Justine Gerardy

Agence France Presse

CAPE TOWN: Getting parents to buy children books instead of toy guns and cars – and enticing readers in outlets like hair salons – are just two of the challenges facing Africa’s publishers.

Industry executives say the book business is vibrant on the continent but they also face the challenges of few leisure readers, a primarily urban reach, small local print runs and a heavy reliance on skills-enhancing textbooks over fiction.

South Africa’s book industry is sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest, with revenue in 2009 growing to 1.6 billion rand ($218 million). Glossy bookstores are rare outside major cities, though, and non-fiction accounts for 45 percent of sales. Most fiction titles are imported from abroad.

While South Africa has the continent’s largest economy, it is also one of the world’s most unequal societies, with many book-free households and few active readers.

In Nigeria, authors have ditched publishers to self-publish at low cost, shrugging off editors, 10 percent royalties and quality-control checks.

As in Ghana – where books are visible but content was highlighted as a challenge – the trend has led to low-quality products. The result has also distorted pricing, said Bibi Bakare-Yusuf of Cassava Republic Press, with books selling at less than $5 to $8 seen as too expensive.

The sales model in Nigeria largely bypasses book stores. Instead, mobile sellers approach offices, restaurants and police stations, where they sell 30 percent of the stock. A quarter of sales are in book stands in non-traditional outlets like hairdressers, cafes, boutiques and spas.

“Our major problem is not a reading culture,” Bakare-Yusuf said. “It’s a book-buying culture. Because often people buy one book and 20 people read [it]. The task for us is how do we get people to buy books – to own it, to see books as [an] object of beauty, as a commodity.”

As in Zimbabwe, political turmoil wiped out Uganda’s book world after the rise of former dictator Idi Amin in 1971 erased a post-independence boom, but steady growth has returned in the past two decades. Like many other African states, Uganda faces a non-reading culture, a focus on academic sales and low purchasing power. Martin Okia, of Netmedia Publishers LTD, questioned the choices by those who could afford to buy books.

“They will rather buy their children expensive toy guns and cars,” he said. “They don’t buy them books. So sometimes you wonder whether it’s low purchasing power or it’s just a habit.”