Self-publishing Is an Essential Part of Kenyan Publishing
A Conversation with Long-time Book Reviewer Elly Kamari
When I first got interested in publishing, Elly in Nairobi was the first website that gave me a glimpse into how it works in Kenya. I spent hours on this blog and found myself introduced to Kenyan authors and books I’d never heard of before and immersed in detailed posts about self-publishing, traditional publishing, and what it takes to get from manuscript to book locally. There were book reviews, interviews with authors and other creative professionals, informative guides, thoughts on writing, short and long fiction, and a lot more. Writer, editor, and book reviewer Elly Kamari is the woman behind this treasure trove, and so inspiring was her work to me that it influenced, at least in part, my decision to make a career in publishing and, years later, the creation of this newsletter. That a conversation with her is one of the first featured here is an honour.
Thank you so much, Elly, for taking the time to discuss publishing in Kenya with me and to share your expertise!
Elly, you’ve been at this for a while (has it been a decade?). How has the self-publishing scene changed between the time you started and now? How have you changed? We all transform as our knowledge increases; are there opinions you have now about self-publishing and the Kenyan publishing industry in general that differ greatly from opinions you had when you were starting out?
Wow, it is amazing to know that I have been at this for a decade. I started my blog in 2012. At the time, it was a safe space for me to share my fiction, somewhere to connect with anyone who might read my work and like it. That was my only expectation.
I was incredibly unsure. I would never talk about my blog to people in a social setting. It was just this quiet thing I did without sharing with people in real life. It felt lonely and freeing – a not-so-secret activity.
The self-publishing scene was changing fast in 2012. The debate about reading eBooks versus print books was gaining momentum. The Kenyan publishing industry was vibrant but was filled with books on education and fiction books that could make the setbook list. I thought the growth of multiple eBook publishing platforms offered the perfect opportunity for Kenyans to explore publishing. More specifically, it would give us the chance to create and publish fiction books in other genres. So I tried out these platforms and decided to talk about them and share as much as I could.
The second problem I had then was thinking I was the only one on this lonely adventure. I did not know many writers like me or where to find them. I hoped having the blog would allow me to meet them. Thankfully, as time went on and the blog kept running, my wish came true.
I discovered the incredible number of diverse and amazing authors in Kenya. They may be at different stages of the publishing process, but every one of them has this passionate dedication to get their work out.
I have enjoyed and loved every minute of connecting with them. I have joined author groups and events, participated in NaNoWriMo writing marathons, and each of these moments allowed me to know that I was not alone in my writing journey.
It gave me courage to share my work and information about self-publishing, hoping it would give others the confidence to get started and let them know that it is possible to publish their books in Kenya.
Based on your observations of the industry, where are the gaps in publishing? The industry has grown considerably, I believe, but where are we still lacking? What are the areas that are still quite difficult to navigate?
The market has changed these past ten years. It is easier now for self-published authors to get their work out there. The emergence of bookstores like Rafu Books and Nuria the Honest Store offer new authors and self-published authors ways to get their work sold without having to deal with the red tape of larger bookstores. This is a huge plus.
I would say the largest gap exists in the book printing space. We need more Print-on-Demand enterprises coming up. Cheaper printing options will provide authors at various budget levels opportunities to get their work printed. The writers and authors are there, their stories plenty, all of them currently published on eBook platforms. I believe cheaper printing costs will allow Kenyan fiction books and comics to gain momentum. The lower the cost of printing, the more authors will publish their books and the cheaper it will be for readers to buy these books.
My mum used to buy these little weekly women’s magazines at the price of a newspaper, around Ksh.30. The magazines contained these romance stories and fiction stories in other genres. She would fill boxes with them and that is how I started reading fiction. I was curious about this company and went looking online to see if it is still running. To my surprise, it still is! I have been marvelling over the company’s lasting power for months now.
I believe if we can manage to find a way to print books and make them that affordable – obviously Ksh.30 might not be doable now, but Ksh.60 to Ksh.100 would be good enough to get books to everyone – more writers will get a chance to get their work out.
I would also say the areas that are most difficult to navigate in this industry are in the marketing of fiction books, e.g., getting books reviewed. Authors need their books read and reviewed in order to achieve sales.
You have done a phenomenal amount of work spotlighting Kenyan authors. Whenever I visit your site, I’m sure to come across a Kenyan writer I’ve never heard of. And it is occurrences like that that fuel my current belief that Kenyan publishing does not have a production problem; it has a marketing one. When people say that Kenyan publishing does not produce relevant books, I disagree because I know that the books are there – Kenyan writers and publishers are constantly putting them out. But for many people, it’s not that they do not care about reading Kenyan writers but that they simply do not learn about the existence of these books and authors. We don’t come across them even if we’re online all the time. It is easy to say Kenyans are not writing and publishing if you’re not part of these small writer communities that have insider knowledge because that information simply does not reach you where you are.
Having spent years interviewing indie authors and reviewing indie books, what can you say about this marketing problem? Why do you think Kenyan authors do not reach many people and what would it take to change this?
Kenyan authors are somewhat doing better now in terms of marketing themselves. We have more Kenyan writers sharing and blogging about their work. There are also more writer communities. There was a time these communities did not thrive. I feel excited when I see where we are now. It means we are growing and moving forward.
In terms of Kenyan readers not knowing about the books authors and publishers are producing, this largely depends on what genre a Kenyan author has chosen to write.
The education sector and children’s storybooks dominate the publishing market. Parents buy books the school recommends, and if you are on the book list, there is no question that your book will be bought because children and parents will know about it. This is where publishing educators and Kenyan publishing houses win.
A Kenyan writing in the non-fiction genre wins on industry-based books. Their readers are found in the industry they choose or are trained to work in, be it baking, finance, religion, etc. As long as you know your stuff, and people in the same industry agree, you are in good company. You will find buyers.
The writers creating in the fiction genre for adults have a different fight. Kenyan readers who purchase fiction have refined tastes. They are particular about what they like, and a Kenyan author needs to know exactly where they fit with them to win.
For example, let us say you meet a Kenyan reader who likes reading John Grisham, Tom Clancy, or James Patterson. These three writers are in the thriller/mystery/and action genres. If you want this Kenyan reader, you had better be producing the same type of compelling story to keep their attention. It has to be at A-plus level for them to go, “Okay, this is good, just as good as Grisham.” Especially, if you want them to spend money on the book. You can meet a Kenyan reader who likes Nora Roberts or Danielle Steele. These writers are in the romance genre, which can be broken down into romance mystery, romance thriller, historical romance, etc. If you want this Kenyan reader, you must produce the same type of compelling story to win their attention.
I think this is where the marketing starts facing a challenge.
Kenyan fiction authors need to work three times harder to convince Kenyan fiction readers that they are just as good as their western counterparts. This type of work takes patience. If an author is not in it for the long haul and stops marketing and sharing, then they disappear, and no one ever learns about their work.
An interesting thing I want to point out is that Kenyan authors often find success in international markets. As long as their story is good, the author will gain a reader on a global platform much more easily than on local platforms. Therefore, a Kenyan fiction author might decide to focus their marketing efforts on global platforms rather than local ones.
Finally, on marketing challenges, fiction creators in Kenya must contend with the easy availability of western fiction books and how easy it is to buy them. You can get a western novel for as low as Ksh.100, even lower in some instances. A Kenyan writer, on the other hand, might print their fiction book for at least Ksh.200. This means the retail cost will be Ksh.400 or more, depending on the printer’s costs and the inflation climate in the country. A reader might choose to spend Ksh.100 on a western novel instead of the Ksh.400 on the Kenyan novel. These are some of the challenges Kenyan authors face when it comes to getting readers to know about their books.
Going back to an earlier point, this is why I feel it would be great to get more Publish-on-Demand businesses opening in Kenya. The cheaper it becomes to print, the easier it will be for Kenyan authors to print their books more and sell to more readers.
The quality of self-published books remains a contentious issue in literary circles. Based on my experience as an editor and reader, I’m of the opinion that while self-published no longer means “poor quality”, and while there are certainly some self-published books that are beautifully written, edited, and produced, a majority of them are still lacking in editing and design. What about you? What is your assessment of self-published books right now? How do the self-published books you have encountered perform when held up to international book standards?
It is true that authors who choose to self-publish have a very high hill to climb. They must compete with books produced by entire teams in publishing houses. Self-published books do face more scrutiny and judgment, so I give the writers who choose this route a lot of respect. It does take time and considerable effort to produce a good book. When I find a self-published book with an amazing cover, good editing, no typos, and great formatting, I know the author has spent a considerable amount of time and money on that project.
There are also self-published books I have read that I wished the author would have taken more time to edit before publishing. In such cases, I will include a note for more editing, hoping they do it in order to match international book standards.
There was a time I thought it was terrible to put out a bad book, but this has changed over time. I think the beauty of self-publishing lies in the ability to experiment and discover what will work and what will not work for your book. EBooks are a form of evergreen content. You can publish a book this year on a platform like Smashwords, or OkadaBooks, and then watch how it does. Take the feedback you get from initial readers, refine the content, edit again, and update the eBook for the next year. If it does better, take the feedback, refine content, edit, and update. In the space of four years, you can have a very professional refined book thanks to reader feedback, and then leave it to earn as you market. This approaches the book as a product, and a self-published author then has more freedom to make changes as they want until they are satisfied with the result.
I think Kenyans are super-achievers and will often match international books in terms of grammar, fixing typos, and formatting of books. The struggle comes in the understanding of genre markets. I have met more than one Kenyan author who has told me they write what they like. Kenyan fiction stories may sometimes not fit in any genre on the international genre scale. Which is okay, I guess, because maybe these platforms will be forced to create a category called Kenyan Fiction, like Kdrama. J
Let’s talk genre fiction and its market in Nairobi. I’m an avid romance novel reader myself and I’m currently wading into the waters of Kenyan romance, so I’m curious about your work as a novelist. How many books have you written so far? Could you tell me a little about each of them, highlighting genre, the channels you used to publish them and why you chose those channels, and your experience marketing the books to readers? What have you learnt about how to find readers and getting them to engage with your books? Have you found success on the publishing channels you used, where success means more and more readers finding and engaging with your work? And finally, what can your personal experience tell us about the market in Kenya for local genre fiction?
As a novelist, I have written and published five books and ten short stories. My books can be found on Smashwords (Draft2Digital), Amazon’s KDP, and OkadaBooks.com. The titles are:
Koya’s Choice (romance, women entrepreneur) – This is a novel about Koya Kalahari and Charles Dhali. They were in love in college, until Charlie breaks up with Koya and leaves the country. Their breakup is brutal, and it leaves a psychological scar on Koya. For a long time, she believes Charlie left her because they were not in the same economic class. So, she works hard, graduates, and works to develop a thriving business. Charlie returns to find that she has moved on and might be dating his former best friend. He starts a dedicated campaign to win her back. This novel started out as a screen writing exercise. I had too much to say, so I turned it into a novel. It also features my home area, so I have a lot of attachment to this story.
Save My Heart (romance, fashion design) – This is a novel about a young woman named Leila. She is a fashion designer and a single mum. Leila and her boyfriend, Nathan, have a huge falling out when she discovers she is pregnant. She drops out of college and delivers her baby while Nathan moves on. They meet years later and discover the existence of a misunderstanding. This is a short novelette I enjoyed writing. It also features my home area as well as some of the characters from Koya’s Choice.
I Dream of You (romance, Valentine’s Day) – This is a very short Valentine’s Day romance story. Two years ago, it got a Spanish translation from a reader who approached me through my blog.
The Girl with a Golden Smile (romance, divorce, second-chance love) – I wrote this as part of a writing group called the East African Friday Feature. We were a group of five Kenyan authors and would post stories on Fridays based on writing prompts. I loved that I got this story out of that exercise.
Life on the Fast Track (romance, childhood sweethearts, need for speed) - Jasmine and Danny struggle to forge a future together despite their many differences. When Danny’s life choices place Jasmine’s life in danger, she must find the courage to stand with him when he faces a villainous adversary. Can they make it together? Is love enough to make them last forever? This story first ran on my blog before I turned it into an eBook on Smashwords and OkadaBooks.
The short stories I have written are mostly on my blog. I should truly compile them into an anthology now. I have been working on that project off and on.
Why I chose those channels, and my experience marketing the books to readers:
Smashwords, now Draft2Digital, is my go-to publishing platform. They make it easy to upload content, and they are able to distribute it to Barnes & Noble, Sony, Apple Books, Rakuten, Scribd, and other eBook platforms. This is their largest and most valuable feature. I’ve found this wide distribution allows books to appear on platforms I would never be able to publish in while in Kenya. Their payment system is also quite easy. They pay through PayPal every month, which is easily accessible with a bank account or MPesa. I have made most of my sales through smashwords.com. I believe it is because of their huge distribution base and accessibility.
OkadaBooks, I stumbled on this platform by mistake. I discovered such a huge market. Nigerian readers are very engaging, and they will write you messages and find you on social to discover what else you have written. I love the vibe of this platform. It helps you build a fan base. They also pay through Paypal.
Amazon’s KDP, I use this platform for presence – to highlight my work and let everyone know I write and where to find my content. Amazon’s payment mode is stricter. They pay $100 dollars in cheque form. This cheque is then mailed to your address. So, I’m not in love with Amazon’s KDP, but they are great for presence in the publishing industry.
Here’s what I’ve learnt about how to find readers and getting them to engage with my books. I had an editor some years back who taught me to always write what I know. This can sound like a limiting statement, but it is actually liberating. Readers enjoy books when they connect with characters. I decided to create characters living in places I know, places I’ve seen or experienced. These characters might have epic adventures I have not had, but they surely knew what a matatu looks like. J
When I wrote The Girl with a Golden Smile, this lady wrote me an Instagram message saying, “I feel like you’ve captured my life exactly.” It was the first message I got complimenting a story that included a matatu, a jiko and charcoal. It made me so happy I cried. I felt like I had arrived. That was it. I was never changing my writing style again. I finally understood my editor.
So the lesson I have learnt is that it is important to stay authentic. It helps you engage with readers. I have also learned that readers might not always write you reviews, but they will find your social media and leave you messages sharing their thoughts about your story, and that is a more powerful connection than anything else.
What I’ve learnt from personal experience about the market in Kenya for local genre fiction is that the market in Kenya is very ready for new writers, new story ideas. Whatever genre you write, you are likely to find a reader in the Kenyan local market. Now, readers might not be as open to writing reviews – you might need to push a little harder to get one – but you will get a reader.
Genre fiction in general is a market waiting to be explored. Storytellers who can create fiction in romance, thriller, mystery, action, drama, fantasy, and historical genres should start now, if they have not started yet. Get to writing, and as the market evolves, be part of it, join in the rise. We need more Kenyan characters living Kenyan stories, in Kenyan landscapes and cities. Readers in the younger generation is certainly looking for those stories, and so will the ones coming after them.
It is always time to contribute to local genre fiction. We might need to define the categories in the genres. That is, if you are writing a Kenyan story and exploring the romance genre, understand that romance can have sub-categories like traditional, mystery, drama, fantasy, historical, science fiction, etc. It will help you refine your target market and capture the specific interests of particular readers.
You have written on your website about platforms such as Litireso and Wattpad. Are there many Kenyan writers active on these digital platforms? Wattpad was at its peak about a decade ago to the best of my knowledge, and even then I was not aware that there were Kenyan authors writing on the platform. Is there a significant readership to be found there even today? And when Kenyan authors begin to sell their work, does that readership convert into a paying audience?
I also read books on Wattpad for ages.
Then, I joined NaNoWriMo and discovered Kenyan writers who were posting on Wattpad as a way to track their daily word count. That was how I discovered there were Kenyan writers on there. I felt like I had neglected to search for them on that platform.
So, yes, there are many Kenyan writers posting stories on Wattpad. Some of them might use pennames, but they are there. J I stumble on them on talking about their books on BookTok. When I see a video, I dash over to Wattpad and follow them. It is good to support where you can.
As for finding readership on Wattpad, it does take effort. There was a time you could post a story, leave it, and readership would grow without input from the author. Now, the author (Kenyan or foreign) needs to share on social media, off social media, on blogs, emails, on podcasts, TikTok, just about everywhere to get someone to look at the story. Marketing is needed all the time.
When you do gain an audience, it will be because the stories you write are good. Epic stories convert readers into a paying audience. If you are able to gain a following with your work, then yes, you will turn those readers into a paying audience. Your work just needs to remain amazing and consistent to attract and keep that kind of value.
We talk a lot about the need to set up more structures to support our literary industry – more writing resources, more marketing avenues, more publishers, more communities, more reviewers and book clubs, more literary prizes and fellowships, etc. More structures means more investment in ourselves, which will (hopefully) draw more investment from other parties, e.g. governments and other bodies with the capacity to fund. Presumably, this is how we will grow our literary spaces. Based on your years of experience, what specific structures do you think are needed most? If you had the ability to direct and pour investor funds into the literary industry in Kenya, what are the top three structures or systems you would promote whose establishment and growth would have the greatest impact across the industry?
I would start with finding a way to manufacture cheap paper. The production of large amounts of affordable printing paper would help the costs of printing go down, and more entrepreneurs would emerge in the Print-on-Demand space. The availability of cheap paper is essential to fostering a more diverse book publishing industry.
Cheaper printing costs will allow Kenyan authors to gain wider readership. (Of course, this would mean planting more trees, so, a paper company with ethical eco-forest practices ^_^.) Better yet, Kenyan engineers can come up with a way to make cheap paper while saving forests! (Courtesy of the environment-conscious world we live in.) Of course, these efforts would also include investing in the import or development of Print-on-Demand machines and training more people how to do different types of bookbinding.
I prefer reading light novels – mystery/thrillers, romance. Therefore, I think supporting readers who love these genres will give Kenyan authors the platforms they need to share and market their stories or novels.
Bloggers who love these books are Kenyan BookTokers and Bookstagrammers. They review these books, and they all need support in the form of events or incentives. Formulating how to bring such events and incentives to life would be an interesting way to encourage more reading. I would definitely direct resources towards such an undertaking.
Instead of fellowships and literary prizes, I would instead focus funds on creating and developing organizations like the Romance Writers Association (RWA) – there is a very active one in Nigeria now – science fiction writing associations, and screenwriters associations. I would encourage membership, create awards in different categories within these associations, and encourage participation from the public.
It would also be great to push funding into acting, writing, and music schools and clubs and music schools. Then we would really see the growth of Kenyan dramas and movies as writers, filmmakers, screenwriters, and comic creators contribute to this industry.
Kenya has so many different types of writers and these types of organizations would give them a place to display their work.
Any final remarks? Any observations you would like to share that haven’t come up in this discussion? Perhaps a word for upcoming writers or for booksellers or for publishers? Maybe a parting shot to summarise this conversation?
I have found that the biggest hurdle any writer faces is finishing a manuscript. It takes effort to write that final word, “End”. For budding writers, this moment is when you might let someone read your story for the first time.
You will get a correction. You will get a negative comment. The reception to the story might not be as enthusiastic as you hoped. I am here to tell you that it is not the end of the world. Take the correction; typos are hard to catch and sometimes you need more than two people to catch them all. Move on. Analyse the negative comment and if it is not adding to your work in anyway, shake it off and seek a second and a third opinion. If you keep at it long enough, you will grow as a writer, and you will move from budding to bona fide. The more you write, the more you will help our local genres grow.
I challenge entrepreneurs to consider investing in Publish-On-Demand businesses that can offer affordable printing services to authors. Cheaper printing will allow more Kenyan fiction books to be printed. It would be nice to buy a novel for Ksh.60 or 70, same price as a newspaper. More and more people would gain access to Kenyan fiction and Kenyan authors would find a market.
Lastly, Kenyan authors should allow themselves to be reviewed. There are thousands of Kenyan bloggers online. I sometimes feel that Kenyan authors might be afraid to approach these bloggers for reviews. Do not be afraid. Write a message to the blog you have found and request a book review. Eight out of ten times, you will get positive feedback at no charge.
This way, whether from a small blog or a huge blog, your book will show up on someone’s radar. It is a really great way to gain more readers. I say this because I have discovered I get more book review requests on my blog from other countries than I get from Kenyan authors. I’ve always wondered why, so I thought I should put it out there that I don’t charge for these reviews. J
Thank you so much for letting me talk about my books and about self-publishing, an industry that has always fascinated me. I hope my answers are of help. I hope they inspire and give confidence to a writer hoping to get started today. Keep writing!
Visit ellyinnairobi.com to connect with Elly and read more of her work as a reviewer, writer, editor, and all-round lovely human. And if you work in publishing in any capacity and are interested in having a conversation with me, I’d love to hear from you.