African Authors And Diversity In Publishing With Tolulope Popoola

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Race shouldn't be an issue in publishing, but it is, and I love the possibilities that self-publishing is opening up for authors who have been generally marginalized. Today I talk to Tolulope Popoola about African authors and Nigerian publishing. This topic is also of personal importance as my immediate family consists of people from Nigeria, Canada, Grenada, a Hungarian-Jewish-Kiwi, as well as White British and I'm proud to be multi-cultural.

In the introduction, I mention the lack of diversity in traditional publishing – check out this report on Black and Asian writers in the UK publishing marketplace, & the Salon report on the dominance of white women in publishing. Here's Idris Elba talking about diversity to the UK parliament.

Here's the article about The Subversive Women Who Self-Publish Novels Amidst Jihadist War from Wired. Also mentioned, The Times of India on Amazon's 26% stake in Westland publishing, and that India and China are now the biggest growth market for the Kindle.

Plus, the Feb Author Earnings report and Lee Child's article on Amazon and bookstores. And, I'm doing a webinar with Joseph Michael, the Scrivener Coach on How to use Scrivener to Write, Organize and Export your Book into Multiple Formats. Thurs 3 March at 3pm US Eastern, 8pm UK and yes, you can get the recording if you sign up. Click here for more info.

This podcast episode is sponsored by you! THANKS for all your support on Patreon! You can support the show, and get access to extra Q&A audios at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn

Tolulope Popoola is the author of flash fiction, romance and short stories and she's also a publishing consultant and coach. She is Nigerian but lives in London.

You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

• How Tolu got started with blogging, writing and moved into self-publishing
• The problem of being labelled “ethnic fiction”
• Why Nigerians have close ties with the UK
• How publishing currently works in Nigeria
• How Nigerian readers find books and read digitally on mobile and devices
• Self-publishing among African authors in Nigeria and Britain and the problems of global payments. The petition for an Amazon store in Nigeria after the launch in India.
• The concerns of African authors and how we can promote diversity in publishing
• It's time to get away from the single narrative that is “allowed” for African writers. Here are some examples of African genre fiction authors to try out. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor – if you want to read Fantasy/Sci-fi
  Kiru Taye (she has several books and series) – if you want to read sizzling Romance
  Satans and Shaitans by Obinna Udenwe if you want to read Nigerian Thriller
  Making Wolf by Tade Thompson for Crime/Thriller and Speculative Fiction
  The Reluctant Dead by Nuzo Onoh for African Horror

You can find Tolulope's books here on Amazon and her services for authors at www.AccomplishPress.com

Text interview with Tolulope Popoola

My name is Tolulope Popoola and I’m an Author, a Publishing Consultant and Writing Coach for Aspiring Authors. I’ve always been drawn to words, reading and writing. My earliest memories of writing are from way back when I was a little girl, about six years old. I used to read a lot, and I would write my own versions of stories that I’d read, or I would make up my own. But I got teased in school by my friends who thought I was weird, so I stopped. However, I never lost my love for reading and I read anything I could get my hands on. As I grew older and became a teenager, I used to write in secret, because it just came naturally to me. I kept diaries and journals throughout my teen years, and writing was my therapy whenever I was upset. I did well in English and Literature effortlessly in school.

Much later, I left school, went college and in Nigeria, you get told by your parents what your options are. I picked subjects like Economics and Business Management. And by the time I moved to the UK, and started my first degree, I chose Accounting and Business Economics. As if that was not enough, I went further, and did a Masters degree in Finance and Investment.

In 2006, I started getting bored with my job. I hated commuting, I hated the rigid 9 – 5 structure, I hated having to dress up in formal clothes five days a week. I felt stifled and I started to think that I would go mad if I remained in this rigid work routine for the next forty years of my life.

For a long time, I thought that it was normal for everyone to hate their job. After all, it’s called “work” not “fun”. I thought everyone was miserable in their career. I thought that was the price we all had to pay for the security of a regular paycheck.

In 2006, I met a lady one Saturday afternoon. She was working on a finance project for her company, and when I asked her about it, she was so enthusiastic. She sounded so passionate and totally in love with what she was doing. That day it hit me that I was definitely not passionate about my job like she was. I realised that people can be passionate about what they do for a living, and if I’m not as passionate about Accounting and Finance, then I’m definitely in the wrong career. I started to think, what am I passionate about? What can I do that would make me excited to get up in the morning?

Not long afterwards, I discovered blogging (Autumn 2006) and I was immediately drawn to it. I remembered how much fun I had in my teen years, having a diary, so I immediately started my own blog too. I started writing in it every day, and soon I started looking forward to coming home from work every day to update my blog. Before long, my interest in writing was rekindled! I started to think about the possibility of switching careers from Accounting to writing. From then on, I started writing short stories and flash fiction, and learning everything I could about the writing and publishing industry. I took a writing class, I bought lots of books on writing, and subscribed to many writer’s groups. I made a lot of mistakes and learned from them, until finally, in 2008 I quit my job as an accountant to become a writer.

First, I started a writing blog and started posting articles, short stories and flash fiction. Then I created an online fiction series, In My Dreams It Was Simpler, which I co-wrote with seven other writers. In 2009, I wrote my first novel (which was never published). In 2011, I finished working on my other novel titled Nothing Comes Close which was a spin-off from the series. I tried to get it published traditionally, but I faced rejection from mainstream publishers. Not because my work was bad, but because they thought it was “ethnic fiction” and therefore wasn’t ‘commercially viable’.

So I decided to do things my own way, and I founded Accomplish Press which is my publishing, consulting and coaching company. I published my novel successfully in 2012, and it got good reviews. I’ve also recently published two collections of flash fiction stories; Fertile Imagination and Looking For Something.

I was approached by some of my friends to help them with publishing their own works too, so that’s how I became a publisher. I get a lot of requests from aspiring authors asking me about how to write, and I’m sure you get a lot more too. So I started putting some courses and programmes together last year, and I created some coaching options for aspiring authors.

Nigeria is one of the strongest economies in Africa and there are a lot of educated English speakers there as well as a strong entrepreneurial culture. Can you tell us a bit about how people read in Nigeria? What devices? (even given print dominance, what cellphones are taking off) What genres do people read?

Most people in Nigeria still read print books, mainly non-fiction, business books, religious books, educational books and biographies. There are still a few independent book stores where new and second-hand books are sold. However, there’s a huge problem of piracy, so there are many unauthorised places where books are sold for cheaper prices. Many people read second-hand books by foreign authors with established names.

Recently there are more online stores and digital outlets opening up for ebooks and digital books in Nigeria. There are reading apps like Okadabooks, where readers can download ebooks directly onto mobile phones and tablets and pay for them using their phone’s top-up. There are ebook platforms such as DigitalBackBooks and publishing platforms such as Fynom Books. There are online stores such as Hidden Treasures and Ikasuwa. There’s even a new company called TalkingBookz that is trying to launch a platform for publishing and distributing audio books.

Many people use smartphones, and tablets are also becoming common so they have access to reading apps and digital libraries.

In terms of fiction genres, I think Romance is a favourite, and also Thrillers. Sci-fi and Fantasy are just coming up but there’s huge potential for them, as well as Erotica.

How do Nigerians discover books? What social media do people use?

We use the normal social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Goodreads and Instagram. I personally discover new books and new authors through Facebook, Twitter and African literary blogs like Brittle Paper, Bookshy Books and Kinna Reads. I’ve recently heard of new books and authors from the Ake Arts and Book Festival that took place in Nigeria last November.

What about self-publishing among African authors – both in Africa but also expats in the UK?

Self-publishing still has a funny reputation among Nigerians, it’s seen as something desperate people do, probably because they have tried every other way to get published and failed. Which is a weird thing because in Nigeria, traditional publishing is almost non-existent. There are very few publishing houses willing to take a chance on new fiction writers. A lot of writers complain that publishers in Nigeria are only interested in an author once they have been published and gained acclaim overseas, although it seems to be getting better now. Most people have to pay vanity presses to have their books published in print, and there are no guarantees about the quality of the books, both in terms of content or production. True self-publishing is difficult because cost of production is high and almost out of reach for the average Nigerian. By the time you include things like the cost of editing, cover design and so on, it starts to add up. Most people still want to publish in paperback, but there’s no POD system in Nigeria yet, so they are forced to print lots of copies and try to sell them. That cost of printing is prohibitive.

Ebook publishing is a small growing market, but nowhere near the scale of the US and UK. Nigerians based in Nigeria also don’t have access to publishing with Amazon, because Amazon doesn’t accept Nigerian Bank accounts as a method of receiving payments from Kindle sales. I’ve had this problem with at least two of my own clients.

I think self-publishing is better for Nigerians in the UK because we have access to platforms like KDP, Smashwords, Kobo, and so on. The only problem we still experience is in terms of marketing and getting discovered by readers.

You hosted an event in London for African authors – and we all know there are diversity issues in publishing. What are your community of African authors concerned about? How can the indie community bring more parity into publishing?

Yes, the event went well, the problems that were highlighted were: categorisation of African literature as if it was one generic genre, and there was only one type of African writer. I’ve heard some awful and hilarious stories from many black authors who approach mainstream publishers, only to be told things like “we already have one black author on our books” or “we recently published one book about India, we can’t publish another book about Africa just yet” or “Is your work similar to so and so famous black author”.

We’re also facing the problem that Chimamanda Adichie called “the single story” – that publishers only want to receive and publish stories of Africa that depict war, poverty, dysfunctional families, rape, AIDS, and so on. The gatekeepers in the industry need to start welcoming and appreciating different kinds of stories.

You can watch a short clip of the event here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnLA6SQgD3I

How are you marketing to your readership? and do you split marketing between expat Africans in US and UK and people who live in Africa?

I use both traditional media and online media for my marketing, and I target both audiences, so Africans both home and abroad. When I first published my novel, I sent out Press Kits to media houses, I did blog tours with bloggers in the Romance and Chick-Lit genres, I contacted book bloggers and requested reviews or interviews, I contacted journalists, I did guest posts, I did Goodreads Giveaways and other types of giveaways, I held a book launch where I did readings and signings, I printed sample chapters and gave them away at fairs and exhibitions (even in salons and African shops where I knew my target readers would be).

The only thing I didn’t do was pay for promotions with sites like BookBub or Freebooksy.I think I’ll try them when I’m ready to promote my next book.

I get this question from authors a lot – if an author has a name that is not easy to say by the mass market i.e. people outside of their culture, then should they use an Anglicized name? I want to say no, use your real name, but still I know they will miss out on sales in mainstream US for example – what's your opinion? 

In my opinion, I don’t think it matters nowadays. I think if your book is good, your story is good, your writing is excellent, you should be proud to put your real name on it. If your book can start gathering great reviews, then it shouldn’t matter if you have a non-English name. I don’t know if having a Nigerian name has been a hindrance to me or not, and all the contemporary African writers I know are using their real names on their books. It may be a small issue but I’m sure that authors like Khaled Hossein or Kiran Desai don’t have to worry about their name.

I want to read more books by non-white-middle-aged-men this year 🙂 Can you recommend some of your favorite African novels – preferably genre fiction, not the award-winning lit fic that everyone had heard of!

Excellent. I can recommend a few books by Nigerian authors:

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor – if you want to read Fantasy/Sci-fi

Kiru Taye (she has several books and series) – if you want to read sizzling Romance

Satans and Shaitans by Obinna Udenwe if you want to read Nigerian Thriller

Making Wolf by Tade Thompson for Crime/Thriller and Speculative Fiction

The Reluctant Dead by Nuzo Onoh for African Horror

You offer consulting for self-publishing authors – what types of things do you help people with? 

I help people with all kinds of writing and publishing questions, ranging from getting their writing ideas together, to choosing the right publishing path for them. Most of my clients are new writers who are feeling overwhelmed or confused about the process of becoming an author, so they have many questions, and they’re dealing with self-doubt, fear of rejection, feeling vulnerable about exposing their thoughts, and so on. I help them by providing helpful answers to their questions, and giving them the encouragement they need to move past their fears. For the coaching, I work alongside them to plan, structure and write their books.

Where can people find you and your books online? 

I’m in the process of updating my personal website but all my work can be found at www.accomplishpress.com and my books can be found on Amazon.