The 19th Nigeria International Book Fair got underway today. I’ll report on the event further as news comes in. Here to briefly look at a pre-launch call for the establishment of a Nigerian Book Commission to help guide the industry in a period of transition and challenges. Challenges? Everything from piracy to distribution to rising Read More …
At the IPA Africa Seminar in Lagos in 2018 it was reported that the African book market was worth $1 billion. Not a staggering amount, but enough to raise eyebrows among many in the global publishing industry who believed Africa was a publishing backwater not worthy of their attention. This June comes the second IPA Read More …
The March 2019 internet user updates are in for some countries and the numbers bear out TNPS expectations. Nigeria, previously reported as having 98 million online – more than any country in Europe except Russia – has now leapfrogged the Eurasian giant. Against Russia’s 109 million, Nigeria now has 111 million people online, making it Read More …
If last year’s inaugural IPA Africa Seminar in Lagos was a much needed wake-up call to a global publishing industry that had largely ignored the world’s second largest continent, the 2nd incarnation in Nairobi in June will elevate the debate to the next level. From the IPA press release: Leading figures in African writing and Read More …
Coexistence is the theme of the 12th Hargeysa International Book Fair which will be running July 20-25 in Somaliland An announcement on the Hargeysa Book Fair website explains, Throughout the annals of history, all the conflicts for which humanity has paid in millions of human lives and immeasurable destruction of properties have been based on Read More …
Weeks before the first ever Swahili Literary Festival kicks off in Kenya in the first days of March comes news that the 2018 Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature will be presented at a special event at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania on Friday. Brittle Paper reports that, The prize winners…Tanzanian Zainab Alwi Baharoon, Read More …
That was the Wall Street Journal this week. Well, maybe not that last bit. What the Wall Street Journal actually said was, Four years after winning the Man Booker Prize, novelist Marlon James returns with a sweeping fantasy epic steeped in Pan-African history and folklore—and one of the most anticipated books of the year Sadly Read More …
The International Publishers Association Seminar on Sustainable Development for African Publishers 2019 will be hosted in Nairobi on June 14-15 with the theme “Realising Africa’s Potential as a Global Publishing Leader in the 21st Century.” James Murua has the scoop on this story, so I defer first to the James Murua African Literature Blog for Read More …
The Accra International Book Festival has announced its shortlist for two awards today: the 2018 First Book Award and the 2018 Independent Writers Award, with five female contenders and just one male making the finals. Unusually for an Africa-based award the prize is open to submissions from authors of any nationality, although submissions must be Read More …
It’s not even a year and a half since twins Chidi and Chika Nwaogu, one an author, the other a musician, launched Publiseer in their native Nigeria. Since then, as TNPS regulars will know, Publiseer has launched portals in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, all the time expanding its distribution outlets. Last month it was Read More …
A Swahili Literary Festival? Those who follow the African literary scene (or indeed follow TNPS) will be delighted, but not surprised, to learn this news. But many of us outside the continent or new to TNPS may be wondering what other literary surprises Africa has in store. It’s a reminder that there’s a big, wide Read More …
It was barely six weeks ago that Publiseer, celebrating its first birthday, launched its first operation outside homeland Nigeria, with a virtual expansion west into Ghana. Nigeria’s ebook aggregator Publiseer launches in Ghana, the first step in its Pan-Africa expansion Now it heads east, into Kenya, with a further expansion south to South Africa planned. Read More …
With the 2018 Accra International Book Festival set for 6-9 September, coinciding with Ghana’s National Literacy Day on 8 September, aspirations are high. The festival’s theme this year is “Amplify,” the idea being to amplify the power of Ghanaian writers in society and beyond and to promote a culture of reading. Writes Brittle Paper, The Festival Read More …
The global publishing market has never been more exciting, and every day myriad publishing stories cross my screen that I’d love to develop here at TNPS, but there simply isn’t time. They do make the TNPS twitter feed. Follow TNPS on twitter here: @thenewpubstd. But twitter is an ephemeral beast. Blink and you miss it. Read More …
In the year 2000 there were just 200,000 people online in Kenya. By 2010 it had risen to almost 4 million. That in itself is an impressive number, giving Kenya in 2010 as many internet users as New Zealand or Ireland have today. Then smartphones arrived. And like many other African nations Kenya effectively by-passed Read More …
Last year the South African Book Development Council took over responsibility for the annual South African Book Fair, previously run by the South African Publishers Association. In doing so the SABF transitioned from a trade event with consumers at the periphery, to a festival of books and publishing.that put African literature back on the map. Read More …
It’s not easy being a publisher in sub-Saharan, and even five years ago it seemed to many to be a hopeless cause. But in 2018 we have the International Publishers Association landing in Lagos to hold a Regional Seminar for Africa, and while reports so far are sparse, and I’ll be coming back to update Read More …
The 16th Ghana International Book Fair is set for August 30 through September 2, and at the launch of the fair preparations this week in Accra the GIBF President, Elliot Agyare, said efforts are underway to make Ghana become the publishing hub of sub-Saharan Africa. According to the Ghana News Agency, Agyare said players in Read More …
