My first book "Children of Heaven" was published in 1987 by Krystal Books Limited and was widely reviewed on Radio Nigeria and on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and in The Guardian and The Punch newspapers. Then I signed a contract with Fourth Dimension when they approved to publish two of my books in 1987. But Fourth Dimension later stopped publishing fiction. Other major publishers such as Longman and Evans also delayed or even stopped publishing fiction in Nigeria, except recommended textbooks. Longman dealt the heaviest blow on promising writers when they stopped their famous Longman Drumbeat series.

I have never liked self-publishing or the vanity press. And I sneered at self-published books as books that were rejected by the traditional publishers. And I was an arrogant prize winning writer who believed that only the best major publishers in the world should publish my books. But Femi Maja-Pierce who was the editor at Heinemann London read my novel "Revolt in the Ranch" and advised that I should send it to American publishers, because it was my own American "Animal Farm", a satire of capitalism. But I decided to keep it in the cooler. Later Maja and I met at the monthly sessions of our Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) in Surulere, Lagos. Where my negative views of self-publishing changed. Because, most of the new writers in ANA were self-publishing their prose, poetry and drama and submitting them for the various ANA Prizes and many of them won the prizes. And even ANA accepted unpublished manuscripts for the prizes. And Helon Habila's self-published short story "Love Poems" won the highly coveted Caine Prize for African Writing in 2001. He has gone ahead to win the Commonwealth Prize and other prestigious literary prizes.

." He also reworked "Prison Stories" and scrounged up enough money to self-publish it under the title Waiting for an Angel.
http://www.pw.org/mag/0301/bures.htm

In positive analysis of the intellectual crisis of the conflicts of interests between promising Nigerian writers and reluctant publishers, I am now embracing self-publishing for the first time and doing it well by making sure that I have a very good editor in ANA and cover designers to edit, format and design my typescripts before submitting them to the most reliable resource centre for self-publishing, Lulu.com. Lulu does not charge an fee for helping any writer or artist to publish his/her works.

Seun, you can publish your photocomics on Lulu gratis and one comic book published on Lulu is now a bestseller.

Lulu.com has launched many unknown writers to become bestselling authors and even sponsored the Blooker Prize for blooks (books published from blogs).

To publish or perish or publish and be damned, you must prove that what you are going to publish is not rubbish.

My first self-published book Scarlet Tears of London a collection of my poems in English and translated into Spanish by my Spanish friend Toni Lozano who is the co-author of our Sapphire of Love is now available on http://www.lulu.com/content/270687 and will be available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other places where good books are sold in the coming weeks. And I even got an e-mail from the office of the Mayor of London on[i] Scarlet Tears of London[/i]. But I did not send him any complimentary copy, because I want him to know that my book in memorial tribute to the victims of the terrorist bomb attacks on London on July 7, 2005 is already published and the author is a Nigerian poet in Nigeria and not one British dude.

Dare to publish or perish or publish and be damned?
But do it the right way.

I'm glad to observe your flexibility of thought. For someone in your generation, that's unbelievably lovely!

Thanks Seun.

Nairaland has given me more tonic for my literary energy and I am loving it.

The internet was slow yesterday and I was upset when I couldn't get on your website after hours and I am happy it is fast today.

I have many people all over the world who want to read me online and I am proud to mention Nairaland to them. Nairaland means freedom at large to me.