How lucrative is it to be a writer in Nigeria?

This is just what Henry Akubuiro wonders in the Sunday Sun and basically arrives at the conclusion that it is not. Why that should be a surprise, we don't know. From an article we read not too long ago in the Independent called Pulped Fiction (in April 2007) the average writer in the UK (if you remove the superstars from the list makes money "insufficient for stale bread for breakfast and a tarpaulin for shelter." Read it here.

Getting on with the story, Henry Akubuiro starts the article by saying, "... More than other artists from the arts, creative writers have brought more joy to Nigeria, with literary giants like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, to mention a few, winning international renown and prizes, having their bestsellers translated into many foreign languages, and thereby promoting our cultural heritage ... Compared to the Nigerian musician or actor, the Nigerian writer, despite his intellectual edge, is taking the backseat as far as financial fortunes are concerned."

Further down the article he continues, "... Nigerian publishers are not helping matters, too. For most of them, their work stops at the point when the books are rolled out from the press. They do little or none of promoting and marketing their authors. A few of them who attempt doing this only rely on book reviews on newspaper arts pages instead of advertising their books as is the norm in the western world."

And more revealingly, he quotes Hyacinth Obunseh, currently assistant secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and doubles as the CEO of Hybun, a publishing outlet that has published many new Nigerian writers, who says that the reason "our writers (are) not making money (is due) to the fact that publishers themselves are not making money."

His is the conclusion of the pessimist: "Judging from the foregoing, the creative writer in Nigeria is only a few steps removed from becoming an endangered species." This is, indeed, sad considering how Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart has sold 10 million copies worldwide (but is, reportedly, 'banned' from entering this country though it has been used for literature text by several schools for years. Go figure. This is Malaysia. Given this aggressive anti-intellectualism, is it a surprise that no Malaysian University is in the top 200 in the world?)

Full story: http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/literari/2007/nov/18/literari-18-11-2007-001.htm