Publishing Literary Works in Africa: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

The mood is uninspiring when the discourse is about publishing of African literary works. As a contribution to this conversation, this article studies the challenges besetting literary publishing on the African continent. Many African writers watch their manuscripts gather dust on the bookshelves. Even some of them who are published are under published. Having interacted with literary artists and reading about disappointments expressed by various budding literary writers, the author opines that all is not well with publishing of
literary materials in Africa. The researcher discovered that some of the problems are economic, security, political, poor readership, poor authorship, harsh social environment, piracy, poor literacy and the culture that promotes orality, distraction by home video and
social media, lack of support by state, non state players and significant others. To improve the situation, education in Africa must be revolutionised. Reading of literary materials among students and the populace must be encouraged. Government should increase its
participation in the development of education. Endowments must be instituted to advance literary creativity. Copyright laws must be enforced to check piracy. On the part of authors, they must hone their skills to attune to publishable standard. These will enhance and fortify literary publishing in Africa.