With a daily growth of global online audience, there is a huge world of untapped opportunities and money to be made on the Internet for writers. Digital publishing and marketing experts downloaded some of the quickest and safest ways to make money from writing at the Tayo Aderinokun Colloquium, organised by the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Lagos Chapter. EVELYN OSAGIE AND ABIGAIL KALU report.
The world is now at the writer’s feet. And the Internet is the mode of transport, bringing the world to the writer and vice versa. The writing venture is becoming more lucrative and attractive to practitioners. And this is largely due to the advent of the Internet and social media platforms.
These were some of the submissions when the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Lagos Chapter, held its inaugural colloquium in honour of the late Tayo Aderionkun.
With the theme: Monetise and Globalise the writing Craft, the event brought together students, writers, journalists and publishers to Presken Hotel, Ikeja.
Faced with challenges of how to distribute books, how to publish and make money with their crafts, they all came to find solutions to the challenges they faced as writers and to learn.
The event featured symposium and interactive sessions driven by digital and online publishing and marketing experts, including Patrick Enaholo of the Pan Atlantic University, Ugo Okoye (the CEO of Bambooks), Felicia Otolorin (business development manager for publishers at Google Nigeria), Chukwuemeka Godswill (CEO of Boldscholar, Okechukwu Ofili (CEO of Okada Books, Richard Okpor (a sales and marketing professional), Seun Lari-Williams (a lawyer) and Sola Olorunyomi (a lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State). He explained that digital publishing is any publication done on the computer that can be read either offline or online. There are so many platforms for digital publishing ebooks (Bamboobooks, Okadabooks, Amazon etc.), WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, among others.
With a growing digital audience, digital publishing is now a must for writers and publishers, according to Enaholo. While online publishing is any publication that can be read online and this was explained by Patrick Enaholo. While stating that many Nigerian writers are yet to tap into the opportunities on the web, he advised: “As a writer you need to know your audience, know their language and what they like reading. People are in a hurry when they go online as majority scan or skim through the article, therefore you need to make your work simple, short and interesting.
“If you are to write lengthy article then you need to itemise your work. Writers also need to write their works with catchy and interesting introductions. While writing, you need to put your readers into consideration so that you won’t bore them. If you want to publish your book, you need to make some free, as it will attract readers to your other books.”
On how publishers can make money from Google, Otolorin said there are two ways writers can make money from Google – through advertisement and subscribers. She explained that subscribers will pay a certain amount of money from reading a writer’s publications online; while Google has made a provision that brings advertisement to the writer’s site and that process is done through AdSense. “Google pays the writer 68 per cent of whatever they bid with the advertisers to the writers. It is being calculated by how many people visits your site, how often do they visit the site and how much time they spend on the site. Google pays instantly and pays in US dollars. She encouraged writers to register with AdSense as they will make a lot of money from it,” she said.
Ugo Okoye and Okechukwu Ofili, founders of two online publishing solutions for writers, have Bambooks and Okada Books. They gave talks on digital platforms as solutions to traditional publishing woes and how to be a published writer online, especially using their platforms. According to them, most writers are yet to put their books online, hence readers search for their works online in vain. This trend, they observed, creates room for piracy. And overreaching the challenge of booksellers and bookshop owners have helped to impoverish writers still. Thus, to prevent piracy, encourage writing and help them make money, the two founders of online publishing platforms, noted that authors and writers can now publish and sell their books online through the help online publishing platforms, stating that they pay the authors immediately the books are sold.
For Godswill, the founder of Boldscholar, his platform helps writers to distribute their books across Nigeria through courier services that deliver books to people’s doorstep.
Many writers do not know their legal rights and how to seek redress when the need arises, according to Lari-Williams. The lawyer urged writers to consult a legal help on copyright issues, adding they should take their rights infringement to the right quarters at the Federal High Court. He advised authors to always read through a document property before signing it, advising that they should know their legal rights to bring defaulters to book.
He said: “Copyright is the right which allows a writer to have the legal right to publish a book all through his lifetime and 70years after his/her lifespan. If an author has a case, the author should take it up to the High Court as it will be addressed properly. A writer has the right to permit someone to publish his/her works after they must have reached a certain agreement. Writers can get to know their rights as writers in the constitution and other legal books.”
Leave a Reply