Online kit to help publish

ALL stories‚ languages and authors matter – and self-publishing may be the key to getting their stories out to a wider audience.

The WritePu blishRead initiative launched by Via Afrika in partnership with the NFR Chair in African Languages and others aims to make access to publishing easier, and at a recent South African Book Fair in Johannesburg‚ launched a self-publish starter kit to do this.

The kit encourages authors who have not yet been published to do so online.

“Imagine a scenario where it is easy to get published, where we have a multitude of authors in a community who can promote their stories to the people around them,” Via Afrika CEO Christina Watson said.

“Imagine everyone in the community could have easy access to those stories without having to pay an arm and a leg.”

Through WriteP ublishRead‚ any person can learn how to write and how to publish their fiction texts digitally for everyone to read if they have access to a phone or any other digital device.

If the author is writing in a previously under-published language (IsiNdebele‚ Sepedi‚ Sesotho‚ Setswana‚ SiSwati‚ Xitsonga‚ Tshivenda‚ IsiZulu‚ IsiXhosa‚ First Nation Languages)‚ and if the author has never published a book before‚ there is an additional WritePu blishRead option.

“Based on the order of submissions received we will select 46 manuscripts‚ across all previously under-published languages‚ and provide special assistance in helping authors self-publish their work.”

Submissions for manuscripts open from March 1 to 7 next year‚ digitally on the WritePu blishRead website. – TimesLIVE