Literature
THE writer is often regarded as a lone figure in the process that makes him an author. Hence, in celebrating the author, the publisher is hardly featured in the success story. But the fact is, while the author is the source and central element in the creative process, the unseen hands of the editors at the publishing house play a vital role in ensuring that his manuscript is transformed into a clean and attractive copy. The publisher also ensures the commercial success of the work, thereby popularising the author.
This fundamental role of making the writer was one of the major points that came to the fore at a workshop in Lagos, where the inner workings of the publishing business was discussed with particular emphasis on the tasks of the editors.
Tagged Farafina Publishers? and Editors? Workshop, the three-day event, held from the 15th to the 17th of March, 2010, was organised by Farafina Trust, a Lagos-based non-profit organisation, under the aegis of TrustAfrica headquartered in Senegal. Facilitated by Ellah Allfrey, Deputy Editor of Granta, a literary magazine based in London and New York, it had in attendance ten participants from Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda.
The workshop sessions, which took place at the conference hall of Daisy Centre, Victoria Island, were quite engaging, lasting from 11 am to 5.30 pm, with a lunch break at 1.15 pm, each day. At each session, Ellah took participants through the various stages in the life cycle of a book; the commissioning, editing, production, sales, marketing and publicity stages. Emphasis was laid more on the commissioning or acquisition stage, where the author signs the contract, and editing stage, which involves several types of editing, such as copy editing and structural editing. The roles of each member of staff at the publishing institution, like the commissioning editor, the managing editor and the production editor, were also clearly defined and analysed against the backdrop of the current practices in the respective workplaces of the participants. All the participants were given the opportunity to enrich the discussions with their personal experiences.
Discussions usually continued after the sessions, at the serene Lekki Waterside Hotel, Lekki Phase II, where participants were lodged, as assignments given to groups and individuals were deliberated upon.
It was quite an intensive study and at the end of the three days, participants were unanimous that it was worth their while.
Yetunde Anifowoshe, who is an assistant editor with Bookcraft Limited, Ibadan, described the experience as an eye opener. ?For me, it is an eye opener to so many things about editing, it has helped me understand editing as a skill to be perfected,? she said.
The view was corroborated by her head of editorial at the Bookcraft, Ifeyinwa Christina Anyawu, who said, ?I didn?t expect to get as much as I have learnt, it has been an awesome three days. It is amazing that I have been in the publishing industry for over five years and I?ve never known that there was anything called commissioning editor. I?ve been doing the work of a commissioning editor without even realising that I?ve been doing it. It is really an eye opener.? She pledged to put into practice all that she had learnt. ?When I get back, I will let my colleagues know what I have learnt. I will recommend that various personnel should be assigned specific duties, because I?ve now realised that if only one person is doing the work of production it will actually tell on the production of the books.?
David Kaiza, a Ugandan writer and editor based in Kenya, observed that the workshop was quite innovative because of its focus on the neglected aspect of literature. In his words: ?The way that African literature has been progressing for the past six decades or so has been very much about the subject of what you write; the subject of literature, the subject of Africa?s relationship with the West in colonialism. And it told very well. But in my opinion, I think this is a technical age, how you write books and how you put them together, which have really been missing. This workshop has helped me to be able to look at that other aspect of the world of literature - the structure of the publishing industry and how as a book editor, you work with the writer and your fellow colleagues. And how in consideration of that, you also see the big picture of the book and the small bits of the book that make it work together.?
On how the knowledge gained from the workshop would impact on his work as an editor, he said, ?From this workshop I realised that in doing structural editing I was also doing a copy editor?s work, and that has bugged me down in the past. But now I think I have an idea of what, as a structural editor, I should look out for.?
The legal aspect of publishing was the subject that appealed to Parselelo Kantai most. According to the Kenyan writer and journalist, who was a runner-up in the 2004 Caine Prize for African Writing, the occasion afforded him the opportunity to get some intelligence from the other side. ?In this continent, writers have been exploited for a generation and more. And the reason for that is that writers don?t know how the publishing industry works, there has been a whole wall between writers and publishers, and publishers always try and cheat you out of your right.?
The exploitative tendency, he said, was as a result of ignorance on the part of the writers. ?It is the ignorance of the terms and implications and the knowledge of the industry that leads to this kind of situation,? he said, adding that ?With this workshop we have learnt what whole generation do not know, and we can protect our rights as writers.?
Billy Karanja Kahora, Managing Editor of Kwani Trust, Kenya, considered the workshop such a great idea that he is already planning to have a repeat of it. ?We (Kwani Trust) need to hold this next year, possibly in Nairobi, and then hold the next one in South Africa,? he promised.
Like most great ideas, the Farafina Publishers? and Editors? Workshop came about through a simple conversation ? a conversation between Ellah and Muhtar Bakare of Kachifo Limited, the Lagos-based publishers of Farafina Books, who is one of the trustees of Farafina Trust, when they met at the London Book Fair. They were talking about the attention the young African writers were getting; how they were winning prizes globally. And, considering the fact that most of the winning writers were published in England and America, they discussed how to boost both publishing and editing practice in Africa to support the young writers that were emerging all over the continent. This is because, in the words of Ellah, ?We don?t want people to think that only being published in England or America is the way to go forward.? Hence, the idea for the workshop as a forum for discussing and sharing of experiences for publishers on the African continent, which, according to her, Bakare worked on for two years.
According to Bakare, Farafina Trust instantly fell for the idea because it was in line with the aims for which it was set up. ?It is a non-profit organisation established to promote reading and writing through the literary arts. We believe that no development can take place without literature, which helps in the understanding of the dynamics of our societies.?
To meet this aims holistically, he said, the Trust is structured around five sustainable programmes. ?The major ones include a literary skills enhancement programme, of which this workshop is a part.?
Speaking specifically on the workshop, the Programme Officer of the Trust, Okey Adichie, said organising it had not been easy. They had to manage what little funding they could get from TrustAfrica to achieve the desired result. ?They gave us a grant of $22,000, and it was below our budget; the budget we gave them was close to $29,000. So we tried to do the best we could with the little we had,? he said.
The funds, according to him, were expended on, among other things, participants? transportation, accommodation, feeding and stipends. ?In terms of logistics, it wasn?t really easy; getting flight ticket and visa for people coming from outside the country wasn?t easy. But we are glad that everything worked out well.?
Things indeed turned out fine, so successful that Doreen Baingana, a Kenyan writer, wished ?it had gone on for longer?. Unfortunately, it could not - the exciting event came to a close with a mouthwatering dinner at Protea Hotel, Westwood, Ikoyi, on Wednesday night, leaving everyone involved with fond memories of the lessons and the fun.
PICTURES:
1. Cross-section of participants: (L-R) Anwuli, Ifeyinwa, Yetunde.
2. Ellah Allfrey - lecturing
3. Cross-section of participants: (L-R) Parselelo, Billy, David.
The participants
1. Parselelo Kantai.... Writer, editor, investigative journalist, Nairobi, Kenya.
2. David Kaiza.... Ugandan writer, editor, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
3. Anwuli Priscilla Ojogwu.... Communications Coordinator, FATE, Lagos, Nigeria.
4. Sumaila Isah Umaisha.... Literary Editor, New Nigerian Newspapers, Kaduna, Nigeria.
5. Ifeyinwa Christina Anyanwu.... Head of Editorial, Bookcraft, Ibadan, Nigeria.
6. Doreen Baingana.... Writer and Managing Editor, Storymoja Publishing Company, Nairobi, Kenya.
7. Simidele Dosekun.... Writer and Managing Editor/Chief Operating Officer, Kachifo Ltd, publishers of Farafina Books, Lagos, Nigera.
8. Billy Karanja Kahora.... Managing Editor, Kwani Trust, Nairobi, Kenya.
9. Ayodele Arigbabu.... Creative Director, 1 Dream Arts & Design Agency, Lagos, Nigeria.
10. Yetunde Anifowoshe.... Assistant Editor, Bookcraft, Ibadan, Nigeria.
(c) Reported by SUMAILA UMAISHA and published in the 3/4/2010 edition of New Nigerian newspaper.
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Literature
Farafina's window to the publishing world
THE writer is often regarded as a lone figure in the process that makes him an author. Hence, in celebrating the author, the publisher is hardly featured in the success story. But the fact is, while the author is the source and central element in the creative process, the unseen hands of the editors at the publishing house play a vital role in ensuring that his manuscript is transformed into a clean and attractive copy. The publisher also ensures the commercial success of the work, thereby popularising the author.
This fundamental role of making the writer was one of the major points that came to the fore at a workshop in Lagos, where the inner workings of the publishing business was discussed with particular emphasis on the tasks of the editors.
Tagged Farafina Publishers? and Editors? Workshop, the three-day event, held from the 15th to the 17th of March, 2010, was organised by Farafina Trust, a Lagos-based non-profit organisation, under the aegis of TrustAfrica headquartered in Senegal. Facilitated by Ellah Allfrey, Deputy Editor of Granta, a literary magazine based in London and New York, it had in attendance ten participants from Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda.
The workshop sessions, which took place at the conference hall of Daisy Centre, Victoria Island, were quite engaging, lasting from 11 am to 5.30 pm, with a lunch break at 1.15 pm, each day. At each session, Ellah took participants through the various stages in the life cycle of a book; the commissioning, editing, production, sales, marketing and publicity stages. Emphasis was laid more on the commissioning or acquisition stage, where the author signs the contract, and editing stage, which involves several types of editing, such as copy editing and structural editing. The roles of each member of staff at the publishing institution, like the commissioning editor, the managing editor and the production editor, were also clearly defined and analysed against the backdrop of the current practices in the respective workplaces of the participants. All the participants were given the opportunity to enrich the discussions with their personal experiences.
Discussions usually continued after the sessions, at the serene Lekki Waterside Hotel, Lekki Phase II, where participants were lodged, as assignments given to groups and individuals were deliberated upon.
It was quite an intensive study and at the end of the three days, participants were unanimous that it was worth their while.
Yetunde Anifowoshe, who is an assistant editor with Bookcraft Limited, Ibadan, described the experience as an eye opener. ?For me, it is an eye opener to so many things about editing, it has helped me understand editing as a skill to be perfected,? she said.
The view was corroborated by her head of editorial at the Bookcraft, Ifeyinwa Christina Anyawu, who said, ?I didn?t expect to get as much as I have learnt, it has been an awesome three days. It is amazing that I have been in the publishing industry for over five years and I?ve never known that there was anything called commissioning editor. I?ve been doing the work of a commissioning editor without even realising that I?ve been doing it. It is really an eye opener.? She pledged to put into practice all that she had learnt. ?When I get back, I will let my colleagues know what I have learnt. I will recommend that various personnel should be assigned specific duties, because I?ve now realised that if only one person is doing the work of production it will actually tell on the production of the books.?
David Kaiza, a Ugandan writer and editor based in Kenya, observed that the workshop was quite innovative because of its focus on the neglected aspect of literature. In his words: ?The way that African literature has been progressing for the past six decades or so has been very much about the subject of what you write; the subject of literature, the subject of Africa?s relationship with the West in colonialism. And it told very well. But in my opinion, I think this is a technical age, how you write books and how you put them together, which have really been missing. This workshop has helped me to be able to look at that other aspect of the world of literature - the structure of the publishing industry and how as a book editor, you work with the writer and your fellow colleagues. And how in consideration of that, you also see the big picture of the book and the small bits of the book that make it work together.?
On how the knowledge gained from the workshop would impact on his work as an editor, he said, ?From this workshop I realised that in doing structural editing I was also doing a copy editor?s work, and that has bugged me down in the past. But now I think I have an idea of what, as a structural editor, I should look out for.?
The legal aspect of publishing was the subject that appealed to Parselelo Kantai most. According to the Kenyan writer and journalist, who was a runner-up in the 2004 Caine Prize for African Writing, the occasion afforded him the opportunity to get some intelligence from the other side. ?In this continent, writers have been exploited for a generation and more. And the reason for that is that writers don?t know how the publishing industry works, there has been a whole wall between writers and publishers, and publishers always try and cheat you out of your right.?
The exploitative tendency, he said, was as a result of ignorance on the part of the writers. ?It is the ignorance of the terms and implications and the knowledge of the industry that leads to this kind of situation,? he said, adding that ?With this workshop we have learnt what whole generation do not know, and we can protect our rights as writers.?
Billy Karanja Kahora, Managing Editor of Kwani Trust, Kenya, considered the workshop such a great idea that he is already planning to have a repeat of it. ?We (Kwani Trust) need to hold this next year, possibly in Nairobi, and then hold the next one in South Africa,? he promised.
Like most great ideas, the Farafina Publishers? and Editors? Workshop came about through a simple conversation ? a conversation between Ellah and Muhtar Bakare of Kachifo Limited, the Lagos-based publishers of Farafina Books, who is one of the trustees of Farafina Trust, when they met at the London Book Fair. They were talking about the attention the young African writers were getting; how they were winning prizes globally. And, considering the fact that most of the winning writers were published in England and America, they discussed how to boost both publishing and editing practice in Africa to support the young writers that were emerging all over the continent. This is because, in the words of Ellah, ?We don?t want people to think that only being published in England or America is the way to go forward.? Hence, the idea for the workshop as a forum for discussing and sharing of experiences for publishers on the African continent, which, according to her, Bakare worked on for two years.
According to Bakare, Farafina Trust instantly fell for the idea because it was in line with the aims for which it was set up. ?It is a non-profit organisation established to promote reading and writing through the literary arts. We believe that no development can take place without literature, which helps in the understanding of the dynamics of our societies.?
To meet this aims holistically, he said, the Trust is structured around five sustainable programmes. ?The major ones include a literary skills enhancement programme, of which this workshop is a part.?
Speaking specifically on the workshop, the Programme Officer of the Trust, Okey Adichie, said organising it had not been easy. They had to manage what little funding they could get from TrustAfrica to achieve the desired result. ?They gave us a grant of $22,000, and it was below our budget; the budget we gave them was close to $29,000. So we tried to do the best we could with the little we had,? he said.
The funds, according to him, were expended on, among other things, participants? transportation, accommodation, feeding and stipends. ?In terms of logistics, it wasn?t really easy; getting flight ticket and visa for people coming from outside the country wasn?t easy. But we are glad that everything worked out well.?
Things indeed turned out fine, so successful that Doreen Baingana, a Kenyan writer, wished ?it had gone on for longer?. Unfortunately, it could not - the exciting event came to a close with a mouthwatering dinner at Protea Hotel, Westwood, Ikoyi, on Wednesday night, leaving everyone involved with fond memories of the lessons and the fun.
PICTURES:
1. Cross-section of participants: (L-R) Anwuli, Ifeyinwa, Yetunde.
2. Ellah Allfrey - lecturing
3. Cross-section of participants: (L-R) Parselelo, Billy, David.
The participants
1. Parselelo Kantai.... Writer, editor, investigative journalist, Nairobi, Kenya.
2. David Kaiza.... Ugandan writer, editor, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
3. Anwuli Priscilla Ojogwu.... Communications Coordinator, FATE, Lagos, Nigeria.
4. Sumaila Isah Umaisha.... Literary Editor, New Nigerian Newspapers, Kaduna, Nigeria.
5. Ifeyinwa Christina Anyanwu.... Head of Editorial, Bookcraft, Ibadan, Nigeria.
6. Doreen Baingana.... Writer and Managing Editor, Storymoja Publishing Company, Nairobi, Kenya.
7. Simidele Dosekun.... Writer and Managing Editor/Chief Operating Officer, Kachifo Ltd, publishers of Farafina Books, Lagos, Nigera.
8. Billy Karanja Kahora.... Managing Editor, Kwani Trust, Nairobi, Kenya.
9. Ayodele Arigbabu.... Creative Director, 1 Dream Arts & Design Agency, Lagos, Nigeria.
10. Yetunde Anifowoshe.... Assistant Editor, Bookcraft, Ibadan, Nigeria.
(c) Reported by SUMAILA UMAISHA and published in the 3/4/2010 edition of New Nigerian newspaper.
- Farafina Trust Workshop 2013: Call For Applications
Farafina Trust will be holding a creative writing workshop in Lagos, organized by award winning writer and creative director of Farafina Trust, Chimamanda Adichie, from August 6 to August 16 2013. The Caine Prize winning Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina,...
- Nal, Nlng In Quest For Literary Excellence
L ? R: Prof. Ayo Bamgbose, Miss Siene Allwell-Brown, Prof. Ben Elugbe, Mrs. Mabel Segun, Prof. Ayo Banjo and Malam Denja Abdullahi at the opening ceremony Why does a book considered by the author as a masterpiece at times fail to make it in literary...
- Poetry: Sentinel Nigeria Spreads The Gospel
The 3rd of July, 2010 was a special day for the members of the Kaduna State chapter of Association of Nigerian Authors and writers resident in Kaduna, as Unoma Azuah, Professor of Creative Writing at Lane College, USA, lectured them on some vital techniques...
- Those Who Don?t Read Fiction Don?t Write Well
BINYAVANGA WAINAINA, a Kenyan writer and winner of the 2002 Caine Prize for African Writing, who is currently a Bard Fellow and Director of the Chinua Achebe Centre for African Literature and Languages at Bard College, was one of the resource persons...
- Farafina: Nurturing Emerging Writers (report)
Even though the age-long maxim that writers are born and not made still holds true, today?s writer who wishes to distinguish himself from the crowd can no longer afford to rely entirely on his creative instinct, given the increasing competitive nature...