amaBooks holds a lot of significance for me, personally, as the first
publisher to accept my work aged 22. Every time Jane Morris (amaBooks
co-founder) and I meet, the exchanges are effervescent and full of laughter.
Here, I interview her ahead of the currently ongoing Caine Prize for African
Writing Workshop. Read an article about the workshop here.
Fungai Machirori (FM):
How is business in the publishing sector
lately? What factors are influencing this?
Jane Morris (JM): Our impression is that the
general economy of Zimbabwe is in a poor state at the moment, and obviously the
book industry is affected by this. People having less disposable income results
in less money being spent on buying books. Unfortunately reading, outside
school or college syllabi, is not a priority for many people in Zimbabwe.
’amaBooks are publishers of Zimbabwe fiction and there is a very small market
for most fiction titles.
However, there are positives – success stories
such as NoViolet Bulawayo’s (We Need New Names)or Bryony Rheam’s (This
September Sun) have stimulated an interest in local literature, and the
availability of short-run printing in the region means we can continue to make
books available even if their sales are fairly limited.
FM: Are you receiving manuscripts?
Are they good? Do you have the capacity to publish?
JM: We are receiving manuscripts, and some are
of a good standard. Unfortunately with the limited sales for fiction we have to
be very selective in what we choose to publish. There have been occasions when
we have enjoyed a manuscript and would have liked to accept it for publication
but did not have the requisite resources at that time. However, the publishing
world is changing. Publishing used to depend on litho printing, which required
a large print-run in order to keep unit costs low – hence a large initial
investment. New technology has helped in that respect; a smaller print-run is
now possible, meaning that publishers can take a chance on books that are not
likely to sell in big numbers, including fiction and poetry. e-books add
another dimension, with that, and print-on-demand, books can remain in
circulation even when numbers selling are small.
FM: Are you selling many
copies locally, and why or why not? Are all the books nationally available?
JM: Our books are available in the main centres
of Bulawayo and Harare and a limited number in Mutare. We would love our books
to be available in the smaller centres, such as Gweru and Kwekwe but most
outlets only buy school text books. They are not a great number of bookshops in
Zimbabwe and we make an effort to get our books into other outlets, such as
shops selling crafts. Anyone having difficulty getting hold of one of our
titles can contact us directly. The biggest market for our books still remains
Zimbabwe. There are people in the country who do buy new books, but the number
of such buyers is limited and discerning. Efforts are being made to encourage
an interest in literature through literary events, competitions, reading clubs,
workshops and launches
We are endeavouring to enter into
co-publishing, or rights selling, arrangements to make our titles more readily
available outside Zimbabwe. Most of our books are available outside of
Zimbabwe, on a print-on-demand basis through African
Books Collective.
FM: You have turned some
books into e-books. Are they being bought? Why do you think this is the case?
What are you most popular titles currently?
Most of our books are available as e-books on a
number of platforms. Outside of Zimbabwe, e-books do seem a good proposition
cost-wise for our fiction titles, given the high cost of distribution or the
high cost of print-on-demand. Certainly, e-books sales are on the increase, we
have been heartened at some of the recent sales figures. It has also been good
to be able to bring some of our older titles back as e-books. The good news
locally is that a local company, Open Book, will soon be up and running,
selling e-books both for the standard e-readers and for cell phones that do not
need to be too smart. The option to sell either complete books and individual
stories or poems is very exciting and innovative. Worldreader are working in a
similar way to promote a reading culture, distributing Kindles in projects in
schools and elsewhere across Africa. Worldreader recently launched in Zimbabwe
at King George VI School for Children living with Physical Disabilities in
Bulawayo, and we are just about to publish a collection of stories and poems by
the students there, which will be available as an e-book.
The most successful e-book title we’ve had is
Bryony Rheam’s This September Sun, which topped sales on Amazon in the
United Kingdom in mid-2013 and remains consistently in the top 100 of Women’s
Literary Fiction.
FM: You just translated
‘Where To Now’ into Ndebele? How easy/ hard was it to get backing for this? How
do you intend to distribute this version?
JM: We have been encouraged to take the step of
publishing in isiNdebele by many writers and academics and we hope that the
publication of Siqondephi Manje? will lead to a greater interest in
reading literature for pleasure. The emphasis of publishing in indigenous
languages again seems to have been on the school market.
Literary translation is a highly skilled
activity and we’ve been fortunate in having Dr Thabisani Ndlovu, who is a
well-regarded creative writer and academic, to translate the work. Feedback
from the writers in the collection about the standard of the translation has
been very positive. The funding for the translation was part of a wider project
supporting literature in Zimbabwe.
We will distribute the book through our usual
outlets, and we hope that local libraries will show an interest in the
anthology.
FM: Has the partnership with the Caine Prize
in co-publishing the Caine Prize Anthology boosted your profile and
profitability?
JM: We are delighted to be the publishers of
the Caine Prize anthology in Zimbabwe – we have always been enthusiastic about
partnerships across Africa. We wanted to bring some of the best writers from
the continent to the attention of Zimbabwean readers and this seemed an ideal
opportunity. We would also like our books to be more readily available in other
African countries and are pursuing this possibility through selling rights.
Publishing the Caine Prize anthology does raise our profile across the
continent, though, with the economic situation in Zimbabwe, sales of such
collections are limited.
FM: There are prolific
writers of fiction in Zimbabwe but most are published first outside of
Zimbabwe. Why do you think this is? And how easy/ hard is it to get local
publishing rights?
JM: Certainly many of the best-selling fiction
writers outside of Zimbabwe are those that are published outside of the country
– not surprisingly given the promotion by their international publishers, and
given the exodus of so many of the educated population and the writing
community. The most prolific Zimbabwean writers are those who tend to be
published within the country – John Eppel, Christopher Mlalazi and Shimmer
Chinodya spring to mind. With dollarization, it is becoming easier to bring
titles from outside the country to Zimbabwean readers, but the situation again
means low numbers sold.
FM: What are your hopes
for Zimbabwe’s literary sector?
JM: These are exciting times for publishing
across the world – with technological changes leading to much more open and varied
access to publishing. Zimbabwe has special challenges, due to the economic
climate, and to the exodus of many of those who write and who would purchase
literary fiction. e-book technology does seem to offer a way of distributing
content at fairly low cost to potential readers, but we must ensure that there
remains a vibrant local publishing industry that provides high quality local
literary content. There are good Zimbabwe writers, both in Zimbabwe and in the
diaspora, and we think that the future is safe in their hands. We have always
been keen to publish new writers and the ideal platform has been the series of
short writings we have published. A number of these writers have gone on to
publish their own books – Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, Bryony Rheam, Christopher
Mlalazi, Mzana Mthimkhulu, Raisedon Baya, Deon Marcus and we understand that a
number of others are working on books. We hope that this gives encouragement to
new writers following on. It is really exciting as a publisher when a
manuscript from a new writer appears on your screen, and you think … Yes.
Initiatives to encourage writing, such as the Yvonne Vera Award and the Writers
International Network Zimbabwe manuscript assessment programme are initiatives
that support and encourage writing and there is certainly the need for more of
these.
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