Why You Should Stop Borrowing or Lending Books By African Authors

In the last month, I have had extended chats with two of my friends. One is a published Kenyan author. He has written a good novel, and a number of children’s books one of which my daughter loved before one of her play mates massacred (Kenyan board books please?). By all measures, he is a successful and active author. He however has a full time job – he doesn’t live off his writing.

The second friend sells books, specifically, African books by African authors. He doesn’t live off his sales either.

Both are passionate about what they do. More passionate than you are about your job. More passionate than I am about MY job, and I’m more passionate than average.

My take away from both chats was that it is immoral for me and even for you to borrow or lend books by African authors, no matter how much they cost to buy. Especially if you have the internet bundles to read this post.

Do you know what it takes for a Kenyan author to make 100,000 shillings? Read on…

Authors make their money from royalties. Meaning that for every copy you buy, the author makes a percentage of the money you pay. Royalties range from 6% to 12% if you are a really good author. Now, this isn’t a bad percentage IF you are selling a huge number of books.

Eat Pray Love has sold over 10 million copies, at about 1,000 shillings each. If we assume that Elizabeth Gilbert was Kenyan, making 6% in royalties,  she made 600 million shillings from the book only. Wow. Lots of money. Chances are, she made more because her publisher saved money by producing millions of copies, savings that were passed onto her. She made even more from speaking engagements thanks to the book.

Now back to our reality,  the price point for our books tends to be between 900 – 1,500 shillings, which is considered “expensive”, but how much are the authors making? To make 100,000 shillings a year, at 10% royalties, an author needs to sell 1,000 copies of their book, at 1,000 bob, and this doesn’t take into account the 16% VAT our government has imposed on books.

FEW authors manage to sell 1,000 copies of their book annually. Per year!

Your favorite author, is not making 100,000 shillings per year on his/her writing. How long does it take you to make 100,000 shillings?

When you pirate or lend a book by such an author, you are taking away 100 bob directly from the author’s pocket – an author that took time to develop content worth sharing, knowing well that it would not pay back. 

I’m not one to talk about promoting our own for the sake of it. I’m not saying you buy books that suck just because they are written by African authors.

I’m appealing that we should stop pirating, lending and borrowing books written by our authors. If you read a book you like, recommend it and direct the person to a bookshop that stocks it. If the person cannot afford it, buy it for them as a gift.

Let us read African authors guys.

I am currently reading the following thanks to The Magunga Bookstore:

1. The Whispering Trees,  collection of short stories by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim . Look out for a review of his novel, A Season Of Crimson Blossoms later this week on here.
2. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi