Why I chose an African publisher over a western one

In my experience, African publishers are more savvy and look outside cliched representations of the continent’s writers – we need more of them

In recent years, African writers have gained prominence on the world stage; some have won prestigious prizes, while others have signed lucrative book deals and sold to multiple markets. However, Africans are not prominent, almost to the point of invisibility, in the ownership of production. The gatekeepers of African writing remain firmly rooted in the west – African publishers typically must buy, rather than sell, the rights to books, even those that are marketed to the rest of the world as African stories.

Related: Reading the globe at the London book fair – books podcast

Related: Elnathan John: ‘I want to show that things are never simple’

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