More African language books
VIA AFRIKA: EASY TO PUBLISH INDIGENOUS BOOKS
Aim is to encourage South Africans to read more and invigorate local publishing.
Basic education minister Angie Motshekga will launch the largest publication project for indigenous fiction in South Africa’s history at the SA book Fair today.
The project is the brain child of publisher Via Afrika and is called WritePublishRead (WPR). It will give unpublished local writers of indigenous languages the chance to be published in their home language.
By promoting writing in indigenous languages, the project aims to encourage South Africans to read more and invigorate the local publishing industry.
Less than 1% of books in South African libraries are in indigenous languages, despite the fact that these are the home languages of 76% of the population. Only 14% of South Africans read regularly, according to a survey published by the SA Book Development Council last year.
One of the problems is that books are not available in the language spoken in local communities. WritePublishRead is an initiative that aims to change this. It’ll be assisting aspiring authors to get their works published digitally.
This initiative educates and assists authors to self-publish their fiction in a digital format. The service is offered to any budding writer who has access to a digital device. The process is easy and free. The author can set the price they want their readers to pay and retain the copyright to their work.
If the manuscripts are in a previously underpublished language (isiNdebele, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, SiSwati, Xitsonga TshiVenda, isiZulu, isiXhosa, South African first nations languages), and the author has not previously been published, special assistance will be given by Via Afrika, the NRF Chair in African Languages, and ALASA. These authors will
be walked through the process of preparing manuscripts for digital publication, from self-publishing the manuscript as an ebook to its promotion. This opportunity is available to 46 authors annually.