Now Ugandan Authors Claim to be Making Millions From Books
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- 23 Jun 2022
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Ugandans are now making money from writing and selling books, contrary to the widely held belief that one cannot earn a living from writing books in Uganda because Ugandans do not buy books.
There are Ugandan writers who have minted money from writing and selling books to the very Ugandans who are said to be disinterested in local literature. Walabyeki Magoba, a novelist, playwright, and prolific author of Luganda books mostly for children says he has survived on writing since 1993. He is an author of over 90 books written in over 50 years starting in 1967 when he was in secondary school. These include Zonna Mpayippayi, Wakoze Susu Ku Bulili, Kintu Ne Nambi, and Tarantina which is both in Luganda and English. He also has three books on the secondary syllabus which are Mbayiwa, Nnamulanda, and Ssemitego Omuyizzi Kkungwa.
He narrates how he is able to survive by writing books.
According to Magoba, the reason he has earned a living from writing because of writing what his audience enjoys and being a good marketer delivering books to the readers where they can easily access them from.
To him, the urge to start writing commercially came in 1984 when he translated the play The Government Inspector by Russian dramatist and novelist, Nikolai Gogol into Luganda. After the translation, he submitted a copy to an international publisher Heinemann then with a branch in East Africa to publish his book. What he says he got as a response is that books written in Luganda have no market and that Heinemann thus could not publish his book.
Magoba was intrigued by this and he said to himself that If there is no market for Luganda books then he had to look for his own market by vending his books and in doing so he started to earn from his writing. He says in doing so he started getting many buyers.
Magoba says knowing the poor reading culture of the majority of Ugandans, he chose to write for children to pull their interest to love reading through stories about the daily lives of children while teaching them moral lessons. He thus established literacy and literature festivals in 2014 to encourage kids and schools to enjoy reading in Luganda.
During these festivals, schools bring children to compete in reading. The children are asked questions based on the stories in the books. Magoba says through this he has created a permanent market for books and a future market for children’s books. Read More…
