Publishing in Kenya: A Brief(ish) Overview
If you know nothing on the topic and would like a starting point.
Because I have a little experience in the publishing industry, I often get questions about how the whole thing works. This Substack is basically me going, “Actually, how does the whole thing work?” I am well aware how limited my understanding actually is—it is a whole industry, after all. Still, the people who ask me are often asking me because they know less than I do and would like to know what I know. So for them, and for anyone who would like a basic overview based on one person’s knowledge base, here you go. Fair warning: it is a long read because breaking it down into multiple parts was an extra step that threatened to render the whole endeavour procrastinated for several more months. Or years.
The Publishing Process
Writers experiencing their first interaction with publishing houses are often surprised when their manuscripts remain with the publisher, with no book forthcoming, for years. You would expect that a year is more than enough time for your manuscript to be accepted and published. In most cases, you would be wrong.
The process varies depending on what route you take, but it generally looks something like this:
Review
This applies to manuscripts that are submitted to publishing companies. The publisher’s editorial team has to determine whether each submission is a good fit for the publisher. Publishers cannot publish every manuscript they receive; they have to gauge them to figure out whether it would be a good idea for them to invest in it.
The editor(s) reviewing a submission may read the entire manuscript or may only read the first few pages to determine whether it is good enough to be considered for publishing. If they don’t like the manuscript, they reject it and the publisher may or may not communicate this to the author. If they accept the manuscript, the publisher will then communicate to the author that they are interested in publishing it.
If the author agrees to publish their manuscript with the publisher, they sign an author contract and the manuscript moves to the next stage.
Editing
This involves working with a professional editor to develop your story. At this stage, editing happens in two parts: substantive editing (also called developmental or structural editing) and copyediting.
Substantive editing is a collaborative process between the author and the editor which involves analysing the big-picture elements of the manuscript (plot, characterisation, themes, narrative style, etc) and improving them. The editor reads the story and gives the author recommendations on how to improve it and the author then rewrites the story until it is structurally sound. This can take ages and a lot of back and forth.
Then, copyediting. This involves improving the language in the manuscript by correcting grammatical errors, punctuation, spelling mistakes, inconsistencies, clunky or unclear sentences and factual errors.
Book design
This is the creative production part of the process. After copyediting, the manuscript goes to a book designer who makes the manuscript look like a book. Typesetting involves laying out the text and any graphic elements the way they will appear in the printed book, normally using design software such as Adobe InDesign. The book cover is also designed at this stage. If the book cover includes an illustration then an illustrator might need to come on board to create it.
Proofreading
Proofreading is the final type of editing that a manuscript needs to go through before it is printed as a book. The designed manuscript is printed into a proof, which is then given to a proofreader.
The proofreader checks for and corrects any other editorial or design errors that may have been missed by the copyeditor and designer. These corrections are then implemented in the final manuscript before it is sent to the printer. If it’s an ebook, it is published on the relevant digital platform, and if it is going to be an audiobook…well, then begins a very long and very expensive process.
Printing
The printer prints the book according to the specifications (such as paper type and book size) given to them. Normally, a few copies are produced and given to the author or the publisher for them to confirm that the book looks exactly as they wanted it to look. This helps avoid a situation where the book is mass produced with the wrong specifications. With the author’s or publisher’s approval, the book is then mass produced and delivered to the publisher or author for storage.
Marketing
Marketing is letting potential readers know about the book and encouraging them to buy it. This could involve various strategies such as social media campaigns, developing and sharing book trailers, and arranging book signings, readings, and even book tours. Authors need to be willing to become the face of their book and actively promote it so as to reach more potential readers and convert them to buyers. Strategic and effective marketing will lead to more sales.
Distribution and sales
Distribution is the process of getting printed books into bookshops and any other places where potential buyers might find them. This is one of the most challenging parts of the publishing process as booksellers often need to be convinced to stock specific books. They will stock books which are likely to sell, which often means declining to stock books by unknown authors or publishers unless convinced otherwise. This means that the author or publisher needs to develop and maintain good relationships with booksellers.
Distribution also involves figuring out how to make printed books available across a wider region. A publisher or author whose books have been printed in Nairobi needs to find a way to make these books available to buyers in Kitale or Mombasa or Embu, which can be a daunting task if they do not have the resources necessary to make this distribution possible.
Post-sales activities
This includes all the activities that an author or publisher might have to do undertake after the book has been published, such as correcting any errors that found their way into the book for reprints.
This entire process takes months, or years in the case of traditional publishing, and involves several different professionals who must all collaborate and play their roles competently for a manuscript to end up on a shelf in a bookshop. It also requires financial resources to pay all these professionals for their services and effort to ensure the process runs smoothly from beginning to end and that the final product is of a high quality. Whichever publishing option an author chooses to go with, the process will be expensive and time-consuming.
Once authors are conversant with the basic publishing process, they can determine which publishing options are available to them and which one would be the most suitable. There are four pathways an author can take to publish their book:
Traditional publishing
Self-publishing
Hybrid publishing
Digital publishing
Each of these options has its pros and cons, making it more suitable for some authors than others.
Traditional Publishing
Traditional publishers are basically publishing companies. They are so called because for the longest time, the only way to publish a book was to submit a manuscript to a publishing company who would then, if they accepted it, manage the entire publishing process for the author. Basically, traditional publishers do all the work for the author. Important to note, however, is that traditional publishing was not always the norm. It was common for writers to pay for their books to get published in the early period of the industry.
Selecting suitable publishers
When looking to get published by a traditional publisher your first step should be to do your research on the different publishers in Kenya. You can typically find a directory of all the publishers in Kenya on the Kenya Publishers Association website, though at the time of writing this the website appears to be under construction.
Different publishers focus on developing and selling different genres of books so it is important to find out whether your manuscript would be a good match for a specific publisher. For example, Storymoja Publishers focuses on producing books for children, so sending them a manuscript of your memoir that is intended for adults will likely be a waste of your time.
Most publishers have websites that will give you an idea of the kind of books they publish, so a Google search will help you find the information you need. Take the time to find out which publishers may be interested in the kind of manuscript you have.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the size of the publishing house you submit to matters. Larger publishers have more resources and therefore a greater capacity to develop and sell your book. However, because they generally handle more projects, the work moves slower and guidelines can be rigid. In smaller publishing houses, decision-making is faster and their products can be quite creative. They are limited in resources though and can face challenges with issues like distribution.
Manuscript submission
In Kenya, submitting a manuscript involves sending the manuscript to the publisher via email. Publishers normally have submissions guidelines on their websites. These guidelines tell you how to format your manuscript before submitting it to that publisher. In developed countries with more robust publishing industries typically controlled by the five biggest publishers, manuscripts are submitted to literary agencies, which then submit to the publishers. The agencies then take on a portion of what is done by publishers here and also earn a percentage of the royalties. This approach is not common in African countries, though this may change as our publishing ecosystem grows.
After you submit your manuscript there is little you can do beyond waiting for it to be reviewed. The review process often takes months or even years and is a great cause of frustration for many authors. There are several factors that come into play to make the process so long. Every week, publishers receive numerous submissions, which often cannot be reviewed as they come in because submissions are handled by the same (often small) editorial staff that is working on developing the manuscripts that have already been accepted and slotted in for publishing. This means that when you submit your manuscript, it could very well be competing with hundreds of submissions dating back years for the attention of a few already-overwhelmed editors. It doesn’t help, of course, that in Kenya publishers survive by publishing textbooks and other curriculum-adjacent books. When the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) calls for textbook submissions, every other project is put on the back burner, starting with the review of unsolicited manuscripts.
So when hoping to be picked up by a traditional publisher, the best thing that an author can arm themselves with is patience. It is also helpful to submit your manuscript to many different publishers at a go to increase your chances of getting accepted by one.
There are several reasons why a publisher may reject your manuscript.
Your manuscript is not suitable for the publisher because it does not fit their publishing goals.
Your manuscript didn’t please the specific editor who reviewed it, even though it might please many other editors.
Your manuscript needs more work.
Rejection is a normal part of being a writer. All authors, including the biggest names, have been rejected. Sometimes the rejection is a sign that you need to put more effort into your craft and sometimes it has nothing to do with how good or bad your manuscript is. It is a part of the process, so it matters that an author makes their peace with it.
The author contract
The author contract is the agreement an author makes with the publisher allowing the publisher to develop and sell their book. Publishers may sometimes opt to buy an author’s manuscript, meaning that they pay the author an amount upfront and get ownership of the copyright. This means that the story then belongs to the publisher, not the author.
However, more commonly, the author retains the copyright of their work and grants the publisher the right to develop and sell their book. In exchange, the publisher pays the author royalties every year. Royalties are normally between 7% and 10% of the cover price of the book – very few authors get more than that and when they do, it is because their name has become big enough to give them negotiating power.
Authors are often dismayed to learn that they are entitled to only 10% after they have laboured to produce a manuscript and have it accepted for publishing. It seems unfair. However, when you consider that booksellers take about 30% of the cover price and that printers are paid about the same percentage, leaving the publisher with about 30% or less with which to cover the cost of the book production, which they initially undertook at no cost to the author, then it seems less unfair.
When signing an author contract with a traditional publisher, watch out for the following three clauses in the contract.
The right of first refusal. This is the requirement that you have to give the publisher your next work first, and only if they reject it can you submit it to another publisher. This seems inconsequential at first but it means that if they accept your next work but don’t prioritise it, then you could be waiting for years before your next book comes out.
Royalties on other versions. This refers to royalties that you will be entitled to if the publisher decided to translate or produce your book in different formats such as e-books and audio books. For example, since e-books are cheaper to produce (no printing costs), you could argue that authors should get higher royalties on them. Think also about the possibility of what your royalties might look like if your book gets turned into a play or film.
Author's discount. This is a discount that the author gets when they buy their own books from the publisher, which they then sell to their networks.
Mystery Publishers, through their educational arm, Mystery Academy, offers a short and affordable online course to help authors understand their intellectual property rights and other legal matters relevant to book publishing.
Your role in traditional publishing
Many authors think that once their manuscript is accepted their work is done so they can sit back and wait to watch the royalties roll in. However, although the publisher does most of the work, the author still has a role to play.
During the editing process you will need to work with your editor to improve the manuscript. This requires you to commit time to the rewriting process, bearing in mind that you may end up reworking the story several times before the editor is satisfied with it. Depending on the publisher, you may or may not be consulted about the book’s cover design and you may also need to proofread the story yourself towards the end of the editorial process to point out any errors that may have escaped the editor and to confirm that you are satisfied with the editorial work that has been done.
Finally, you will need to play a big role in marketing the book. Although publishers will distribute and sell the book, the marketing done for individual books is often minimal. Readers get excited to hear that an author has released a new book but don’t really care when they hear that a publisher has released a new book; they connect with the author, not the publisher. Books sell more when the author takes an active role in marketing instead of waiting for the publisher to do it.
Is traditional publishing suitable for you?
Pros:
Traditional publishers know the industry and processes and can scale. They have connections and access to booksellers and schools, which are the two biggest income generators for publishers. This is especially important for authors targeting primary school children, who mainly buy books that are recommended by their teachers, who get booklist recommendations directly from publishers. Publishers also know market trends so they know what is likely to sell and what isn’t.
They take all the risk. Publishers spend a lot of money to publish books when there is no guarantee that the books will sell. If books don’t sell, publishers lose a lot of money.
Because your book will go through an entire team of professionals who will edit, design, and print the book, you are likely to end up with a high-quality book. People also trust traditional publishers and will therefore trust you more as an author if your book has been published by a publisher. Even if you are an unknown author, a reader is more likely to pick up your book just because they recognise the publisher’s logo on it.
Cons:
Returns are significantly lower. You get only about 10% in royalties, which could be very little money if your book doesn’t sell. The truth is that more often than not, those who start writing books hoping to get rich from it are sadly mistaken.
You lose creative control over the content. Publishers will try to fit your work with their house style, which often involves changing the manuscript in ways you would prefer not to change it. This can be stifling. Entire chapters can get cut. You might hate the selected cover design. Your vision for the book might get severely diluted.
You lose control over the process. The book will be queued as per the publisher's workload and budget. You have to go with their calendar and marketing plan. There is a lot of waiting to be told what next involved.
Self-Publishing
Self-publishing means that the authors manage the entire publishing process themselves. After completing the manuscript, the author decides how and when the manuscript will be edited, designed, printed, marketed and distributed. The author retains control of the process but also undertakes its full cost and risk.
Though self-publishing has been frowned upon in the past, it is becoming more and more popular. Authors who self-publish often do so after trying their luck with traditional publishers and getting nowhere. Others self-publish after experiencing traditional publishing and getting disappointed by the process or the results.
Authors who are considering self-publishing need to think of it as a business venture, not a hobby. It will likely take a lot out of you.
Is self-publishing suitable for you?
Pros:
You control everything. With self-publishing, the author is the only decision-maker. There is no frustrating period of waiting for someone else to approve your manuscript for publishing. Nobody will force you to change aspects of your manuscript that you would rather not change. You do not have to adhere to another person’s timeline and priorities. You choose exactly what your book will look like and you control how long it will take for your manuscript to become a printed book. For many authors, this is the most attractive aspect of self-publishing.
You get 100% of the revenue that comes from selling your book. After you have taken care of all the production and distribution costs, whatever is left is yours.
Cons:
You also get 100% of the risk. Self-publishing has mixed fortunes. Some people sell 2,000 copies of their self-published book in two weeks, and others one copy in a month. In traditional publishing, the publisher puts their money on the line, paying editors, designers, illustrators and the printer, all before spending even more money on distribution. In self-publishing, you are the one paying all these people with no guarantee that you will get any of your money back through sales. Of course, none of this matters if publishing the book was a passion project.
You need to invest a lot of time and effort. It will take time to find a good editor and designer to develop the book. It will take time to do your research on good printers and negotiate with them for a good price, keeping in mind that some printers will try to take advantage of new authors who aren’t knowledgeable about production costs. It will take time to market the book once it is printed. It will take time to figure out how to get the book stocked into bookshops and how to make it available in different parts of the country. It will take time to sort through your accounts to see whether the math is making sense. At every stage, you will need to be prepared to do the work of actually managing the publishing process or else risk spending a lot of money and ending up with a poor-quality book that nobody will want to buy.
Considering that self-publishing only cuts out the publisher, and that printers will still have to be paid, and that the author will have to cater for the cost of marketing and distribution, it is common for the actual profits made to be about 10 – 20% of the revenue, almost the same as the royalties that a traditional publisher would have given. This can be discouraging to authors who go into self-publishing believing that they will make a lot more money this way.
In addition to this, authors who want to self-publish need to know that there are specific parts of the publishing process that are already quite challenging for publishing companies and become even more of a nightmare to individuals.
One of them is storage. It is easy to assume that storage is as simple as clearing some space in your house for boxes of books. Which is fine, until you discover you have rats. Or flooding. If your plan is to print many copies, think about how you will store the books safely.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of the publishing process for authors who self-publish is distribution. Like I said, booksellers often have to be convinced to stock a book. This makes sense for them because they need to stock books that will sell in order for them to make money. Because of this, they are often reluctant to stock books by unknown authors. The task becomes twice as difficult for self-published authors because it is easier for a bookseller to believe a book by a known publisher will sell than it is for them to believe the same of a self-published book. It doesn’t help that self-published books have a reputation for being poorly produced as a result of many authors trying to cut costs by taking shortcuts. This reputation hangs over most self-published books even those that are well-edited and well-designed, and because of it, self-published authors have to expend a lot of effort to prove that their book is worth stocking in a bookshop. Furthermore, even when a bookseller agrees to stock your book, they are likely to agree to take only five copies, whereas they might have taken 100 copies if the book had been published by a traditional publisher.
Thankfully, there are now other ways to distribute books. Some self-published authors opt to invest a lot in marketing their book, thus creating the demand and then distributing directly to buyers using delivery and courier services. There are also several online bookshops such as Nuria Kenya, Kibanga Books, and Rugano Books, which can stock your book and then deliver to buyers who purchase the book online. These solutions make it easier for self-published authors to make sure everyone who wants a copy of their book can get it, regardless of their location.
Having considered all this, the three most important questions to ask yourself when deciding to self-publish are:
How much control do you want?
What resources do you have? Do you have time, money and expertise?
What are you hoping to get out of this book?
Hybrid Publishing
Hybrid publishing is an umbrella term used to describe any type of publishing that is a combination of traditional publishing and self-publishing. It is also often called assisted self-publishing. This could take many forms, some of which are rather predatory on authors and others which are genuinely supportive. Commonly, an author pays a publishing company to develop and distribute their book. In some cases, the author pays the full cost of the different parts of the publishing process and keeps all the proceeds as well as all rights to the work. In others, the author pays part of the cost and then still splits the royalties with the publisher, often calculated based on how much work each party takes on.
Even with hybrid publishing, there is often a review process. Publishers who offer this kind of arrangements will still gauge the manuscript for suitability, although their standards will be less stringent than what they use to gauge manuscripts whose cost of development they will cover themselves. Examples of such publishing companies are Mystery Publishers and Writers Guild Kenya.
Is hybrid publishing suitable for you?
Pros:
Some control of the process. The publishing process is likely to take a shorter time than it would in traditional publishing. Because the author will be paying for at least part of the production costs, they have a say about how the manuscript will be developed and the publisher will also prioritise the manuscript since they will not be taking on all the risk.
Some creative control. The author will also have a much bigger say about how their manuscript can be changed and the publisher is less likely to force the manuscript to fit their house style.
The manuscript will be developed by the publisher’s team which means that the book will be of the same quality that all the publisher’s books are. Readers will also trust the author more upon seeing that their book has been published by a publishing company.
The author will not have to figure out how to manage the entire editorial process on their own because the publisher will take care of that. This frees up the author’s time.
Cons:
Though it may not be as expensive as self-publishing, this route is still quite costly because it requires the author to have a lot of money upfront. This is the biggest challenge for authors who choose this route.
Depending on the publisher, the author sometimes does not retain all the profit even after paying upfront because they still have to share it with the publisher.
The publisher will still review the manuscript and can refuse to enter such a partnership with an author if the manuscript does not meet their standards, even if the author is ready to pay upfront. The publisher will also still have some control over how the manuscript is developed and the author may still be required to make some changes to their manuscript.
This option is ideal for authors who have the resources to enter a partnership with a traditional publisher. It is important to agree on every aspect of the publishing process and the terms before signing a hybrid publishing contract with a publisher. Since the terms will vary depending on the publisher, the author needs to do their research on the different publishers that offer this publishing option to make an informed decision.
Digital Publishing
Digital publishing basically means making your book accessible on the internet. It is also called online publishing or e-publishing. Books are published digitally in the form of ebooks and audio books. Making your book available in digital form is the best way to ensure it is available worldwide as the internet overcomes the hurdles of physical distribution.
Ebooks are electronic books, which means that your book is not printed; rather it is found and read online through a digital device such as a phone, computer or electronic reader such as the Amazon Kindle. The editorial and production process for ebooks is the same as that for print books until the printing stage. Instead of sending the book file to the printer, the author uploads it onto a digital publishing and distribution platform such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing or Apple Books. You need to do your research on the different digital publishing platforms there are and select the one that works best for you. You could also reach out to hybrid publishers, who are already familiar with the different platforms as well as digital rights management and can undertake this for you at a price. Keep in mind that digital publishing platforms are still publishers and will take a percentage of the royalties.
Another route is through aggregators. These are platforms that serve as a middleman between an author and digital distribution platforms. You upload your ebook to the aggregator and it then distributes it to several online platforms. This approach is valuable for ebook authors who want the widest possible reach without having to manage several different accounts and processes on several different platforms. Examples of global aggregators are Smashwords, Draft2Digital, BookBaby, PublishDrive, and IngramSpark. If an author is interested in using an aggregator, it is important to do some research to compare the different platforms in terms of offering and cost. Some aggregators take a small percentage of the royalties, others give a percentage of the royalties to the author and keep most of it, and others charge a subscription fee.
Some authors opt to produce their ebook then instead of using a digital publishing platform sell it by asking readers to send them money (e.g. through M-Pesa), after which they email the ebook to the buyer. While this method seems easy, it allows the buyer to share the ebook with anybody they please, preventing the author from earning from it.
To make an audiobook, a profesional narrator is recorded reading an already-produced book and the recording is then edited and mastered by an audio engineer. The audio file is then published on audio publishing platforms such as Audible, which is owned by Amazon, or Spotify. The audiobook can also be sold old-school in the form of flash drives, although this obviously poses significant cost and distribution challenges.
Digital publishing and the Kenyan market
More and more people are embracing digitally published books in Kenya. It is convenient to be able to read on your phone or tablet, and more people are investing in e-readers as well. This is reflected in how many publishers are beginning to invest in digital publishing, producing ebook versions of their printed books and developing local digital publishing platforms. Others, like eKitabu, are investing in recording studios to publish audiobooks.
However, the majority of readers still prefer a physical book. Many people will not pay for a book they cannot hold in their hand or display on a shelf, and many others dislike reading on screens. Because of this, most Kenyan authors are yet to make their books available on platforms like Amazon Kindle, which, given the distribution challenges the book industry faces, only makes their books less accessible.
Authors who prefer to self-publish digitally need to be prepared to market on social media strategically. This is the only way that potential readers will hear about your book, since they will not find it browsing in bookshops. As more readers grow up as digital natives, ebooks become more palatable. While print books are likely to remain popular, I imagine we will see less and less resistance to ebooks with time, especially with professional production and precise marketing.
Is digital publishing suitable for you?
Pros:
Although authors who want to self-publish an ebook will still need to spend money on editorial, design and production work, they will save the money they would have spent on printing, which is often the most expensive part of publishing a print book.
Distribution is easy. All the author has to do is publish the ebook on a platform that readers can easily access. The hassle of dealing with booksellers or finding ways to deliver physical books across the country disappears. Readers can purchase the book without having to go to a bookshop or wait for the book to be delivered to them, and this quick and easy buying process means that they are more likely to buy right away.
It is easy to make changes to an ebook. With print books, errors that find their way into the final product are permanent and can only be corrected in subsequent editions of the book. With ebooks, correcting errors is a matter of editing the file, which takes little time and effort.
Depending on the publisher and how you price your book, you will get to keep a larger portion of your royalties than if you published a print book.
Cons:
Many readers still prefer hard copy books and would not consider buying an ebook. Others lack access to digital devices. This reduces your pool of potential buyers significantly.
It is easy for your books to be pirated. Piracy is a big problem in Kenya even for print books, but because ebooks are already in soft copy form and online, it is even easier for people to share them. Thousands of people can be in possession of your ebook when only a few actually bought it. However, some publishing platforms have measures in place to curb this. For example, with Amazon Kindle, only those who buy an ebook can access it on their Kindle devices or apps.
Digital publishing is suitable for authors whose target audience is likely to have embraced ebooks. It is also worth noting that some genres do better than others in digital publishing, so authors need to do their research on this before opting to publish digitally. For example, romance readers consume about 90% of their books in digital form. Digital publishing is also suitable for authors who have the resources to produce their book but not enough to cover printing and distribution.
Alright. I hope this will be helpful to someone. One of the best things about the internet today is the abundance of resources on book publishing, both in Kenya and globally. I often wonder how different my own literary journey might have been if I’d had access to all this information as a teenager. What a time to be alive, you know? And even if you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for, there’s a whole world of book professionals just a Google search away. Or you could ask me; maybe I know someone who knows someone who knows someone. Either way, publishing a book has never been more accessible. And in many ways, we are both better and worse for it.