₦airaland Forum

Votukpa:
. To manage this risk, go online. Simples. I don't need to tell you that this is the 21st century and most parents are online, all the time. Marketing costs will be low and value delivery will be instant. If you ask me, this beats printing a text book any day. If the author is satisfied with the online sales, he may choose to print a textbook edition subsequently. At this point, he would have not only benefited from the revenues but made a strong name for himself, like Frank Woods in Accounting.

You may be asking- what of copy, pasting and sharing?? Think about this, parents want their kids and their kids only to pass well. They aren't interested in their neighbor's kids doing well. They won't want to share. Besides, the author will not publish a textbook, he will develop a personalized tutorial that requires a full and interactive participation of parent and student.

Even if parents share this with their neighbors, not every parent in Nigeria know each other, and there are about 50million parents!!!

i forgot to address this. Yes, this is 21st century. In the nigerian 21st century you dare not sell a textbook as e-copy. Somebody will buy it, change the cover, put his name and begin to sell his own e-copy. Or one small "boyi" in Aba, who never finished primary school will just download your book, print out hard copy, claim authorship and begin to sell a book you spent over three year writing. Or even worse, students may team up to buy one copy, photocopy and share among themselves. This is Nigeria oh! You dare not try e-copy with school textbooks. Imagine university project works are sold online without the author's knowledge. Even big and established publishers don't try that at all. You can't see any textbook used in Nigerian schools online, never! So don't encourage anybody to do that.

MultiCEO1:
Contact E-KLANBOOKS Printing/Publishing Company and learn all you need to know.

E-KLAN? Wow, this world is really a small place. I was among the authors that attended your book publishing partnership meeting about two years ago. How is it going? Were you able to push through with the book partnership deal?

Votukpa:
You've done this already so I won't argue with you too much.

I will point out something nonetheless:

Your strategy might be effective but it is still targeting the wrong people and focused on the wrong objectives. It is centered around making a money/profit and as such, targeted at the individuals who are seemingly capable of guaranteeing this. I.e. targeting teachers and school authorities.

First off, schools and their authorities as well as governing institutions in Nigeria DON'T care about educational excellence students and high pass rates. They care about school fees being paid and lining their pockets. Period. Every administrative decision they will ever make will revolve around this objective. If the textbook is comprehensive, no incentive the author gives will stop some crook teacher/ principal or civil servant/ superintendent from pirating and benefiting without the author. You can take this to the bank.

Your business model may work initially for each school but will not guarantee a steady revenue stream over time.

Let me ask you something:

Who is the economic buyer here?
Who makes the decision to purchase the textbook?
What drives their decision to make the purchase?

Parents.

Parents want their kids to be super smart and to ace all their exams. They are GENUINELY interested in this. They derive great value from their children's educational excellence and progress. The student too wants to be good at maths and physics but are unable to make the purchase. If reasonably priced and properly marketed, the text book will sell like hot cakes and ANY parent with kids in SSS will buy!

Will this stop the possibility of piracy? Not at all. To manage this risk, go online. Simples. I don't need to tell you that this is the 21st century and most parents are online, all the time. Marketing costs will be low and value delivery will be instant. If you ask me, this beats printing a text book any day. If the author is satisfied with the online sales, he may choose to print a textbook edition subsequently. At this point, he would have not only benefited from the revenues but made a strong name for himself, like Frank Woods in Accounting.

You may be asking- what of copy, pasting and sharing?? Think about this, parents want their kids and their kids only to pass well. They aren't interested in their neighbor's kids doing well. They won't want to share. Besides, the author will not publish a textbook, he will develop a personalized tutorial that requires a full and interactive participation of parent and student.

Even if parents share this with their neighbors, not every parent in Nigeria know each other, and there are about 50million parents!!!

like I have stated earlier, there is more to this and I can't write every thing here. I have three Facebook pages I run directly and indirectly for this book, the total combined fans of the pages are over 20k. The book is gradually making waves. About two years ago I was to address some students preparing for JAMB in a "lesson" in a bid to advertise my book. While we were preparing for the address, two students walked into the office to talk to their teacher. Along the line the teacher asked them if they have seem "this book", that is my book. The screamed on top of their voices that they have been searching for the book. They said their teacher in secondary school somewhere in delta state used it and asked them to find a way of getting a copy. The searched but couldn't get one. They came down to Onitsha market to search but couldn't find so they gave up. Now their lesson teacher asked them how they will feel if the author came to speak to them. The were so overwhelmed and expressed their joy, saying they can't wait to meet the author. They never knew I was the one sitting right behind them. I sold many copies that day and created a nice awareness. A teacher called me sometime ago to tell me that I have a mistake in my book. The next day I took off to meet him in awka, Anambra state. it turned out that the teacher missed a point in the principle behind the problem he wanted to solve. The same thing happened again when a "jambite" called from Orlu, IMO state to tell me that there was an error in my book. I rushed down to meet him only to find out that he also misunderstood a simple concept. My book was reviewed and edited by a Prof. What is my point? My book is rich in content. But I didn't write for charity, I wrote to make some money. So I have to treat is as business as well applying every business strategy I can to see that I sell and make profit. The way secondary school books are treated is different from how ordinary novels are treated. Parents are most often interested in the list of books their kids get from their school. From my day one in secondary schools to the last day, all the books I used were from the list given by my school because the school and the subject teacher found them reach in content and in line with the current curriculum.

Most of the books that you see that are selling like "pure water" are published by big publishing firm These publishers have connection in high places such that there books are always in the list of state ministries of education all over the country. They pay heavily either in cash or influence for such approvals. They pay very little royalty to the contributors of the books. They make the huge profit. It is pure business for them too. Book printing and publishing is big business and should be treated as such.

Except for a few schools, most secondary schools use list of approved textbooks from govt and every state govt has their own list. Write your book, get it approved by the state ministry of education. Go to schools to market it. Concentrate on private schools. Most of them have bookshop or force students to buy books. Some even add text book money to the school fees so once a student pays the school fees they bundle the text books to the student including yours if you have penetrated the school. To penetrate any school, assuming you have gotten approval from state ministry of education, just met the teacher in charge of the subject. Discuss the book with the teacher, promise him a big commision for every book that is sold in his school. The chances that he will agree to the offer is high as most private schools don't pay teachers well, so they seek for extra hustle to make extra cash. Give the teacher a complimentary copy. Once the teacher accepts the offer, he will use the list of books from the ministry of education to convince the school authority about your book. Once that is done, you are good to go. But some teachers don't have a say in the selection of books in their schools. If the teacher tells you he doesn't have a say, then you can approach the school authority to discuss your book. Make sure you visit schools around the beggining of third term when they will be compiling list of books against the next academic year. In printing the book, make sure that the cover page is exquisite, catchy and very attractive. Get a good graphics designer to do it for you and You must laminate the cover page oh. Make sure the letters are clear and readable. In some school I visit, the first thing they commend is the beauty of the cover page. And in some, they start negotiating with you after seeing the cover page. You will hear things like, "wow this book is beautiful", and the next thing you will hear is " how much do you sell a copy?" The cover, sometime, makes them to forget to question the content and even ask if it is approved by the ministry of education.

Don't be greedy with the book. Be ready to share the profit to gain acceptance. In one of the schools I supply my books, I give the teacher #100 and the store keeper #50 per book that is sold. The book is for senior classes. Every first semester, the teacher enters the class and teach with my book, after about three weeks, he will give assignment from the exercises in the book. One week after, the book is finished in the bookshop and the storekeeper calls for more copies. Nobody forces them to buy the book oh, but you know how private school students behave, they always want to be ahead of their teacher. So once they notice that exercises and assignments are coming from the book, they buy it.

Some schools will ask you if the book is in the market, as in open markets. Some will tend to encourage you to push it into the market, please don't rush to do that. Once it hits the market and students are asking for it, the next thing you will see is that the book have been pirated. You go to schools to supply, they price you down, and tell you that they will get it at half the price you are offering them if they source from the market. And that's true.

It is not as easy as i have written here oh. From my experince, there are a lot to write about writing and publishing secondary school books but let me drop it here. I wish you goodluck.