Why publish outside?

In recent years, a growing number of  Malawian writers have taken to publishing fiction books outside the country despite the existence of many publishing companies as compared to the past.

In the past, there were Popular Publications at Montfort and Dzuka Publishing Company that used to publish novels, anthologies, novellas and academic books. Now the situation is different. The country boasts of Bookland, Jhango, Claim, Chanco, Mawu, Pan African and other publishing companies.

But despite having numerous publishing companies, writers are struggling to publish locally due to a number of factors.

When Professor Felix Mnthali finished writing his book; a memoir titled A Time To Remember, he looked for local publishers to no avail.

“No one [publisher] was forthcoming. And if there existed any, they chose to sound more courteous by saying they would come back while time sped away,” he laments the lack of enthusiasm of local publishers to publish fiction books.

Mnthali then found respite with Amazon.com, an American electronic company based in Seattle, Washington. He published his book with them and now it is selling online on Amazon.com.

This has prompted some people who love reading to complain about the challenges they are facing to access books written by Malawians.

A Blantyre resident, Asabuni Phiri says it is expensive to read books on Amazon.com because in Malawi Internet charges are high.

“A person has to pay a lot of money to read a few chapters of the book on Internet. Many cannot afford this,” he says.

Some of these books and Mnthali’s in particular, contain vital information about Malawi during the one-party regime under founding president Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, contends Phiri.

“Such important literature should be made available to more Malawians by publishing the book locally,” he says.

And Mnthali is not alone. Other writers have trekked overseas to publish books (non academic). Some of them are Lughano Mwangwegho, Ndongolera Mwangupili and the old timers who, because of their over-stay in the diaspora, have continued publishing outside.

However, according to these writers, it is easy to publish a book on Amazon.com because “Amazon is self publishing” and instantly the book is available for sale while in Malawi you have to go through rigorous processes of identifying a publisher, negotiating terms, royalties and many more.

Mwangwegho, whose two books Shadows of Footsteps (2016) and Echoes Of a Whisper (2017) are on Amazon.com claims that publishing in Malawi has disadvantages.

“Some Malawian publishers don’t pay royalties while Amazon pays us 70 percent royalties every month. Secondly, in Malawi they don’t print a lot of copies,” he claims Mwangwegho.

To Mnthali, apart from the fact that publishers are less willing to publish fiction, the other disadvantage is that the readership is small.

“Therefore, by publishing on Amazon.com, we are trying to reach out to more readers worldwide,” he said.

While writers are condemning publishers for not accepting their manuscripts, companies say publishing non-academic work does not bring returns to their business.

“In fact, that is partly why Popular Publications and Dzuka closed. They went bankrupt as fiction books could not bring in more money to sustain the companies,” says Alfred Msadala, president of Book Publishers Association of Malawi (Bpam).

Shadreck Chikoti, executive director of Pan African Book Publishers based in Lilongwe said:  “Publishing is a business. The main reason we hesitate to publish non-academic works is that such books take long to finish as there is no ready market but when we publish academic works such as school textbooks, we are assured of selling them as there is a ready market”

And Msadala explains that companies get loans from banks to publish a book and the banks will need their money back with compound interest after a year.

“And then after a year you happen to remain with unsold copies. So, what are you going to give the bank?” Msadala asks.

However, Msadala says that publishing books is an international business as such Malawians ought to write books that can appeal to international readers.

“When publishing a book, don’t just focus on local readers. Some of the great African writers such as Ngugi wa Thing’o, Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie and others don’t publish in their home countries. They publish overseas and sell internationally.”

“Therefore, reaching the international market appears to be the motivation for many writers who are publishing on Amazon.com.

A visit by Chill on Amazon.com reveals that many writers have put their books there.

“Writers are going for Amazon.com because they want to sell e-books,” says Msadala, agreeing with Mwangwegho that publishers in Malawi do not publish e-books.

“They are still behind. That is why we prefer Amazon,” claims Mwangwegho.

But Malawi Writers Union (Mawu) president Sambalikagwa Mvona says he discourages authors from going outside the country to publish their works.

“In most cases our authors are being cheated in Germany, United Kingdom and United States of America where they publish books,” he said.

Mvona claims that both writers and the country are losing out when books authored by Malawians are published outside.

Whether it is lack of a market in Malawi or unwilling publishers, Malawians publishing outside are putting their books away from the reach of local readers as some have already complained. n