"The proceedings of a conference held at the Africa Institute of South Africa in 2009, this is a major new collection of essays on the state of scholarly publishing in Africa, with a strong emphasis on the situation in South Africa. The conference was convened, and the papers published, in an attemp
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t to influence “policymakers and other relevant stakeholders in developing an enabling environment for scholarly publishing to thrive.” Containing a total of 26 papers – all of them, usefully, preceded by abstracts – content is arranged under seven sections: (i) The State of Research Publishing in Africa, (ii) The State of Scholarly Publishing in Africa, (iii) The Challenges of Book Distribution, (iv) The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Scholarly Publishing, (v) Alternative Publishing Models, (vi) The Politics of Peer Review in Scholarly Publishing, and (vii) Scholarly Publishing and Intellectual Property Development in Africa. While the majority of the contributors are from South Africa, other contributors include Kenyan veteran publisher Henry Chakava, James Currey of James Currey Publishers, Mary Jay, Chief Executive of the Oxford-based African Books Collective, and a number of academics from the West African region. The book is particularly strong in overviews of scholarly publishing in South Africa, covering both book and journal publishing. It offers some interesting discussions and fresh insights about alternative publishing and distribution models, with articles reporting about new initiatives and strategy approaches, and also including papers on the politics and practise of the peer review process, and on South African intellectual property rights. One or two papers, by academics from other regions of Africa, unfortunately are weak and poorly informed about the current state of scholarly publishing in Africa, for example citing literature that goes back to books and articles published in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the book can be seen as a useful companion to ‘African Scholarly Publishing Essays’, edited by Alois Mlambo, and published by African Books Collective in 2006." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 2581)
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"James Currey was the editor in charge of the African Writers Series (AWS) at Heinemann Educational Books from 1967 to 1984. Together with his colleagues Henry Chakava in Kenya, Aig Higo in Nigeri
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a, and Keith Sambrook in London they published the first 270 titles in the series. This fascinating and highly entertaining book tells the story how they did it, and how publishing relationships were developed and nurtured with a very large number of African writers, including some of the continent’s now foremost writers such as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Nuruddin Farah, Alex la Guma, Bessie Head, Dennis Brutus, Dambudzo Marechera, and many more. The focus is on the first twenty-five years of the series from 1962 to 1988. Rich in anecdotal material on many of Africa’s best known writers, the book offers a narrative how the now famous series came together. It “provides evidence of the ways in which estimation by a publisher of the work of writers grows and, sadly on occasion, diminishes”, and gives examples of “how the views of publishers and their advisers emerge as they consider a new manuscript, and then coalesce and change as they assess further work by the same author.” The book is interspersed with archival photographs and portraits of African writers by George Hallett, whose photographs were used on many of the books’ covers. Much of the contents consist of extracts from correspondence between James Currey and the numerous writers that were published in the series, as well as correspondence with literary agents, copy editors, correspondence with Currey’s colleagues at (then) Heinemann offices in Kenya and Nigeria, together with extracts from readers’ reports. The various chapters vividly capture the drama and energy of the whole enterprise: the publishing risks involved, dealing with writers egos and temperaments, their financial needs, their perceptions about publication rights issues, and their sometimes unrealistic expectations of sales and royalty earnings." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1331)
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"This collection of essays was published to honour Chief Aigboje Higo on his 70th birthday. Higo, by many considered to be the doyen of Nigerian book publishing, was a founding father and two-time president of the Nigerian Publishers Association, and for many years Managing Director and later Chairm
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an of Heinemann Educational Publishers (Nigeria) plc. The 15 contributions that are brought together in this Festschrift include essays by many prominent members of the African book professions, including Bodunde Bankole, Henry Chakava, Ayo Odeniyi, the late Victor Nwankwo, as well as Keith Sambrook, a former director of Heinemann's in the UK, whose chapter recounts the story of his visit to Nigeria in 1964 when he and the late Alan Hill (then Chair of Heinemann's) met up with Aig Higo and asked him to join HEB and take charge of their business in Nigeria and West Africa. There are also papers on the economics of publishing, training for book industry personnel, and Bodunde Bankole presents an interesting account of the history and development of the Nigerian Publishers Association and its collaboration with international book trade organizations to provide more visibility for Nigerian book publishing output. A flawed index apart, this is a valuable source of information on the development of publishing and the book trade in Nigeria, and also provides useful overviews of publishing practise in the country." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 755)
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"A collection of articles by one of Africa's most prolific commentators on the African publishing scene, bringing together his writings on diverse topics, such as autonomous publishing, book marketing and distribution, author-publisher relations, regional cooperation, the World Bank and African publ
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ishing, reading promotion, the inequalities of international copyright, the problems of censorship and government repression, and book marketing and distribution." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 269)
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"A collection of six papers that aim to fill a void in the current debate about copyright and, at the same time, to bring some balance to the debate by providing a number of perspectives from the developing world. These include a paper by Henry
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Chakava “International Copyright and Africa: An Unequal Exchange” and one by Urvashi Butalia “The Issues at Stake: An Indian Perspective on Copyright”. Lynette Owen, Rights and Contracts Director at Longman’s, provides a perspective on copyright by that of a UK publisher." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1743)
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"A comprehensive discussion of the origins and development, successes and failures, and opportunities and challenges of the Kenyan book industry, which spans from the time of Kenya's independence to the present day [1992]. Begins by discussing the state of the industry at independence, the coming of
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foreign publishers, the creation of new institutions and the advent of local publishers. Continues with an analysis of the present state of affairs [early 1990s] of all areas of the book sector, concluding that the percentage of books imported is still too high, and recommending strategies for reversing this trend." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 595)
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"One of a series of national monographs on the state of books and reading in a number of countries, in order to provide book professionals and the interested public with detailed surveys of matters relating to authorship, publishing, material production and distribution of books and reading. This mo
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nograph by the Managing Director of Heinemann Educational Books (East Africa) sets out the position of the book in Kenya: language policies, authorship, publishing and printing, distribution, training and the legal and institutional framework for publishing. Now inevitably rather dated, but still useful as an overview of the emergence of indigenous publishing in Kenya." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 591)
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