Jacana Media has kicked off an project called Storied, which aims to help African stories thrive – long term – and reach worldwide audiences.

The facts:

• In South Africa in 2016, 2.6 million local adult fiction and non-fiction books were sold
• 69,000 were English language novels
• Only 2 of those titles sold over 2,000 copies that year
• The average English South African novel will only sell 600 – 1,000 copies in its entire lifetime

• People are not buying local fiction

Jacana Media’s proposed solution:

Through your investment, Storied will raise the money to help publish more African fiction and poetry catering for a diverse reading community, scaling up sales margins which will be shared with investors.

Find out more at storied.co.za!

Who’s involved:

Bridget Impey, Jacana Media MD: ‘I think we have a problem – a real problem – when the ratio between our fiction sales and our non-fiction sales is so enormously different. What is it? Why are South African stories not selling?

‘Storied is going to be the mechanism for changing fiction publishing in this country, not just for us but for writers, for other publishers, everybody!’

 

Thabiso Mahlape, BlackBird Books Publisher: ‘If you want to know anything about a society you need to be reading the fiction that comes out of that society. If we are no longer able to publish fiction we stand to lose a big part of archiving ourselves for the future and for the now. It cannot be allowed to happen.’

 

 

Rehana Rossouw, writer: ‘All books are for everybody, that’s the most  important point. We learn about other people’s lives through fiction, and we learn about each other’s humanity through fiction.’

 

 

 

Niq Mhlongo, writer: ‘I grew up listening to radio, the theatre of the mind. I think fiction is also the theatre of the mind. You read it, and then you can discover your own world.’

 

 

 

 

Watch a video, featuring Impey, Mahlape, Rossouw, Mhlongo as well as poet Busisiwe Mahlangu, author Andrew Miller, Pamela Nichols of the Wits Writing Centre, Maggie Davey of Jacana, writer Mongane Wally Serote, and Fortiscue Helepi of African Flavour Books, Samuel Shapiro of the Other Foundation, and poet Tshepo Molefe:

 

Categories Fiction South Africa

Tags African Flavour Books Andrew Miller Bridget Impey Busisiwe Mahlangu Fortiscue Helepi Jacana Media Maggie Davey Mongane Wally Serote Pamela Nichols Storied Thabiso Mahlape Tshepo Molefe