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Local book industry challenged to digitise

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A UNIVERSITY of Zimbabwe lecturer in the Department of Modern Languages Kudakwashe Dhoro has challenged stakeholders in the book industry to consider migration to digital platforms for their books to curb high production costs and ensure affordability.

A UNIVERSITY of Zimbabwe lecturer in the Department of Modern Languages Kudakwashe Dhoro has challenged stakeholders in the book industry to consider migration to digital platforms for their books to curb high production costs and ensure affordability.

BY KENNEDY NYAVAYA

In his presentation at the 2015 Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) Indaba on Monday, Dhoro said writers should consider self-publishing on online platforms such as Amazon.com and Mazwi.

“Any writer who has access to a computer or any device capable of writing text, can consider publishing electronically. The American company Amazon provides straight forward instructions on how any writer can have their work published and readily available on the Amazon.com website as well as their Kindle store,” he said.

“Amazon has an international presence and should the book be successful, the writer has high chances of gaining some form of international recognition.”

He added that Zimbabwean writers were still held in high esteem internationally.

He said globalisation and digital citizenship has necessitated digital literacy so there was need to move away from the focus on hard to soft copies.

The economic challenges in the country have resulted in people focusing on buying basic necessities, Dhoro said, adding that lack of financial and institutional support for the formal book publishing and distribution industry has seen fewer books being published.

Addressing the same indaba – running under the theme Growing the Knowledge Economy through Research, Writing, Publishing and Reading, National Arts Council of Zimbabwe director Elvas Mari said the arts sector had remained resilient in providing livelihoods to many despite the country’s economic crisis.

Mari said NACZ was working towards formalising the country’s creative industries so they no longer remained informal, individualistic and unprofessional.

“While other sectors of the economy are structured with proper representational and professional organisations/associations, these are glaringly lacking in the creative industries,” he said.

“The NACZ is facilitating the formation of such professional bodies as another measure of safeguarding the interests of creative industries.”

He added that this will help safeguard their operations and help organise capacity building programmes as well as activities for local writers and artistes in general.

The book fair is set to end this Saturday with lots of activities lined up for local professional authors and upcoming writers with the main agenda being helping them to survive in spite of the economic woes.

ZIBF is Africa’s premier book and publishing exhibition, showcasing the largest and most diverse annual exposition of books, magazines, journals, CDs, DVDs as well as printing and publishing technology on the continent.