By Anote Ajeluorou and Greg Austin Nwakunor
Nigeria’s book scene obviously experiences many
challenges just as opportunities, potential opportunities, are said to be
plentiful. While opportunities abound, given the country’s large population
that could have made millionaires out of authors plying their writing trade,
the challenges seem so overwhelming that authors’ hope of ever getting rich
from their creative imagination looks slim.
Many in
the book chain see piracy, as one of the major challenges that must be tackled
with as much innovativeness as those who engage in this crime have deployed in
recent years to cut them out.
The need to adopt new business models to
curb piracy was advocated in Port Harcourt at the UNESCO World Book Capital
2014 opening at the session dedicated to ‘The Nigerian Book Industry:
Challenges and Opportunities’, with publishers, booksellers, librarians and
authors also actively participating. But in all it was the submission of
Director, Copyright Institute, Mr. John Asein, that most resonated, as a
possibly workable framework if those in the book industry could act in c oncert
to fight a common enemy that has become so sophisticated that pirated books are
better packaged than original ones. Most times, publishers are hard put to differentiate
between pirated copies and their own.
Asein’s proposition was to the effect that
publishers needed to change their business model so as to curb piracy by
adopting a multi-dimensional approach. The approach, he informed, was by way of
designing a designated channel of book sales instead of the current haphazard
one where books are sold on the streets even by urchins. That way, he said,
books could be tracked to their sources and pirates easily nabbed whenever they
infiltrate the channel or create suspicious alternatives.
According to Asein, “We must adopt a
multi-dimensional approach. Why not design a channel of book sales instead of
selling on the streets so they can be tracked through effective monitoring?
Once books are coming in volumes of containers at the ports, we at Nigeria
Copyright Commission get alerted and we verify which publisher owns them. We
need to look at the right business model so we can flush pirates out. Once you
are able to track the channel it becomes easy. We can try out one state as a
model and then apply it to others”.
Lagos-based Litramed Publications Ltd
boss, Otunba Solarin, submitted that his firm was perhaps the greatest victim
of piracy in the country and lamented the losses he suffers yearly as a result.
He blamed his woes and those of his colleagues in the sector on lack of
distribution channels for books. He said in spite of his company having 11
distribution depots across the country, pirates were still at work feasting on
his books.
“There are no booksellers or marketers to
push books to readers,” Solarin lamented. “But informal marketers are getting
involved in book marketing now like Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries
(MFM) church setting up shop at the local airport in Lagos”.
But also the publishers and the others in
the book chain raised concerns about other issues that pose challenges to their
business. They stated that publishing continues to suffer numerous limitations
that have hindered its growth and it was why the sector has remained in the
realm of potentiality and yet to yield its full bounty to operators in it. With
Nigeria’s large population, operators agreed that publishing ought to do well
but high cost of imported printing materials like paper, ink, plates, machines
among others have created room for Asian countries to thrive at the expense of
local operators. Ironically, these same Asians, largely printers, are also those
fueling large-scale piracy that is destroying local book business.
According to Mr. Aladesuyi of Nigerian
Publishers Association (NPA), operators in the sector were yet to scratch the
surface of the business potential in books, saying, “We haven’t even scratched
the surface in book publishing. The opportunities are enormous, so also are the
challenges but publishers survive through sheer resilience. Our population is a
huge possibility. Affordability of books is a challenge. Piracy is a challenge,
with pirated copies looking better than original ones and all coming from Asia,
and at cheaper prices”.
Chief Operating Officer at Farafina Books
and author of Fine Boys, Dr. Eghosa Imasuen, argued for the empowerment
of NCC so it could be stronger in enforcing its mandate of arresting pirates
and prosecuting them. He noted, “We need to make it painful for anyone who
commits book crime”.
A lady retired librarian informed at the dismay
of guests how public and institutional libraries were aiding and abetting the
piracy of books when they stock their libraries with pirated copies. She said
it was against the norm they met and left behind, which has become bastardised
over time.
Boss of Ibadan-based Bookcraft Ltd, Mr.
Bankole Olayebi, cited government’s inconsistent policy as being partly
responsible for poor returns in the book sector. He recalled the recent
obnoxious and hasty policy of imposing 50 per cent tax on imported books, which
policy was also withdrawn when operators cried foul, saying it was like
returning the country to the dark ages and that it amounted to succumbing to Boko
Haram’s silly ideologue of
scrapping western education!
Olayebi also lamented lack of
infrastructure in the book sector to make books easily accessible, as they were
all imported with no local input. As the official publisher of Nobel Laureate
Wole Soyinka, Olayebi said he couldn’t give accurate figures how much the
eminent writer’s books fetch. According to him, none school text publishers
like him “don’t have the resources to market books”, and so are greatly
handicapped in how much they can fetch their authors in terms of royalties.
However, contrary to misleading assertions
that Nigerians don’t read and that there is a dying reading culture, the
panellists affirmed that indeed Nigerians read a lot. But they admitted that the
constraints enumerated so hindered readers’ easy access to books. Also, it was
noted that Nigerians were a hugely aspirational people, a situation that
explains the explosion in motivational, inspiration books and those on
leadership, as they want to get ahead in a competitive world.
According to Pastor Remi Morgan of
Lanterna Bookshop, “There is quite an effective demand for religious books.
We’re an aspirational people. The most popular books people demand are on
leadership because most people find themselves in leadership positions not
prepared. So, there’s demand for books on self-help, self-improvement but
patronage is still modest”.
Also for Olayebi, “Nigerians want to read;
they are keen on getting information. But the book market is a potential
market!”
THERE was also a panel of young authors, mostly
young women, who discussed ‘Blogging and Digital Publishing’, as both
alternative and complimentary to traditional publishing. Yet again, they
highlighted the opportunities that abound in blogging and digital publishing
that take advantage of the internet or worldwide web. They charged young and
old authors alike to hop onto the digital portal train and experience the
amazing world it offers in book publishing.
While inadequate power, poor internet
connectivity, lack of access to computers or laptops were cited as challenges,
they observed that those who were daring could still forge ahead regardless and
make a small fortune from online publishing. They said this could happen provided
such authors have the right content that has been well edited for public
consumption before uploading it online.
Opportunities
in digital publishing, it was agreed, were outstanding and that it was like
magic, as it was fast and instantaneous. They also said it has endless
possibilities, with a lot of profit to be made from it if properly managed.
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