Writing but not selling: Malawian writers’ hurdle of book marketing

By Aubrey Thom Vakhani:

It has been an outstanding outcry that reading culture is on death bed in Malawi.

This trend is also haunting the writing industry because some local writers are finding it difficult to sell their books.

Juliet Miriam Neba of Malawi Writers Union (Mawu) budding writers’ desk says despite the fact many people are writing, it is not easy to market their books, worse so for the budding writers.

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“When you are new to the world of book publishing, and you want people to buy, it is tough. Most companies or organisations are not interested to deal with budding writers. When they are approached to assist in sponsoring a book launch or buy the books for some school libraries, they give you a cold shoulder,” Neba says.

She says even established writers do not want to support fellow writers in marketing their books.

She gives an example of the latest book published in 2022 by budding writers’ desk titled The Mandebvu Mistress and Other Stories. She says most established writers did not show any willingness to assist in marketing the book, let alone buying a copy.

“Buying or assisting writers market their book(s) is part of supporting them. Even if you just share their social media post, flyer or page, that is also another way of supporting a writer but this is not the case with most people including fellow writers,” Neba says.

Seasoned writer, Pastor Reuben Chilera, says both veterans and up and coming writers need not to abandon the ship because of this book marketing challenge.

He acknowledges that it is not easy for writers to rake in money through their books, but he challenges that since publishing a book is a process, writers need not ignore any aspect because every step including editing matters in book marketing.

“Some of our books don’t sell because there was a rush or missed step. Writers need to put their ideas in the right perspective and also find the best editor, especially someone who has written a book, and not necessarily going for a name because editing is not only checking grammar and spelling mistakes, but also the flow of the story. Some stories don’t have writer’s creativity,” Chilera says.

Apart from editing, Chilera, who admits he also struggled to market his books before, adds that book covers and inside layout are also a good recipe to a writer’s book proceeds.

“Some books don’t sell because of poor quality of the cover and layout. But then there is also an aspect of good planning for a book launch for one to be able to recover printing and marketing costs right on the launch,” he argues.

He says social media promotion can be one way for authors to gain good sales for their work.

Chilera experimented with this approach two years ago when he released his book Parable of Democracy which is yet to be launched.

“I designed a Facebook page and a flyer and sponsored the flyer which had the price of the book and my account details.

“People were buying the book through my mobile money and bank accounts, and I was sending them the book through courier. I managed to get back all the money I spent printing the book within one month,” he says.

Chilera says he also initially struggled until when he published his third book.

“When I published my first book, Laughing With Jesus in 2008, I didn’t know anything about book marketing. I printed 1,000 copies and was just distributing to anyone who was willing to sell the book, especially in churches and colleges. They didn’t give me the money from the sales and I lost revenue from almost half the copies printed. I only got money from books sold in Claim bookshops.

“My second book, Men in White Collar was sold in Claim bookshops and I sold a lot of copies because National Library Services also purchased the book from Claim,” he says.

But his biggest break was with the third book, Children’s Bread. At its launch in Lilongwe, he raised more than printing cost but he only sold about 10 percent of the books printed.

Chilera, who has seven books to his credit and is chairman for Mawu central region chapter, thinks that the writers’ body should have a marketing department that should help members market their books.

Another author, Wonderful Mkutche, says since book buying and reading are not widespread in Malawi, book writing in the country is like an unrewarding pursuit.

“As an author, that is also my experience. To change this, we need stakeholders like the Malawi Writers Union to be well funded in order to advocate for a reading culture.

“But more importantly, the authors have to write relevant stories that will have people reading the books. Yes, writing is not very rewarding. But we still need to keep writing until that day when our efforts will change the fortunes,” says Mkutche.

Mawu president, Chikumbutso Ndaferankhande, attributes the collapse of reading culture to a number of factors including the state of the economy.

“One would prefer to buy basic needs for one’s family rather than a book. So, there is a problem in as far as book selling in the country is concerned,” Ndaferankhande says.

He adds: “It’s a challenge to writers in the country. It’s a demotivating to them because you write books to be bought. The writing process forces a writer to leave some of his or her tasks, pay the publisher. Even if one is self-published, one may need printers and other materials may be required for the book to reach the market. So, for a writer to get back what they invested for the book to get published it is so hard if the book is just gathering dust on the shelf without being sold.”

Ndaferankhande, however, says writers can still to turn over the tables by exploring different ways of marketing their books.

“Writers should be creative in finding markets. One may wish to write academic books. There are always buyers because teachers buy for learners to pass examinations. So, don’t just write for the sake of writing. Write with an aim. Someone out there will buy it,” he says.

He says as a way of contributing to the revival of the reading culture in the country, Mawu, with funding from Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma), has reached 25 schools in Karonga and Chiradzulu with reading programmes.