Book marketing in Kenya

When I came across this story by Wanjiru Waithaka in Business Daily Africa, Is it time to change the way books are marketed in Kenya ? I wanted to ignore it. Then I thought, "What do they know about marketing that we don't?" It appears they don't. Many of the gripes of the industry over there is the same as it is here. Books are, probably, the only commodity marketed by people without product knowledge. Would you buy a computer from a salesman who knows nothing about computers? Or music from a salesperson who does not listen to music? Or rice from a merchant who does not eat? You get the drift.

Here are some excerpts from that article. (Why does it all sound so familiar?)

(Publishers focus) on school texts (because) publishing is a business like any other. "Publishers want to make money and textbooks is where we can get volumes, take for instance the 7.5 million children in primary school because of free education."

Publishers say the problem is that Kenyans don't read ... (they) also say that potential authors do not write stuff that is relevant for the Kenyan reader ... "They should write stories with the audience in mind. But 90 per cent of manuscripts we receive are written as though for a foreign audience."

Kenyans don't prioritise buying books outside of the school system and have a preference for foreign books. "The Kenyan psyche of believing that everything foreign is good is a big problem."

"People who say Kenyans don't read are not right but very few publishers do market research to find out what will sell. They publish then hope it sells. This is a challenge for publishers to take up. We should take a little money from the revenues textbooks generates and invest in other areas ..."

Then there is this one:

"Publishers should market books more aggressively rather than just publishing a book and throwing it out there ... Look at the hype created by JK Rowling"s books (Harry Porter series) even before they came out, this was done by her publishers ..."

So, they are not all that different from Malaysians in this respect. And, by the way, if you want to make money like Ms Rowling without too much effort -- with much higher odds than she ever had when she started -- there is one sure way (and, it is guaranteed, no writing skills will be required for this) ... it is called the lottery ticket.

Full story: http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3224&Itemid=5822