Book Piracy Denies Publishing Industry 40pc Of Market Share
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Loading... - Mueni Mutunga
- 07 Jun 2022
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The Kenya Publishers Association (KPA) has identified Nakuru County as a melting point of book piracy in Kenya, a vice that KPA says is denying the country’s publishers up to 40 percent of the market share.
According to the association, school textbooks are the biggest target as they make up to 90 per cent of Kenya’s book market, and their sales are virtually guaranteed.
KPA Chairman Mr. Kiarie Kamau expressed regret that in many cases, pirated books are sold at the same price as the original versions, as few buyers can spot a fake, adding that counterfeited books not only cause publishers to incur heavy losses but also compromise the quality of education.
Kamau said some of the pirated books contain errors that occur during scanning of the original copies thereby misleading learners. Some of the books have contents crammed from old editions which are encased in covers of current editions, he warned.
“The books also have poor binding and print quality. The text is illegible and unfriendly to the learners. The growing menace is resulting in the loss of employment for most professionals in the book publishing industry,” he said.
Speaking in Nakuru during the launch of Kenya Literature Bureau’s Grade 4, 5 and 6 Competency Based Curriculum Encyclopedia, the chairman expressed concern that illegal books flooding most parts of the country were creating a string of losses in the book supply chain.
“Most people think publishing amounts only to printing. Publishing is a vast investment in content creation, editorial work, engaging book designers, warehousing, marketing, legal and financial aspects,” explained Kamau.
He added: “Furthermore, the government loses value added tax on untraceable book sales, while honest distributors and bookshops suffer on low sales and, needless to say, authors lose out on royalties.”
The event was graced by Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB) Chief Executive Officer Dr Victor Lomaria and Rift Valley Regional Director of Education, Jared Obiero.
Kamau noted that a few cases of the fakes, mostly school textbooks illegally published overseas, being of even better quality than the genuine publications have been reported suggesting that well-funded cartels were part of the hidden hand in book piracy.
He stated that an antipiracy campaign launched by the Kenya Publishers Association (KPA), the Kenya Copyright Board in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, the Anti-counterfeit Agency and the Kenya police was ongoing.
The KPA chairman advised parents to buy books from dealers who have electronic tax register receipts as this will keep the fraudsters out of business. He said that KPA introduced security features which help schools and parents ascertain the authenticity of books.
“It is similar to what is used on airtime scratch cards. A buyer only scratches to reveal the book’s serial number then sends the code to a toll-free number,” Kamau explained.
Dr Lomaria observed that besides disrupting the publishing industry, piracy was also hurting Kenya’s knowledge base. Read More…
