Africa-Press – Tanzania. BOOKS publishing business and literature writing in Tanzania are now at stake due to lack of reliable market, it has been learnt.
According to stakeholders, including book writers, due to unreliable book market most writers have been finding it difficult to compete in the current world.
The situation has also been discouraging reading culture, writers have explained. “In Tanzania, just like many other parts of the continent there is a challenge on veteran and emerging writers to access and fund publishing their works, while those who hardly access it, face limited markets of their literature works- a move which discourages writing and reading culture in the country,” said Mr Richard Mabala, during the just-ended African writers conference in Dar es Salaam.
The veteran writer, who is famously known for his two bestselling textbooks; Mabala the farmer and Hawa the bus driver, advised that there is a need for African writers to turn to digital platforms, if they want their arts to be popular and reach a wider audience, while transferring literature to future generations.
He advised that one of the immediate solutions to book piracy, mostly done by duplicating books, was to ensure that they get publishers who will sell the books at the lowest price possible.
“Low-priced books will discourage photocopying them for reselling because people cannot afford buying the original ones,” he argued.
In the same conference, Mr Mkuki Bgoya, a publisher from Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, advised emerging writers not to be discouraged by the market challenge of their literature works, but all needed was for them to put efforts in ensuring that they produce the best.
“In Most cases, writers don’t make money at the beginning. Put more efforts at your crafts and be ready to meet a number of challenges like rejection but in the long run, your work will be popular and money will eventually come your way,” For her part, Ms Nahda Esmail, the conference’s Organizing committee chairperson said that there was a need for finding ways to market African novels and other literature works.
“We need to look at incentives to grow our reading culture by coming up with things like an annual book fair or an annual writer’s festival, inter school literature competitions and others. It might be a challenging at the beginning but with perseverance and commitment we can grow and become a nation of readers and writers,”
