 publishers are responsible for the remaining 7 percent.
- About 95 percent of all books published in Africa are schoolbooks, compared with about 35 percent in industrialised countries.
- The division of turnover in the general market is about 75 percent for books published overseas and 25 percent for books published locally
The implication of these statistics is that the market for locally-produced general books is very small, but like in the United States, there is potentially a great deal of room to publish books that might appeal to niche markets. The implication is also that there is room for small niche publishers of all kinds. A key role of the Community Publishing Project is to contribute to the growth in small publishers.
The general book trade, according to Linda Nell of Exclusive Books, Tygervalley
branch, "has become much more bottom-line driven … booksellers have high overhead
costs, but relatively low profit margins in comparison with other retail businesses
…" She adds that "South Africans, as we know, have traditionally been very resistant
to local cultural products."4
In spite of this rather depressing situation, many writers have found creative ways of writing and publishing that are either outside this commercial framework or not solely dependent on it.
The practical guide to self-publishing published by the Centre for the Book explains to writers why they are unlikely to land a successful contract with a mainstream publisher:
Because a book may not be seen to be commercially viable by a commercial
publisher, it doesn't mean that it is not suitable for self-publishing. It may
mean that the book could be for an untested market, for a market that is not
in the habit of buying books. It could mean that there is only a limited market
or readership for your book. It could be that a commercial publisher would not
be willing to take a risk on your book. It may be that the form of your writing
is unusual; it may be that you are writing for a limited audience, such as your
children, or your family. There is lots of room in South Africa for books that
appeal to the many groups (could be quite small groups) and interests in our
society. We need cheap, local, lively books.5
In 2005 there is a lot to be excited about in South African publishing. Both mainstream and alternative forms are thriving. On the commercial front, an independent publisher like Jacana Media has an impressive general list after just a couple of years in operation. Kwela Books has been going very successfully for ten years, as an imprint of NB Publishers. Some of the larger publishers have started new imprints - Oshun Books was launched by Struik at the end of 2004, Juta started Doublestorey in 2002, and Picador has recently set up the Picador Africa imprint.
With newer and cheaper technologies, the alternative publishing and self-publishing sector has thrived even more. Dave Chislett writes:
(T)he world of publishing in fiction, poetry and other literary forms
has changed forever … for the better. Instead of having to go through established
publishers, literary journals or outlets, writers suddenly have a spectrum of
choices available for getting their work to the world at large. From website
publications, mail groups and newsletters, digital print-on-demand solutions,
custom publishing and underground magazines, the choice has never been wider.6
The country is full of writers and writers' groups, many of whom are engaged in some kind of publishing of their own. There is the Xhosa writers' group, Bhala, a national group that has local branches in most towns and communities where Xhosa speakers live, that is all over the Eastern Cape, parts of the Western Cape and in Gauteng. The Afrikaanse Skrywersvereniging is a national organisation with local groups. Others are: the Southern Writers (Hermanus), Aerial Writers and Publishing in Grahamstown, a Writers' Circle that meets in Bergvliet, women who meet in Kalk Bay each month. There is a group around Vonani Bila and his Timbila publishing enterprise in the Northern Province, the Eclectic Writers Club in Bloemfontein/Mangaung and writers in PE/New Brighton, linked to the magazine Kotaz. There are also writers' groups in Uitenhage and in Ekurhleni, Gauteng, led by poet and publisher Angifi Dladla.
Quite a few of these groups have applied to the Community Publishing Project (a Centre for the Book and NB Publishers partnership) and have been awarded grants to publish their own books or anthologies.
So although we may be far from a culture of reading in South Africa, there is a great deal of literary activity, perhaps in places that not all members of the book establishment or the urban booksellers are aware of.
There has also been a noticeable flourishing of writers' conferences, readings, small book festivals, book fairs, and mainstream writers' festivals, such as Poetry Africa, Time of the Writer, Wordfest, Woordfees, Aardklop, and others. This flurry of activity has been especially noticeable in the larger centres, although there has also been activity in places like Polokwane, Bloemfontein and Grahamstown. In Gauteng, for example, the Wits Writing Centre regularly hosts readings, book launches and other gatherings of writers. The Boekehuis bookshop in Auckland Park, managed by Corina van der Spoel, hosts regular readings of writers. The book pages of newspapers and magazines seem to be showing more interest in local books and writers.
In Cape Town in July 2004, there was a Celebrate Women Book Fair held at the Waterfront in collaboration with media partners and publishers. The IBBY Congress on children's literature was held in September. For 2005, there are already at least three book fairs planned in Cape Town - the Celebrate SA Book Fair, a UCT book fair, and at least one small publishers' book fair in Kalk Bay, organised by Mandy Lebides, who runs the WritEscapes monthly programmes for writers. The Centre for the Book has run a successful festival for new writers for the past two years, called Turning the Page.
The past ten years have seen a proliferation of writing workshops and courses, run independently or for groups of teachers, prisoners, university students. Some of the well-known teachers working at present are Anne Schuster, Robert Berold, Maren Bodenstein, Angifi Dladla, Women in Writing's Thembi Mbobo, Dorian Haarhof, Amanda Macmillan, Diane Case. Creative Writing programmes at most universities and tertiary institutions have taken off.
There are new prizes, such as the EU-funded one which entitles the winner to a cash prize and his or her book to be published by Jacana. In 2004, LitNet hosted the successful and well-received Young Voices online conference, which gave young writers under 35 the opportunity to write about topics such as "My Body" and "My Generation". There was much interest in the conference.
It has become clear to me in my capacity as the Community Publishing Project manager at Centre for the Book that we need to develop further ways of publishing and publicising this work. There are many potential readers whom the small publishers may not reach, even in their immediate local environments. It has also become clear that the CPP is part of a wave of activity that is already happening in the country. For example, Kotaz has been going since about 1997, while Vonani Bila in the Northern Province has been publishing Timbila's Onion Skin Anthologies since about 1999. Botsotso from Gauteng has been going since 1990 - they recently published their 13th volume, a thick, glossy issue, which was designed in an interesting if busy way and is full of a wide range of writing from all over the country.
Another interesting initiative is Gary Cummiskey's Dye Hard Press, a small publishing venture which also brings out an electronic newsletter for small publishers every two months or so. His newsletter advertises the wares of other small publishers and offers a feature article on a burning issue for small publishers. Topics covered have included marketing, costing, and "Is small publishing vanity publishing?"
There is clearly a vibrant marginal publishing culture going on. It seems important to find ways of publicising this literary activity and supporting these alternative initiatives. The Centre for the Book has been invited to participate in the Publishing Chamber of the Mappp Seta, which provides funds for capacity building in the publishing sector. The fact that the Centre was invited to participate bodes well for small and micro-publishers for support from this channel. It has been noted by Elinor Sisulu, the chair of the Book Development Foundation that governs the projects of the Centre for the Book, that there is a dire shortage of publishers, editors, designers and booksellers from previously disadvantaged communities.
The Centre for the Book does all it can to support writers, encourage publishing, and create a vibrant literary culture in our country. We see our role as drawing attention to this upsurge in literary activity, and informing anyone who would be interested, who would like to know more about it, who would like to participate, who would like to add their own initiatives to what is already happening.
We do this by the books e-group, the Indaba page on our website, and through the Writers' Network newsletters. The books e-group is a daily free listserve that anyone can subscribe to. It is a forum for sharing information about workshops, conferences and publishing opportunities, as well as for offering a space for debates and for asking questions and networking. The Indaba page is an online noticeboard which advertises things like seminars, workshops, conferences, competitions, new books, jobs in the book world, and literary services offered by individuals. The Writers' Network website is a source of helpful information for writers, offering opportunities for getting published, engaging with copyright, and so on.
The Centre supports small publishing ventures directly in a limited way by offering small grants - which give writers an opportunity to self-publish. Our small publishing support programme is known as the Community Publishing Project (CPP). Since 2001 the CPP been providing advice, funding and technical support to new small publishers and writers' groups in South Africa.
As a result of all of this advice-giving work it seemed sensible to develop a practical guide for writers on small-scale and self-publishing, providing all the basic information necessary, such as costing, pricing, marketing and distribution, getting an ISBN and so on. A first version of the booklet, titled Small-scale and self-publishing: a rough guide, has been made freely available and has been distributed to about 500 writers so far. In 2005 we are planning to republish it and sell it at a nominal cost through a distributor and in bookshops.
The booklet makes the point that writers who receive a CPP grant and engage in self-publishing
… learn more about what is involved in publishing, about the process
and decisions that have to be made. Although a key aim of the project is that
new small viable publishing groups will be established, both writers and the
world of publishing benefit as the project means that there will be more and
more writers who are aware of what publishing entails.7
All the books published with grants from the CPP have been celebrated with book launches, a new socio-cultural phenomenon in many communities, and one that usually has a different, livelier flavour than launches at highbrow bookstores and art galleries.
From participating in the CPP, writers' groups have learned not only about book production but also about marketing and distribution. They have learnt how to engage their members in selling their books and they have learnt how to get their books reviewed and publicised in both local and national newspapers. Some have been invited to events such as Wordfest, and Mandla Matyumza from Umtata was invited to the Edinburgh Festival because of his work as a writer, publisher and cultural activist.
Bookseller Linda Nell, in her paper for the LitNet Young Voices Conference, emphasises the importance of marketing:
But how will that reader ever discover the pleasure that only your
book can give if he or she is not made aware that it's out there? If we are
going to broaden our customer base and make our books "sexy" to people who have
not viewed them as such before, it is our marketing efforts that will produce
the most significant results.8
Kholeka Sigenu, the first recipient of a CPP grant, has been one of our biggest success stories. She sold all the first print run copies of her book, Ezakowethu, as well as most copies of a second print run. The book has been translated into English and the translation is selling very well too. She was voted Woman Writer of the Year at a conference of Women in Writing in Gauteng in September 2003.
The Centre for the Book has to make it clear to writers that we cannot meet
all their needs. Because of a lack of capacity and resources, we cannot read
and evaluate manuscripts, nor can we provide individual mentoring or offer working
space or access to computers or e-mail and internet. Some writers, like Richard
Fox in his article for the LitNet Conference9, may
feel that there is "little room for emerging artists", but our experience is
that there is a lot of room, an endless number of options. What is not easy
is to make a living as a writer, especially as a new or emerging writer.
Another important part of our work is mediating or translating the book world for writers so that they can work out how they fit it into it. Often publishing seems arcane and inaccessible to writers. We are able to put writers in touch with other writers and with literary magazines and to give useful practical advice. Many writers are not aware of how to approach publishers, or how to find out which publishers are likely to be interested in their particular style and genre of writing. They don't know that they can do a lot to research the market themselves by going to a bookshop or library to see what else has been written and published that is similar to what they have written or plan to write. In our practical guide to self-publishing we "translate" the notion of publishing for writers who want to "get published", but are finding themselves being frustrated by the invariably negative reception they receive from commercial publishers:
Technically, it is easier to publish books now than it ever has been.
But this doesn't mean that is easier to get your book published by a commercial
publisher. In fact it is very difficult to get published in South Africa. Publishing
is a business, publishers are not NGOs or development organisations, they are
not charities. Commercial publishing is a business enterprise, and publishers
have to make money in order to survive. This is hard in South Africa where book
buying is not a habit of most South Africans. Publishers can't publish even
a small proportion of the books that are sent to them by hopeful writers.10
Having established links with many writers and publishing groups working outside
the mainstream publishing environment, the CPP is now extending its work to include
developing an online catalogue of all independently published South African books.
This project has been a partnership with Bookdata/ SAPNET.11
It is taking time to formulate a working relationship and to figure out how to
do the catalogue in a way that meets the needs and aims of both partners and our
mutual clients.
The idea is to get all the publishers and writers in our network to subscribe to the catalogue so that their work will be represented there, available to researchers, booksellers, librarians, commercial publishers, readers, book collectors and not least to the independent publishers themselves. The catalogue would have several functions:
- serve as a primary data source for compilation of national and international bibliographies of publications;
- act as a database of independent publishers;
- act as a contact list and as a place to offer books for sale;
- provide a useful showcase of all current small publications, which are currently invisible except to local audiences or avid collectors of such material;
- create a means for small publishers to be represented at local and international book fairs;
- allow commercial publishers to identify interesting trends or possibilities for partnerships with independent writers and publishers.
Of course there are problems in setting up such a catalogue.12
Apart from the technical problems of creating it and working out how users can
engage with it, there are problems in conceptualising exactly what it is for and
how it will work. Some of these problems are:
- How to determine when a small publisher is too big to be considered small enough for inclusion in the catalogue. We could use means such as sales, assets, number of titles - for example: is Jacana a small publisher? Are the university presses to be considered?
- How esoteric should the catalogue be? Should it include books about gardening? Collecting rocks? Making Barbie doll clothes? Should expensive collectors' editions of wildlife books be included? Should specialist academic publications, or any academic publications, be included?
- Should we confine our range to the same kind of books that we have supported for the Community Publishing Project, namely fiction (both short stories and novels), poetry, memoirs, biography, folk tales, true stories about people's lives, or anthologies in which the above are collected?
- Who will do the work of compiling the catalogue? How often should it come out? Capacity is a problem. This is not the Centre for the Book's core work; it has grown out of a perceived need from the Community Publishing Project. Bookdata/SAPNET are doing this "for free" and because they want to get as many small publishers on to their databases as possible. How can the Centre do this work, or make it possible for someone else to do it in a sustainable way?
- Online selling from the catalogue may seem the logical sales route, but many of the customers for whom we are making the catalogue do not have access to the internet. It seems likely that we may need to produce a print version. If we do, how should we distribute this? Or perhaps we should limit ourselves to the online version and just be satisfied with the knowledge that we will be bringing these books to the attention of libraries and readers, both local and international, who may not otherwise have known about these books?
- Some publishers, like Women in Writing, don't know much about how to engage with traditional markets, but they are successfully accessing new markets. They don't try to sell through bookshops, so there is a lack of communication and knowledge about the "real world" of bookselling. Most of the books they produce they give to their contributing writers, who sell to people they know. Which is all very well, but surely they need to engage with traditional outlets too. The catalogue will be a way of getting new publishers and the traditional market to know about each other and to find ways to work together.
- Small literary magazines would be profiled in the catalogue too. This should be a way of bringing these to the attention of a wider number of readers, especially all those aspiring writers who expect literary magazines to print their work but don't read them.
In conclusion, there is much going on in South Africa for and by writers. It is up to all involved to think of better ways of publicising, extending, and celebrating our literary culture. I would love to hear of other ideas and other activities.
Notes
1 Sisulu, Elinor. 2004. "The culture of reading and the book chain: how do we achieve a quantum leap?" Keynote address at the Department of Arts and Culture Symposium on the Cost of a Culture of Reading, held on 16-17 September 2004, at the Centre for the Book, Cape Town.
2 Randall, E. 2004. Mail & Guardian online, 9 September
2004. www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2004/2004sep/040909-pallo.html.
3 Van Zyl, Hannes. 2001. "NB-Publishers: The way ahead" - P.J.
Nienaber memorial lecture. July 2001.
4 Nell, Linda. 2004. "The business of bookselling: a very personal
perspective" for Young Voices, 2004 South African Writers' Online Conference,
under "My Voice", 15 November 2004. http://www.litnet.co.za/youngwriters/linda_nell.asp.
5 Higgs, C. 2005. Small-scale and self-publishing: a rough
guide. Cape Town, Centre for the Book.
6 Chislett, Dave. 2004. "My voice is being heard in different
ways" for Young Voices, 2004 South African Writers' Online Conference, under
"My Voice", 17 November 2004. http://www.litnet.co.za/youngwriters/dave_chislett.asp.
7 Higgs, C. 2005.Small-scale and self-publishing: a rough
guide. Cape Town, Centre for the Book.
8 Nell, Linda. 2004. "The business of bookselling: a very personal
perspective" for Young Voices, 2004 South African Writers' Online Conference,
under "My Voice", 15 November 2004. http://www.litnet.co.za/youngwriters/linda_nell.asp.
9 Fox, Richard. 2004. "Crossing the Line: Poetry and alternative
publishing" for Young Voices, 2004 South African Writers' Online Conference,
under "My Voice", 16 November 2004. http://www.litnet.co.za/youngwriters/richard_fox.asp.
10 Higgs, C. 2005. Small-scale and self-publishing: a rough
guide. Cape Town, Centre for the Book.
11See the website where small publishers can sign up to be
represented on the catalogue. http://www.bookdatasapnet.co.za/centreforthebook/.
12 Robert Berold in an e-mail discussing the Catalogue suggested
some of these problems.
LitNet: 02 Augustus 2005
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