Did you know selling 10,000 copies of a book is more than enough to earn you bestseller status in Nigeria?
With figures that low, it’s no surprise why publishing in the country is often described as an industry with too many problems and not enough money. Distribution is fragmented, purchasing power is weak, and piracy is an issue that never seems to go away.
Yet, there are numbers like these: 25,000 copies of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count were sold in Nigeria within days of release, while Femi Otedola’s Making It Big sold 16,000 copies in Nigeria and another 4,000 in the UK within three weeks.
These figures might look like isolated successes. But dig deeper, and you find that the same publisher was behind both. Then the question becomes how one publisher managed to sell books at this scale in such dire market conditions.
That publisher is Narrative Landscape, and in this episode of Creative Capital, we break down the decisions that helped turn it from being just a boutique publishing outfit into one of Nigeria’s most interesting publishing businesses.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How the founders used publishing services as a low-risk way to finance their business before moving into traditional publishing.
The value of accruing relationship capital in the African book publishing industry.
Why Narrative Landscape treats book launches as 360-degree marketing experiences.
How the company worked around Nigeria’s broken distribution infrastructure using independent bookstores and direct-to-consumer fulfilment.