Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You - Literature (3) - Nairaland
Nairaland Forum / Entertainment / Literature / Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You (9473 Views)
The Top 10 Contemporary African Writers You Should Know / The Stories We Don't Get To Hear / In Response To "Dear African Writers, We Read; We Don't Just Read You" (2) (3) (4)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (Reply) (Go Down)
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Abra4real(m): 8:13am On Jul 07, 2016 |
Nnachuka: Let's get this straight. You opined that books are meant to be priced that way, right? Well, I disagree. That's my argument. Make a bag a hundred thousand naira. Some people will be able to afford it, but many will die of starvation. 1 Like |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Abra4real(m): 8:16am On Jul 07, 2016 |
kinglee1: I have let go of opportunities, yes. But not a GOLDEN one. And everyone has a unique definition of "golden." |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Orikinla(m): 8:19am On Jul 07, 2016 |
AnonymX:. [size=20pt]Our books are there and everywhere from the bookshops on the street to the bookshops on the internet. We have books on Okada Books and on Amazon. But majorrity of you don't read. Lest you forget, those whose generation invented Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and other social networks are still having the quality time to read their books that made JK Rowling's "Harry Potter" to sell millions of copies in the last decade and made " Fifty Shades of Grey" of E.L James to sell more than 100 million copies within three years! But how many of you in Nigeria read them? Only few. Very few. Chimamanda has sold more than 700, 000 copies of her award winning bestselling novels, but only about 20,000 copies have been sold in her home country Nigeria.Why? Ah! Nigerians don't read, because majority of them are intellectually lazy and prefer celebrity gossip to listening and reading books. Millions of the members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) who make so much noise about our Daddy GO, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye don't read his books! When I was working in the office of Redemption Light magazine of RCCG, selling up to 10, 000 copies every month was miracle! Because, millions of the members of the church prefer to read City People, Encomium, OVATION International and other worldly magazines. They also devour porn magazines sold on the streets! Majority of them are just hypocrites and miracle seekers. Coming to Nollywood, the most popular home video industry in Africa. Millions of Nigerians and other Africans in Africa and the Diaspora have been enjoying thousands of Nollywood movies on Mnet's AfricaMagic channel, Startimes and other cable TV networks; public and private TV channels; iROKO TV, Ibaka TV and other online streaming platforms, Afrinolly mobile streaming on GSM networks and from street vendors and pirated copies, but less than 10, 000 of these millions of Africans have read the books and other publications on Nollywood. Charles Novia is a popular Nollywood filmmaker and writer, but how many of them have read his " Nollywood Till November "? 99% of his fellow filmmakers in Nigeria, actors and thousands of fans have not read it! And the book is available online and offline. My own Nollywood Mirror series are available even for free on Amazon Kindle with free reading app, but Nigerians are not reading them! Only white people are reading them! Engaging in daily chitchats and celebrity gossip on Facebook and other social media networks is not reading! [/size]. 1 Like
|
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by hardbody: 8:22am On Jul 07, 2016 |
StephanieLuv: You are reading the wrong ones. Don't ask me to recommend the right ones, i hate competition |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Nobody: 8:27am On Jul 07, 2016 |
Abra4real: Yeah we all have our definition. At least you got my point yeah? |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Orikinla(m): 8:30am On Jul 07, 2016 |
Abra4real:. Thank you. 1 Like |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Orikinla(m): 8:37am On Jul 07, 2016 |
Abra4real: |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Orikinla(m): 8:39am On Jul 07, 2016 |
steffans:  1 Like |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Orikinla(m): 8:45am On Jul 07, 2016 |
Nigerians don't read and the proof is this topic that majority of people on Nairaland are ignoring now. But they are rushing to view the celebrity gossip topics and photos of cleavages or bikini photos. 1 Like |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by onos217(m): 8:52am On Jul 07, 2016 |
bellville:Please tell me you have :Lion and the Jewel, a play written by Wole Soyinka. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by bellville: 8:56am On Jul 07, 2016 |
onos217:Yes. It's available. Check my signature. Go to fiction category and place your order. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by highzeek94: 8:59am On Jul 07, 2016 |
AnonymX: |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by onos217(m): 9:03am On Jul 07, 2016 |
bellville:I will visit the contact you have on your blog, thanks. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by PrettyClare7(f): 9:06am On Jul 07, 2016 |
thought I was the only one looking for books by celebrated African authors. I was almost close to tears before I found Americana by Adichie, don't even ask the price. while I can easily download most books by foreign authors. don't even go to sefi attah's books I am tired of searching. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by bellville: 9:07am On Jul 07, 2016 |
onos217:That contact address is just a pick up center not a bookshop. It's strictly an online store for now. Customers place orders online and we deliver to their doorstep. Cash on delivery. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Nnachuka(m): 9:11am On Jul 07, 2016 |
Abra4real:you just earned my respect |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Nobody: 9:15am On Jul 07, 2016 |
The issue of ebooks is very important! I am still frantically searching for 'the triumph of the water lily' by Ify Osammor, I loved that book when I read it as a teenager and I want it in my library but I can't find it anywhere, both in book stores and online. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by ValeRider(m): 9:18am On Jul 07, 2016 |
OP! Don't mislead people here. NIGERIANS DO NOT READ. The reading of gossips, celebrity news and jokes - most of which were poorly written and strewn with bad grammar - on blogs and other social media platforms cannot be called constructive reading. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Nobody: 9:19am On Jul 07, 2016 |
bellville:hi, do you have 'the triumph of the water lily' by Ify Osammor and 'toads for supper' |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by oweniwe(m): 9:28am On Jul 07, 2016 |
I'm a writer.... Nigeria doesn't have a publishing industry  Common literary agents or agencies are not available anywhere in Nigeria. I have taken my scripts to publishers and they'll all tell me we " don't take manuscripts here ". Ebook publishing is also affected by Nigerian factors. You can't publish on kobo, google books, Barnes & Noble ... Etc cos they are country specific... If u put fake us or uk address, they hit u with IBAN/SWIFT code. African books don't sell on Kindle Amazon ... Imfact, no African country is among Kindle supported countries. To make the epub is quite hard.... Sigil is good but validation errors are hard to fix. Calibre is even harder to fix... I once checked one of my ebooks created with Sigil on Calibre and it threw up over 250 CSS errors ... Though the ebooks work fine on any device.... If you attempt putting the ebooks on Draft2Digital or smashwords, the errors come up... Smashwords is even worse with its meat grinder. In summary, it's impossible for the writer in nigeria to do everything alone. All the Writer is supposed to do is simply to type and edit his manuscript And send to literary agents... Finish How the books will be published ... Hardcopy or digital ... Is not the writers headache .... The publisher will sort all that out. Federal Government ' s inconsistent policies also affect too... Assuming a book online costs $1 and it sells 100 copies, the author makes $70... Convert $70 to naira using $1-N300 .... $70 X N300= the American author makes N21,000 on 100 copies sold. But in Nigeria ... If u put your books on okadabooks and set the price above N150, few people will buy it..... If the Nigerian author sets his ebook price at N100, he'll have to sell 210 copies before he'll make N21,000.... He'll have to sell 1,000 copies b4 he can make N100,000. So the reality is... Publishing is cumbersome, expensive and doesn't pay if you're publishing from Nigeria 3 Likes |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Orikinla(m): 9:31am On Jul 07, 2016 |
PrettyClare7:. Glendora Bookshops have all their books and even sold out my own "Bye, Bye Mugabe" before I decided to withdraw it and revised it with the modified title of "Bye, Bye Zimbabwe". |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Abra4real(m): 9:42am On Jul 07, 2016 |
Nnachuka: I'm humbled, sire! Thanks. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Queenxstar(f): 9:44am On Jul 07, 2016 |
True. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Abra4real(m): 9:45am On Jul 07, 2016 |
Orikinla:You're welcome. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Abra4real(m): 9:46am On Jul 07, 2016 |
kinglee1:Yeah, I got it. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by AZeD1(m): 9:47am On Jul 07, 2016 |
Vibra:Americana is cheap at N2500. That's my opinion. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by AZeD1(m): 9:49am On Jul 07, 2016 |
Surfboard:I strictly read African authors(more of Nigerian). If you are in Lagos, go to Terra Kulture. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Abra4real(m): 9:51am On Jul 07, 2016 |
Orikinla:Would you mind creating a thread for this post I quoted. Tag lalsticlacla and others reading this thread. I'm sure it'll make front page. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by loadux(f): 9:54am On Jul 07, 2016 |
I think our major problem here is not that African don't read, but what is the quality of books we read? how much we are willing to pay for it? are this books available and easily assessable? I for one, am a reader and it is a culture have developed right from pry school and no book is too big to for me to read. I love African literature far more than the. foreign one cos it speaks to me more and I can easily relate with it. but I think the major challenge I face is non-availability of these books. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by AZeD1(m): 10:02am On Jul 07, 2016 |
PrettyClare7:Go to Terra Kulture if you are in Lagos. Her books are there. |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Nobody: 10:19am On Jul 07, 2016 |
Nice creative write up. THERE SO MANY POSITIVE THINGS TO WRITE ABOUT. SO SAD THAT NIGERIAN GOVERMENT OR NGO IS NOT IN ANY WAY SUPPORTING AND ENCOURAGING WRITERS |
| Re: Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Don't Just Read You by Nobody: 10:26am On Jul 07, 2016 |
[b] AnonymX: We read oh! and just like the author says, a there is a huge divide between what's on the ground in terms of: size of the audience, availability of books, promotion and marketing, and affordability. I pass through Ikeja Underbridge, Oshodi, Yaba, Ojuelegba and Iyana-Ipaja often, those places are chock full of used book sellers. There, one can easily purchase a book for for like N400 or less. The titles which are available are always at least a year old. I always see people, young and old buying books every other time -- people read, but only if the available books are afforadable. I have never bought a Nigerian fiction for less than N800 -- it's always in the region of N1000 - N2500. I can't spend that much money on fiction am sorry. that same amount can easily get ten New York Times bestsellers. On my phone, I have over 300 books, and I have read more than half of them. I have a few Nigerian writers on my list, but the majority are writers from America, some European writers and plenty Asian writers. There's just not enough buzz from our writers and their team. [/b] 1 Like |
I have read so many books but non actually tells you how to be rich like Dangote, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet 
Victor Banjo: A Book By Deji Yesufu / Ikeogu Oke Wins 2017 Nlng Prize For Literature / Nairaland E-workshop For Writers---Comment Thread--Day1(Sept30)
(Go Up)
| Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 73 |