Facebook writer evolves
Norman Pario Maitase, the facebook diaries writer launches a hardcopy book, The battle of Dimawe
Norman Pario Maitase, a popular Facebook writer would soon publish his first hard copy book titled, The Battle Of Dimawe. The Bobonong lad was quick to tell BG Style that despite the title of the book, his fiction book completely has got nothing to do with history of the battle which occured in 1800’ s, but rather, “this is a book about a young colored female who had every man wanting every piece of her. It’s a beautiful love story in which the main character is a gentleman called Leteng, alongside his three brothers born as quadruplets,” he explains . Maitase describes the book as a double entendre and assures his readers the creativity that he is well known for. Throughout the time, he has been feeding the Facebook community with his art of writing, of which he thought he would do away from producing a hard copy. He actually deemed publishing a hard copy book as old school, but his followers made him to publish this particular book.
“Honestly, I never had intentions of publishing a hardcopy because I sort of deemed it as old school, but readers couldn’t stop asking for this book, although I wrote it in 2016/ 17,” he says reiterating that his readers have always been his biggest inspiration, and he is glad that they made him publish a book for the first time. This is actually the 4th book he wrote online, ever since he started writing on Facebook in 2015, on his page called “From Bobonong To Gaborone” which is the title to his first big book. He is of the view that, writing is a calling and also finds it to be therapeutic other than just a creative art. He shares that he started writing at the age of 16 when he was doing his Junior Certificate, after an impressive dialogue he once read. “Since that day, I started creating scenarios in my head, and drafting them and eventually became the creative writer that I am now, “he shares. “I walked a long distance during my school days so I would create a story and picture everything so as to distract myself from the hectic distance from the village to the cattlepost/ farms,” he said emphasizing that he actually had a similar storyline throughout his stories, and that has kept him going all the time.
He is forever thankful to social media as he tells BG Style that this is where he gained enough confidence and expressed himself by sharing his books to multitudes of people who gave positive feedback. “After completing my BGCSE, I had to find something to keep myself busy with, and I’m proud to say that I was one of the first authors to write Facebook dairies from Botswana,” he shares. He highlighted that, he wrote about 15 plus books on Facebook and in 2020 he came up with an idea of how to sell his books on Facebook whilst free at the same time. “I made the books 95percent free on Facebook and 5percent is strictly meant for subscriptions. This really turned out very good and allowed me to have a little money to survive, which is why I have resorted to becoming a full time author,”. He posts his book inserts from Monday to Friday at 11 in the morning and 11 at night the whole week. On Thursday, he posts the morning chapter then followed by night chapter which is subscribed for at P30 and lasts for four weeks, allowing the readers to enjoy reading at their own pace before the subscription expires. Maitase is of the view that, writing as a creative in Botswana is already serving its purpose especially on Facebook as it encourages the spirit of reading, even to the people who generally don’t like reading. He emphasizes that, what even motivates him further is the fact that his readership goes across all Africa and overseas, allowing him to make money in different currencies, includ
ing Rands, Pulas, Nairas, and USD, as he also does advertising and marketing through the same platform,’ Norman Pario Maitase’ which is his Facebook page. The official book launch to this newly published book will be announced soon, he says and notes that the book would be going for P499.99. He emphasizes that the night of the book launch is expected to attract all the avid readers and lifestyle lovers, to come and embrace the writing community.