We have previously reported on the success of Amanda Hocking, the self-publishing author who has drawn a large following with her young adult paranormal book series. Now, Hocking has signed a four-book deal with St. Martin’s Press, part of the publishing house Macmillan. Several major publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins dropped out of the bidding when the price rose beyond $2 million:
The next time someone mentions “the young adult paranormal genre” … try not to look so stupid. News that 26-year-old Minnesotan Amanda Hocking, aka the “Kindle millionaire,” has signed a seven-figure, four-book deal with St. Martins Press got around very fast. On the New York Times blog Media Decoder, Julie Bosman writes: “A heated auction for the rights to publish her books began early last week, and several major publishers, including Random House, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, dropped out as the price climbed into the seven figures.
Meet Uzoma Uponi, a busy mother of four from Nigeria who lives in Calgary, Canada. A two-week break in 2008 allowed her to indulge in one of her favourite activities, writing, which culminated in the Christian-lit novel Colourblind, which she self-published three months later.
Taken completely by surprise, Uponi found herself on this year’s Commonwealth Writers Prize shortlist. She didn’t win, but she did score a feature in her local paper:
Uzoma Uponi had it all carefully planned.
The Calgary-based, Nigerian-born writer was going to adhere to a long-term, and unusually practical, schedule when it came to her writing career. When inspiration would strike, she would jot down the random idea, short-story outline or whatever else might be percolating in her imagination. She would study books she loved – sometimes chapter by chapter – to try to determine why they worked.
But Uponi would then file this preparatory work away for a later date.
TC Southwall is set to become the South African “Amanda Hocking” of digital self-publishing. Having grown up in the Seychelles, Southwall settled in South Africa after the death of her father. An IT professional, she’s taken to the world of digital self-publishing with fervour, publishing over 25 fantasy and sci-fi novels in two months, as well as five screenplays.
Her stories “combine fantasy and adventure with romance” and the sheer amount of her publications is testament to the fact that, “For this author, writing is as easy as reading”.
Southwell’s books are available from her homepage, where you can enter into the her world of fantasy by reading one of her e-books for free. Her is an excerpt from her First Book in the Cyber Chronicles, Queen of Arlin:
Heavy, indigo velvet curtains covered the windows and kept the wood-panelled bedchamber gloomy, adding to the sense of doom. Smoking braziers burnt incense, thickening the air with cloying scent. Bottles, vials and pots cluttered the bedside table, testament to the doctors’ futile ministrations.
King Alrade’s swift illness had taken all by surprise, wasting the flesh from his powerful frame at an alarming speed and robbing him of his strength. The King’s eyes wandered over his long-time friend’s face, seeking an answer in his elderly features but finding none. Despair flared in his eyes.
“What can I do about it now, Pervor? All that I can, I have done. Did you meet the wizard?”
The gaunt, balding advisor nodded. “He agreed to help. He told me that he would send a tool, some sort of magical device, and it will appear in our dungeons when it is ready. Do you truly trust this man, Sire? You leave the fate of your kingdom and your daughter in his hands.”
King Alrade sighed and settled deeper into the soft cushions of his deathbed. “What choice do I have, my friend? The gods have decided to take me from this mortal plane, and none can gainsay them. Certainly not that brood of incompetents that lurk in the shadows. I only wish I could stay to see it through. Tassin does not deserve this burden on her reign, she is too young.” Anger brought blood to stain the old King’s cheeks for a moment before it drained away again. His wheezing broke the hush.
“Tassin is strong,” Pervor soothed. “She comes from a long line of warrior kings and queens. She will win.”
The King shook his head, closing his eyes as a stab of pain coursed through him. “She is frailer than you think. Her mother was as fragile as a flower, and as easily crushed. Why do you think she died birthing Tassin, who was such a small baby? Tassin tries to be a warrior princess, but she is too small, like her mother, her blows too puny. Mandon, bless him, makes her feel good when she does her sword training, but he tells me that she can hardly cleave a butterfly in half.”
Pervor pursed pale lips and regarded the dying King. “But she has your blood in her too, My King. She will be strong when she has to.”
“She will try. I pray that she does not kill herself in the process. Pervor, swear to me.”
The aged advisor fell to one knee. “Anything, Sire, just name it.”
“Protect her, and if you cannot, since you are old, find a mighty warrior who will. One who will stand beside her and kill her enemies when she cannot. She will have troubles aplenty, and not merely the monsters from the Death Zone that ravage our land. The kings will fight for her hand, and none are truly good. Find someone. Be he mage or warrior, prince or miracle worker. She will need him. Swear this to me.”
Pervor bowed his head. “I swear, My King, upon my life and the lives of my children, to do my utmost.”
“Tell her of the weapon as soon as she is Queen. Help her to use it, and defeat the Death Zone. I leave her in your care.”
Pervor nodded, frowning as the King’s breath rattled ominously, and one of the healers who hovered nearby stepped closer to bend over him.
“Send for the Princess,” the doctor said.
The advisor retreated into the shadows as a manservant ran out. Pervor gazed at the King who lay shrunken and pale on the huge bed, the doctors gathered around him like vultures about a corpse.
Earlier this year kalahari.net launched a new service called Marketplace, which allows anyone to set up a virtual store and sell products using the kalahari.net infrastructure. The project was in a testing phase for quite a while, although anyone could sign up to try it out during that time, and now it has officially been launched, along with some new features that were based on user feedback.
Here’s how to get started with kalahari.net Marketplace, as well as some detailed notes to help authors, book sellers, and shoppers get the most from the service. With the festive season upon us, there’s no better time than now to jump in!
Setting Up An Account And Getting Started
The set-up process is very quick and easy. If you already have a shopper’s account with kalahari.net you just need to visit the Marketplace page and activate your Marketplace functionality by signing up with a few extra details. If you don’t have an account, or if you want to have a separate one for your Marketplace activities, you need to visit the link above and register a new kalahari.net account.
When you sign up you will have to enter your name; address; a contact number; ID, passport, or company-registration number; and bank-account details, as well as certain details about your business if you’re signing up for a business, rather than personal account. When you add your address details note that the suburb will be listed on your public Marketplace seller’s profile page so that potential buyers know where you come from. (If you’re just curious to try out the system for a few months you can activate your account as a personal account and then convert it to a business account later, keeping your feedback and ratings intact.)
kalahari.net’s systems will then verify your bank-account details, which may take a few days. You will be charged R5, which is similar to the bidorbuy or PayPal registration/validation fee that you are charged for those services. Once your account has been verified any items that you have set up in the meantime will be publicly listed. This also tells potential customers that you have been verified by kalahari.net.
Adding Products And Finalising Listings
Once you have completed the sign-up process you will be able to add your items to the catalogue immediately although, as mentioned, they won’t be visible to shoppers until you are verified. At the moment only certain product categories are accepted – books, DVDs/Blu-Ray Discs/videos, CDs, games, consumer electronics, and photographic equipment. This process is also very simple – there’s a form in which you add pertinent details, such as the product’s ISBN, bar code, or kalahari.net SKU, as well as any other descriptive information, and then the system will search kalahari.net’s catalogue to see if the item is in the database (whether or not kalahari.net has product to sell). If it is, you need to fill in some more information describing the product, such as whether it’s new or second hand and what condition it’s in (the more detail the better, of course). Finally, you add your selling price and then you can upload this listing to the system, which may take a few days to reflect publicly, at which point it becomes an “active” product.
Upload options
If your product is not in the catalogue or you don’t have an ISBN or bar code for the item, you can submit a description of it, plus a photo, to kalahari.net for verifying. This is done manually so it takes a few days for a human to approve the product.
Once you’ve upload a product you have to choose a delivery method. The default is the Post Office, at a minimum of R30 (for the first kilogramme, plus R3.80 per additional kilogramme), but you can also choose the courier option, at a minimum of R81 (for the first 500g, R96.89 for one kilogramme and R100.55 for two kilogrammes) if you wish to go to the extra effort. The buyer pays the shipping fee so you need to keep that in mind when you are setting your sale price in order to keep it competitive. At the moment you can only ship locally but Liz Hillock, kalahari.net’s head of marketing, says that the ability to sell overseas is likely to be introduced in the coming months as they “enhance the seller platform”.
A listing in the catalogue
Selling A Product And Reputation
When a person buys your product he will immediately be charged and the money will be held by kalahari.net. You will be emailed a notification, and you will have to log in and go to the “parcel order/confirmation” link and print out a delivery note. Then you’ll need to go to the Post Office with your product, which you have packaged securely (with the delivery note) for shipping. At the Post Office, ship the product and get a tracking number and estimated delivery date. Once back home, log in to your account and enter this information, which kalahari.net will then send to the buyer.
After 14 days kalahari.net will pay you the purchase price, minus a 4% (plus VAT) transaction fee. The buyer’s acceptance of the parcel at the Post Office, which requires a signature and an ID number, is your proof that it has been delivered.
Each seller has a public profile page that buyers can visit to learn more about you, see what products you’re selling, and what your “reputation” is. Buyers can leave comments related to their shopping experience with you and give you a rating. A four or five is a positive rating, a three is a neutral rating, and two and one are negative ratings. These ratings are aggregated over time so that new customers can see if you’re any good, and if you’ve been improving over time. If someone posts a negative comment you have an option to post a public reply and if the complaint is genuine there are systems in place to help you to manage conflict, which may require you to issue a refund, for example. (You can also respond to positive feedback if you would like to.)
A seller's profile page, showing reputation and comments
Who Should Use It Authors:
If your book’s gone out of print and you have the space to rescue the last few boxes from pulping hell, consider doing so, and selling the copies directly via a Marketplace store. You can promote it via your web site and social-networking accounts, especially when you publish your next novel and there’s renewed interest in your previous work.
Self-publishers now have a new, professional sales channel with which to market and sell their books as potential customers, who may hesitate to send money with no guarantee of receiving goods, will be familiar with, and will trust, the kalahari.net system, especially knowing that buyer protection is in place. Additionally, if you’ve published a book without an ISBN or bar code (though getting an ISBN is still recommended) you will now have an way to sell it in a professional manner rather than only in person at book fairs and similar events.
Most recently, authors now have a way to distribute self-pubished e-books, as those can also be listed in Marketplace.
Book Sellers And Shoppers:
The kalahari.net team has been monitoring sales in the Marketplace and some interesting statistics and trends have emerged. Although there are more music and DVD listings of second-hand goods when it comes to actual sales, not only do books have the lead but they sell at better prices. The key to being successful, of course, is knowing what sells well.
According to Liz Hillock, “There is a huge demand for new and used textbooks, anything from Ganong’s Review Of Medical Physiology to General Principles Of Commercial Law. Bestsellers like Shantaram and Eclipse are also popular, but there is a healthy mix of titles in both English and Afrikaans.” Textbooks are incredibly expensive so the demand is so great for second-hand textbooks and the sales have been so successful that kalahari.net will be running a textbook campaign after the holidays to target students who have old ones to sell and need to buy new ones for their next set of courses.
Cook books are another hot area, with a huge market for second-hand books, as aspiring chefs who have worked their way through their collections are always on the lookout for new recipes and new ideas.
A number of the smaller, traditional “bricks and mortar” retailers have tried their hands at selling via the Marketplace and there have already been some success stories. As Liz Hillock says, “We already have over 4000 sellers listing over 600,000 items, including small brick and mortar book stores who are now trading on kalahari.net and selling both their new and used books online, for the first time. It’s a compelling sales channel because our sellers don’t need to have an existing online presence, they can simply download our Bulk Loader spreadsheet and upload thousands of books directly to SA’s largest online retail store. Plus, in a bold commercial move Top Music, a CD, DVD, and games store, has closed its bricks and mortar door after 15 years of trading, only to reopen the shop on kalahari.net! According to owner Leon Harmse, business is booming. ‘Running a store online has unbelievable benefits. You have no idea what it has done to our little business. We are now a 24-hour online store which no longer subscribes to operating hours, customers can shop whenever they want, and more importantly, they can buy my products from anywhere. I now wake up in the morning and find that sales were concluded throughout the night. I should have done this a long time ago,’ he says.”
Finally, with the recent addition of the new infrastructure that allows you to list something even though there’s no ISBN and it’s not in the existing catalogue, dealers in antiquities and rare books are finding they have access to a whole new market online and some have been very successful in using the platform.
Start Selling!
I have personally tested the platform by setting up a profile and uploading a product, although I haven’t sold anything yet, and can confirm how easy it is to get going. If you have any books that you think deserve a home, set up your account right away to catch the festive-season gift hunters and new-year bargain shoppers!
Still trying to decide what books are worth the extra baggage weight or e-reader space – not to mention your precious leisure time over the holidays?
No need to stress, sort through the fluff with Mail & Guardian reviewer Jane Rosenthal’s summer books picks.
Keep it short, sweet and local this summer, short-story collections, Homing by Henrietta Rose-Innes, The Mistress’s Dog by David Medalie, and Exposure by Shaun de Waal are among Rosenthal’s top picks. Read more from her article below to see what else made onto her summer list:
The recession (receding at a snail’s pace), continued VAT on books and having only a few thousand real book-addict-type readers in South Africa might have made things in the book world slow down, but they have not deterred the writers and publishers at all.
Books in all categories continue to appear and there is a new trend — publishers who previously eschewed short stories seem to have had a rethink. This year several collections have come out in South Africa. Perhaps they took heart after Alice Munro, the great, seemingly unstoppable, short-story writer won the Man Booker International Prize in 2009. This is such good news for those who like to write in this form and three of the best local collections are Homing by Henrietta Rose-Innes (Umuzi, 2010), The Mistress’s Dog by David Medalie (Picador Africa, 2010) and Exposure by Shaun de Waal (BookSurge, 2010).
Alert! Much is afoot in the world of books over at the Mother Ship.
Said Mother Ship being, of course, the Naspers gebou / Media24 building on Cape Town’s foreshore, pictured above, where sits the nerve centre of the greater Media24 empire, which includes, in its brood, the e-commerce site Kalahari.net and the country’s biggest “book club” (really, so much more, and indeed less, than an actual book club), Leserskring, aka Leisure Books.
Both hatchlings have introduced innovations into our world of books recently: namely, a new social network called iBhuku.com that mimics, in part, the world’s biggest readers’ site, GoodReads.com; and an e-distribution solution for self-published authors that works regardless of whether books have ISBNs.
iBhuku is a Leserskring project that debuted only a few days ago but already has a sizeable membership, a portfolio of virtual book clubs like “Twilight-lovers” and “Horror-lovers” (SL Grey, are you listening?) that broadly conform to the Leserskring “popular reads” profile, and a timeline of user activity that’s currently a bit slow-moving but undoubtedly will pick up as the membership builds.
BOOK SA can’t but help wonder whether Leserskring knew that, by using the term “ibhuku”, it was trampling on territory already established by Byron Loker over at Blogspot.
So far, it would seem there’s very little SA Lit on the network – although there is an Ena Murray book club – but, again, the project has just kicked off.
iBhuku takes the first few steps, in South Africa, down one of the likelier paths of “the future of bookselling” as digital publishing and social networks converge, so kudos to Leserskring for getting it off the ground. Now, about that SA Lit…
Meanwhile, over at Kalahari.net, there’s big – by which we mean BIG – news for self-publishers. Gary Novitzkas, the GM of “Customer Experience” at the e-retailer, explains:
“It is extremely difficult to establish relationships with major distributors and book sellers directly. Through our marketplace, kalahari.net is now offering any publisher a distribution and selling alternative. Authors and other sellers can sell their printed self published books on kalahari.net marketplace, regardless of whether they have an ISBN number or distribution deals in place or not.”
The service to self-publishers appears to be no different than that offered to all sellers within Kalahari’s new marketplace platform – it’s just that no one thought to spin the marketplace as an outlet for authors until now. Notably, however, Kalahari is also offering to distribute self-published ebooks, which could be quite a boon for authors who don’t wish to keep stock (though we don’t recommend reading these ebooks on Kalahari’s own reader just yet).
For printed books that are self-published, the Kalahari marketplace system works like this:
Self-publishers have the ability to set their own price
Titles can be listed for free without cover cost
Self publishers can list books for free
Kalahari.net levies a 4% commission on a successful sale
The seller is responsible for managing stock and take delivery
Buyers pay for postage
To get started, simply go to Kalahari.net’s Marketplace and register. You’ll be able to sell your books direct to quite a large consumer base very quickly.
For e-books, as might be expected, the process is a bit more complicated. It involves third-party self-publishing services that are integrated with On the Dot – the major Media24 book distributor – including Crink (also owned by Media24) and independent outfits like Mousehand. If you take your manuscript to any such third party, you’ll be loaded on to the Kalahari ebook system, and will sell through the third party’s account, with presumably a percentage of sales going to that account.
So that’s the latest from the Mother Ship – and BOOK SA has heard of quite a number of further offerings, particularly from Kalahari, to be introduced before Christmas, so keep an eye out!
A COMPENDIUM of short stories by Prithiraj Dullay, titled Saltwater Runs in My Veins, was recently launched at the Durban University of Technology.
The book is partly autobiographical, providing an insight into Dullay’s life-altering experiences in his youth, his growing political consciousness as a student and his activism as a teacher in Port Shepstone.
Renata Harper provides a breakdown of the world of self-publishing, including a necessary lists of dos and don’ts, complete with quotes from Modjaji Books‘ Colleen Higgs:
Self-publishing means outsourcing the printing of your manuscript to a printer or publishing services company directly, as opposed to through a publishing company. Electronic publishing, or e-publishing, is one way to self-publish – of course, the ‘e-book’ is only available online and you’ll have to work with a ‘printer’ who will lay out your book for the web.
Reasons to do it
Publishers are market-driven, and even if your story is good, it may not resonate with a big enough market. If you’ve written a family history or personal story, this could be the route for you.
We move through life as it moves through us. We make up stories in our minds. And often these stories overlap. We hope with all our heart.
We dream. We love, often deeply. We experience some gains and some losses. Each of these moments leave an imprint on the rich tapestry of our souls. Sometimes the only way to share the awesomeness is by whispering a few words on the wind. Memoirs for Kimya is a collection of whispers and a tribute to the many people we meet along life’s journey.
Date: Sunday, 18 October 2009
Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM
Venue: Bo-Kaap Kombuis
7 August Street
Cape Town | Map
[Veil] With change dramatically entering her life, Emily begins to learn how thoughts are things. This title introduces Emily May Harrison, who has grown up in Paradise Beach with her Gran and friend Sam, until suddenly, at the age of 12, she is told she has to go to boarding school in Kingstown.
[Sprites] Emily has no choice but to continue helping Aurana towards the Balance, after losing her friend in the Battle and having been warned that this was just ‘The Beginning of the End’ by Admonai of the Shadows.
Date: Saturday, 24 October 2009
Time: 9:30 AM for 10:00 AM
Venue: Folio Books
207 Main Road (opp Westerford High School)
Newlands | Map
“We must discover our mission for our country and our African Continent, and then fulfil it, and not betray it”, reads the last line in the book published by Tokoloho Publishers, entitled The Hidden Side of South African Politics by Dr Motsoko Pheko, former Member of the South African Parliament.
It is this last line that embodies the truth, reflections and insights of our country’s politics, especially of the liberation movements and what they achieved or did not achieve.
Verdict: carrot
Renata Harper provides a breakdown of the world of self-publishing, including a necessary lists of dos and don’ts, complete with quotes from 
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