Bookshelf: Chimamanda Adichie ditches Farafina for Narrative Landscape

Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be leaving her long term Nigerian publishers, Farafina, for a new publishing outfit, Narrative Landscape, Bookshelf has learnt.

The move is bound to come as a surprise to many, considering the role Adichie’s success as a writer has played in raising the profile of Farafina. Also, the relationship between Adichie and her publisher was thought to be so close that she has become synonymous with Farafina.

Ms. Adichie had run the popular Farafina Writing Workshop, for which she was the Creative Director, in partnership with her publishers and the Nigerian Breweries. The workshops have held since 2008 but the 2017 edition could not hold because the sponsors pulled out.

Farafina, an imprint of Kachifo Limited, was set up in 2004 by former banker, Muhtar Bakare, and promptly snapped up the rights for Adichie’s first novel, Purple Hibiscus, which had been published the previous year by New York-based Algonquin.

Since then, Farafina has become synonymous with Adichie and have published all her books. The company has profited a lot from the partnership, after succeeding in getting ‘Purple Hibiscus’ included in the WAEC syllabus, thus selling huge numbers of copies of the book.

But Farafina’s loss is Narrative Landscape’s gain. The new publishing outfit was set up in 2017, not as a publishing house but as a “publishing logistic service provider.”

The brains behind the company are two ex-Farafina staff, Eghosa Imasuen, who is also a Farafina author and was its managing editor until recently, and former Farafina editor, Anwuli Ojogwu.

When the opportunity to acquire the Nigerian rights for all of Adichie’s works came up, the company did not hesitate.

“We have no insight as regards the reason for her leaving Farafina. We were approached in late 2016 by her management and asked to pitch for the rights to publish her books in Nigeria. We did and we were excited when she agreed to publish her entire body of work with us,” Eghosa Imasuen said.

But exciting as the coup is for Narrative Landscape, Dr. Imasuen is under no illusions about what it entails for both the author and the publishers.

“Publishing these editions of Ms Adichie’s novels and books opens up the market for Narrative Landscape Press; these will be our first traditionally published books. You know that we began our growth as a publishing services company, and we always planned to get into traditional

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie publishing. So, this opportunity presented itself at a most serendipitous moment,” he said, while also acknowledging that timing was crucial in striking the deal.

“A few months earlier, we would not have been able to take up the challenge, a few months later, we might have been distracted by something else. We scored several coups: we also got to partner with VLISCO, the wax textile manufacturer, to license several of their designs for the covers of these special editions,” he said.

While Farafina will be counting its losses, Narrative Landscape will be smiling at their fortune. If they avoid the pitfalls that drove Adichie from Farafina, then perhaps they will enjoy a long relationship with the bestselling author. Certainly, Dr. Imasuen seems to relish that prospect.

“We have begun a relationship with Ms Adichie that will lead to our publishing her future novels. For us, it is our foray into the traditional publishing arena, and we are excited by the possibilities. We expanded our warehousing capabilities, and have increased our footprint at the book markets. Let us see what the future brings,” he said.