I am a Christian. I write middle grade adventure fiction and picture books. Also, I
write tract, pamphlets and little Christian books. Most of my books
are in paperbacks and they are not published online. They are sold directly to
schools in Nigeria. In Nigeria alone, I have been so fortunate to have my books
published by: Learnrite Publishers, Apex Books Limited, Pekan
Ventures, Net continental Publications and recently Human Change Communications
Company. All these publishers distribute their titles
directly to schools (public and private) in Nigeria.
Also, I have two publishers overseas (Open Books and Bouncing Ball
Books). One is defunct and the other is doing well. But someday
our marriage will be over.
Today I self publish my books
in Nigeria through my own outfit, Human Change Communications
Company. I have been able to combine book publishing and
evangelism successfully. While most of my books have themes and messages
of love, charity, redemption and faith, my target is
often children. I believe they are the future. They should have the best.
One of my success stories
is my recently published little book, The Promised Land. In
the last one month, the paperback has sold over 500 copies in Nigeria. It’s
only forty pages. I included questions and lots of activities. So it’s fun all
the way!
As part of my mission to
evangelize through publishing pamphlets, tracts and little books, I have
made the Promised Land free online. You can download
any format at free-ebooks.net and
the PDF on my blog here. The Promised Land is not the
only Christian book that I have published as paperback in Nigeria. Some of my
books include: Money Not Enough, the Good Father, the Honorable Man,
and Tales of Mr Townsend. Like my other books, they
are all used in primary schools in Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Imo, Abia, Delta,
Rivers, and Ekiti. Soon they will be on the internet for a
token or free.
There’s a future for self
publishing in Nigeria. However, it has a price. Doing business in Nigeria is
generally harsh. If you are not tough, the sharks will swallow you! Like every
other business, publishing or self publishing in Nigeria is tedious, rigorous
and frustrating. You could be printing today and then be out of business in the
next season. It is as simple as that. If you are not careful, you will run into
debt as you try to satisfy your distributors and sales representatives.
If you hope to get something
tangible out of self publishing, you must be prepared to have all the factors
of production right under your nose! Meaning, you must own a
printing press, provide your own electricity, have a genuine source of finance
that you can easily pull cash, be a friend of the paper merchant or you become
a paper merchant yourself and lastly have loyal distributors and sales
representatives. If all of these things are not under your control, book
publishing in Nigeria is not for you. It will kill you!
It is not easy to be a
successful publisher or self publisher in Nigeria. To get to the top of the
food chain, you need to wield enough power and control very large number of
people. It is the people you control that make the process successful. The
lesser the number of people you control, the more likely you will struggle in
the book industry in Nigeria. Because self publishing
in Nigeria is very difficult, less people are willing to undertake the stress.
Publishing is a goldmine that is deeper than the deep blue sea. If you survive
the stress, you will become a very powerful person. To get to the top in the
publishing industry in Nigeria, you must control people. Not just your
employees who in my own opinion are the least on the list of people who must be
under your control. You must stamp your authority. You control everything
including the bank, paper merchants, printers, collators, distributors and
reps. Nothing more, nothing less!
Yes, you can achieve it! It is
possible! Learnrite publishers did it! Net
Continental publications did it! Pekan Ventures did
it! You too can!
Learnrite, Net
Continental and Pekan were all once self publishers!
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| Omoruyi Uwuigiaren |
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