Beaven Tapureta
All this comes
down to a number of issues, but the need for knowledge about what readers are
reading or what they would want to read at the moment tops the list.
When
African-American George Floyd died at the hands of a white police officer in
the US last month, the internet was awash with virtual bookstores and
publishers promoting their listed titles on racism as seen from various
perspectives such as fiction, history, politics, and many others. The periodic boom
in the relevance of such literature could be felt even now and no doubt in
contemporary African-American literature, the spotlight is on racism. As it is
a global issue, this spotlight is in other countries as well, so the influence
of global themes goes on and on, affecting book marketing statistics all over.
Experiences
of current world events or pandemics such as COVID-19 surely must also have
affected reading habits or tastes.
As for the
COVID-19 wreaking havoc in the world, it is true that the writers, publishers
or booksellers have not been spared. As writers, yes we could be writing, but
writing what and for who? How much information is at our disposal so as to give
us confidence in the decisions we make.
This year, obviously
the number of books to be published in print is likely to be low due to
economic hardships in the country perpetuated by the coronavirus pandemic. In
this current situation, the economic breastplate has been broken and every
stakeholder is vulnerable – the writer, the editor, the printer, the publisher,
the bookseller, etc.
Reading
culture and book buying culture mean different things and it’s undeniable that local
readers are not buying fiction or poetry books unless they need such materials
for academic learning. But there are no statistics to show which type of
fiction or poetry the ‘man on the street’ would spare a few dollars to buy and
read at home to beat the pressure of the lockdown.
Many
authors, particularly the emerging ones, have resorted to e-publishing, hoping
to scoop international opportunities, yet little information is known about actual
statistics from the authors or publishers in the digital world. Are there any success
stories or disasters? What and where are the digital statistics? Has the social
media worked wonders either? Sources of information about all this are few,
making it tough for the writer to know his/her environment as a cultural
worker.
Annual
reports, reading surveys, or any such data is not available.
The major
local bookshops or bookstores are closing business as some cannot stand the
economic pressure. Publishers will have to think twice, to stay or not to stay
in business. While the reader has other demanding issues in his/her life, that
of buying a book is at the bottom of priorities; it means then that the writer
has to also review ways to get to the heart of the busy reader.
In education,
attempts are being made to intensify e-learning or e-reading due to the
indefinite closure of schools as part of government measures to curb the spread
of COVID-19, how is this going to affect the creators, the publishers or their
marketing strategies? And what guideposts exist in literature as for now to
help us trust our decisions?
Rare are literary
magazines, books, or journals which must regularly report on the status of the book
industry, offering sincerely analyzed annual reports or reviews. These should flood
the bookshops and libraries especially for the benefit of the writer because
they give up-to-date statistics and book market trends.
An annual report for Barnes & Noble, one
of the largest booksellers in the world and a leading retailer of content,
digital media and educational products no doubt can influence publishing
decisions in the market? This could be too ambitious a comparison with our own
market status but still, why a big publisher or bookseller in Zimbabwe is reticent
to publish their annual reports.
When last
did the Booksellers Association of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Book Publishers
Association or other responsible associations published their own reading
survey reports or their own book market statistics?
What’s more,
some of the critical presentations made during the annual Zimbabwe
International Book Fair Indaba Conference are not published to the market and
therefore sadly remain in the archives of the ZIBF. If compiled and published
as books, solutions could be found to the challenges the book industry is
suffering. The ZIBF can be a leader in making the market players open up!
The authors,
booksellers and publishers are in the dark. It is a fact too hard to swallow. What
is the role of the writers associations, you may ask. How can they help? If possible
they would get funding (government or non-governmental funding) injected into
their budget for training and research projects. Sectorial market researches are important to
all artists, not only in the book writing and publishing field. The information
gathered from the book sector would be useful to writers and all stakeholders.
At least that could help.
An example
of how these up-to-date reports influence writers’, publishers’ or booksellers’
decisions is the reading survey once done by Zimbabwe Reads in 2011 under the
topic ‘Is Zimbabwe Reading?’
At that
time, that is, nearly a decade ago, there were doubts about the country’s
widely spread pride as having the highest literacy rate in Africa. Even today,
the same question still lingers. Data is not available for confirmation of
these statements.
Zimbabwe
Reads took it upon itself to get into the field and gather the real data and published
its findings on its website and made them available to stakeholders. The report
did much to provoke thought about where Zimbabwe is headed for regarding
reading culture and the factors involved. Obviously, any serious writer would
want to know what his/her people are reading, where, when and why.
About the
controversial literacy rate issue, in its report Zimbabwe Reads said, “For lack of better numbers, UNDP and
UNICEF have continued to report 91.9% literacy rate in Zimbabwe, apparently
based on the last available data provided a decade earlier by UNESCO and the
Zimbabwean government. But this
optimistic calculation is certainly out of date, as is UNICEF’s reported
literacy rate of 98% for youth aged 15-24. Whereas once the major part of the
illiterate population in Zimbabwe was among the elderly who had not had access
to schooling in their youth, now the increasing number of early school-leavers
creates a new and long-term group of illiterates or semi-literates. The dramatic emigration of skilled workers in
the last decade has not helped. The best guesses are that Zimbabwe’s current
literacy rate is now in the low-80s and is dropping. We roughly estimate that
the literacy rate for those over 15 is dropping a half percent each year and
that will accelerate to 1% each year as those who left school after 2005 reach
age 15. If current conditions continue,
Zimbabwe will have a literacy rate of 70% in 2020….”
The findings
were issued in 2011 and already estimates were being made about future literacy
status of the country and guided by such a report, one would then want to know
if the projection made that ‘Zimbabwe will have a literacy rate of 70% in 2020’
is true.
We are
already in 2020 and nobody knows if it’s true that the literacy rate has
nosedived from 91.9% to the approximate 70%. We are in the COVID-19 era and is
the literacy rate going to remain the same, given the situation in the
education sector?
Book market statistics or researches will
prepare us for post COVID-19 era, and are crucial to the revival of the fallen
book industry which stands confused in the blowing winds of reality.
If the
writers, the creators of the products that make up this industry, are in the
dark and if they stay long in it, the distance between them and the reader will
keep on widening. Nobody will know what the other person is looking for or doing.
A lost touch with reality!
LET’S FIGHT THIS COVID-19 TOGETHER!
As authors we heed the call for togetherness in
the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. In Zimbabwe and elsewhere, the time is
now to be highly alert and stop the spread of the virus.
Symptoms of COVID-19:
·
Fever
·
Tiredness
·
Dry Cough
·
Some patients may have aches and pains, nasal
congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea.
DO NOT MISS OUT THE WIN
LITERARY NEWSLETTER VOL 2, ISSUE
NO 13, COMING THIS JULY!
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