‘A literate child will be an improved adult, a future asset’
Access to culture and cultural heritage empowers and emancipates citizens, publishing conserves cultural heritage across time and space. GBEMI SHASORE, MD/CEO, Main events & director of Quramo Publishing Limited (QPL) in this interview with STEPHEN ONYEKWELU highlights how to make quality books accessible to both children and adults. Excerpts:
What is publishing about?
A publisher guides you from when you have a concept, to content development through editing to the market. Editing, which is a vital part of publishing helps bring structure to an author’s concept. Publishers guide you through conceptualisation to commercialisation, depending on who the author’s target audience is. Your publisher seasons the content, fries and presents it to the public. Some people have stories to tell they don’t even know about, we help them discover this. Printing is the final stage and you could be a publisher without owning a printing press.
How would you describe book publishing in Nigeria?
In my view the publishing industry in Nigeria is under optimised and underappreciated. First of all the number of locally published books in circulation is abysmally small. Secondly, when the average author or content owner decides to publish he or she feels that a good computer or Information Technology (IT) manager and a printer is all they need.
Nigerians still under appreciate the real worth of content, data, information and the art of publishing, which adds value and ensures a richer and more rewarding experience.
Who is Quramo Publishing Limited (QPL)?
Quramo publishing is an independent publishing company committed to producing the highest quality content for our various audiences. Our goal is to publish a range of titles from cultural history to contemporary fiction and nonfiction as well as academic and specialised work; works that preserve the stories of significant events and instill the spirit of their time.
How have the recent FX policies impacted your business?
With regards to the foreign exchange (FX) policies many of our books are printed in Nigeria and some are printed overseas. It depends on what the client wants. Ours is to guide them. If a potential author came with a book idea, there are two options: the author either sources funds themselves or we could partner with them in order to bring about the best possible product. This could be in the form of an e-book or print, the print version could be either hard cover or paper back.
Given the current digital revolution how is it changing the face of publishing?
The digital revolution is a moving train that cannot be stopped. If you can’t beat them, join them. We take e-publishing seriously but we also believe an eventual return to printed books is possible.
How are you promoting reading culture among Nigerians?
Our overriding ambition at QPL is to bring books to both public and private schools, since only children in private schools get to have access to quality story books. Children in public schools by this initiative would have access to a semblance of quality education. Reading expands your horizon and it is sad that pupils in public schools are short changed in this regard. Access to quality books improves communication skills. You can travel the world through books, you will learn about Togo, Ghana, South-Africa, Zimbabwe and lots more through books.
We launched QPL’s The Young Reader’s Literary Morning (YRLM), as part of a broader initiative called Read More, to foster reading and the extended benefits of improved literacy among children. This effort has the long term objective of being part of the push to raise 61 percent literacy level of Nigerian adults by targeting children in primary and secondary schools.
QPL believes that a literate child will be an improved adult; a future asset to a nation and its development agenda. This noble ideal begins from the seemingly simple task of fostering a love of books and reading in our children.
The YRLM hosts ‘edutainment’ for children in the form of debates, book readings and scene enactments from our Mango Books at host schools and will culminate in essay competitions among participating schools.
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU