₦airaland Forum

Eze2000:
I,m running against time. I wanna publish my new book tonight. I was planning to open a new tread and address the issue having consulted with other genuine authors like 'Godmother'.

I will do so tonight and mention you

Galacious1:
Honestly, Nigerians don't read. That's just it.

BruncleZuma:
If and when I hear an association of that name with Sci-fi.

BruncleZuma:
I should have just said "all the best"...you know who else pulled a Harry Potter? JK Rowling

meneski:
and short.

BruncleZuma:
There was no discouragement there my good sire may the force be with you; that was a metaphor earlier.

Obi1kenobi:
First reason is the overwhelming pervasive mediocrity in the genre in Nigeria. There are a few good Nigerian authors around, but 99% out there are not worth reading. There are a few years in which NLNG didn't give out a literature prize because they found no authors worth reviewing.

Second is this country's religious fanaticism has made us culturally dead. Extra curricular activities that would normally be devoted to artistic pursuits are focused on religious activities. The top pastors sell millions of religious-themed books, but it's a shame authors cannot sell books.

BruncleZuma:


I'm sorry about that mixup ...this is why I was pushing Nnedi Okoroafor.

Unfortunately, I don't do romance and I wish you well in your aspirations to pull a Harry Potter

BruncleZuma:
There's an African saying that involves a fish, the crocodile and an eye...my questions are, who are your target audience? What genre of SciFi do you write on? Have you tried doing a Graphical Novel?...There are so many ways of pushing your works.

einsteine:
Well, we are working on an alternative to Okada Books that would be like the web/serial type platform that is popular in China and Japan. That said, if you write great (by great, I mean interesting and entertaining) fiction, then you can publish on Amazon KDP. I know someone who makes $300- $500 a month from her romance novels. Small money but that's a full time wage when you convert to Naira.

BruncleZuma:
Kayo80 I understand the points you've made but some were made with broad strokes and inaccurate conclusions. When you say millionaire, is it in terms of naira or dollars then lastly you are bent on monetization over content and that worries me. I may have opposing views to the intentions of your thread but will advise that you start with short stories and then ease your way into the market also competing in literally competitions may bring you closer to your ambition.

IamaNigerianGuy:
There are millionaire fiction writers. If we consider fiction to be creations of the mind.
What do you think Chris Oyakhilome, David Oyedepo and Chris Kwakpovwe are ?

BruncleZuma:

My dear, I may have been one of the patronisers of your friend, then again I have transferred most of the books I got from friends colleagues and fellow conspirators to my Kindle and mobile phone .

That's where I faulted the Ops insinuations that Nigerians don't read.

einsteine:
Life is not all about knowledge. Some of the greatest books in this world are fiction. The Bible, 1984, Animal Farm, you name it.

einsteine:
Nnedi Okoroafor doesn't sell that many books. She just wins awards.

Many Nigerian writers want to write literature rather than what people would read. One would think that with the proliferation of mobile phones, someone would have figured a way to monetise Nigeria's huge reading audience. Okada books isn't doing it because their model is wrong. I know a guy who brings in a container of used books (novels) every month and he sells them. It's definitely not ghosts that are reading the books.

Abee79:
It really hurts to hear Nigerians say that reading fiction amounts to a waste of time

Blackops:
A new trend I have discovered about Nigerian writers is that they come to Nigeria to witness issues that are emerging such as terrorism, child bride, illegal migration to Europe, poverty, FGM, and every day issues worth writing. There is an audience in Europe and the America (Canada and the USA) who are ready to read about these events from these African writers. so they write for them and they make their money. check out writers like Elnathan John and the likes of them. Most books they write are mostly on New York

twosquare:
Pele... Not just Nigeria but Africa. Most successful Nigerian or African writers now writes from the diaspora. What we have now are emigre writers... Hardly will you see an African novelist or so writing from here because the market isn't here but there.

In a country where an average person is struggling to feed himself... Do you think he is going to buy books for leisure and "waste money" while his family goes hungry? I don't think so... Most writers target the western diaspora for their sales.

meneski:
so wetin una want make we do now... Because me now na fantasy novel i de write now and e go be three series. So 9ja una must buy book oh!

mmadubugwu:
Lack of interest. Most of us are busy focused on increasing our income means. Naija tough!
But it wouldn't be bad to have a poll, just to find out how many Nigerians actually read.

Eze2000:
They love free work do Nigerians. nijiasinglegirl was just lucky. I have produced 3 masterpiece novels. combined, they have not been downloaded as much as my free works.

This is one reason I,m moving into writing fiction on blogs but I have found a way to monitize. only if I had a Nigerian sponsor,

plagiarism has a role to play in the matter.

I now do other kind of writing

correctguy101:
Nope, I believe in a trillion...
People are much in the world na...

futurism:
It has nothing to do with reading habit. More of reading interest. I am afraid to break this news to You, it will get worse.

We are a country of misplaced priorities.

Now the truth is Nigerians read but what do they read? What do they take serious? Your answer lies there.

Why did MMM explode?

Why did sports betting skyrocket?

Why is everyone wanting to be star?

I could go on and on...

But the essence is to point out where our interest lies.

We have no time to leisure reading.

Spasmic:
Browsing sections like romance provides more informative value than literature section. In the midst of all the trolling and trivial discussions, there is still a lot of useful information disseminated through articles and blog posts. Maybe you should have used a better juxtaposition. There is nothing of value in reading books on literature section. Most of the writers there are uncreative and just waste time doling out mediocre stories that contain the plots of already successful books. Reading stories on literature section adds no value to my intellectual experience. It doesn't open up my mind to new ways of thinking, it doesn't broaden my knowledge of the world, it doesn't introduce me to the real stories of real people, and it doesn't contain any profound philosophical theme that's worth pondering.

correctguy101:
If someone like Royver or SammyHoe ever writes a book, I'll definitely buy even after reading the whole story on here.

And I'm not talking PDF, I'm talking about a book I can hold and flip it's pages., fold some part I paused on..


I begged one of them to make one of his story on here into a book that I want to buy, I was ready to pay anything even if na 10k then, money dey scratch me to spend then.
The guy no gree o.

So how can you blame us for not buying, where are the books? Or you want me to take a picture of my collection?
Both Nigerian and foreign.

Masterxmind:
Poor marketing, and most of the books are like pamphlets which is quite discouraging

RickandMorty:
Because we are just existing in Nigeria, we are not living.

85% of the polulation are just trying to get through the day without dying or starving.

AfroSamurai:
Actually, nigerians read. If nigerians don't read people like Linda Ikeji, Seun and the rest of them won't be millionaires today.

The trick is, nigerians don't read the kind of literature that adds value to them. A cursory look at this fact is using Nairaland's literature section as an example. The amount of traffic it generate is far below what other section like Romance (usually fool of horsesh1t) generate.

So, before there will be what the OP is asking, we nigerians have to re-orientate our minds.

Imarnuel04:
People are too stressed out to read. Simple

Donald3d:
Most of them don't understand their target audience when advertising

AfroSamurai:
If you don't like reading you wouldn't have been a Nairalander.