It’s still the Marketing, Stupid!
It’s the Marketing, Stupid!
Or at least that’s what I have been thinking for the last few days as I slapped my forehead in between bouts of pondering what the literary industry in South Africa is doing wrong. Y’see, this weekend I was a discussant at the Words on Water Festival : Conversation Between South Africa and India. Among the speakers was the feisty and intelligent Indian popular women’s fiction brand known as Shobhaa De. Shobhaa and I had a discussion at length on just how she managed to penetrate the Indian readers market to a point where her vast readers await her next book like JK Rowlings fans await a Harry Potter. And I learnt something that I should have known a long time ago. Our marketing for literature sucks. That’s not to say that we are not doing it. We are doing it. But we are marketing literature in the same manner that First World literary marketers do for First World writers which already have a captive audience. There is a need to note our market and penetrate it differently in South Africa.
Let me begin with the stats.
- 25 writers (the number is higher) to have emerged in this nation within the last 5 years.
- Triple that amount of books published.
- 1 author that has sold more than a 100 000 copies (you guessed him, John van der Ruit) and the rest celebrate when they hit 5 000 as that is considered bestselling status.
Add the fact that there are no bookshops selling fiction in Johannesburg South and many other places in South Africa and the question must be asked, ‘why even write or publish?’
The most criticism that’s levelled on writers is that after the submission of the manuscript, we sit back and relax and wait for the book to sell itself. I beg to differ on that with regards to South African writers (and you can call me a fictional writer if you like). South African writers are some of the most hard-working marketers that I know. I have never yet known anyone who has turned down a chance for a radio or television interview. I am yet to come across a writer in this country who is approached by a magazine to write an article and they do not do it. This should be enough to put them in the psyche of the mainstream right? Right?
Nope.
Truth is, reading and writers are just not popular culture and much as writers have done the television and radio spots and appeared on newspaper and magazine book pages (in the former generally on inserts which unfortunately I have heard many people don’t read and in the latter on some close to back pages), no-one is going to know who writers are, and the average person who buys their magazine at CNA (couldn’t resist) will not know that South African literature exist. The only way that South African writers manage to sneak in to the News and Opinion section of a newspaper is when we crack a mention by fellow writer Fred Khumalo on his Sunday Times page, and that’s the height of writers making news. Imraan Coovadia writes a brilliant book and you will have to search the book pages to see its mention. Khanyi Mbau slips on a banana and you can be certain that it will make page 3 of the Sunday weeklies broadsheet…and the rest of us are still not quite sure what it is exactly she has achieved.
But enough about Khanyi. Let me be the first admit that perhaps she is better at marketing than all us literary characters put together…for how else can you explain? That said, those who have some ideas that SA literature does exist like a certain friend of mine, are of the bent that reading fiction dumbs them down, ‘I only read political biographies’ (and this without even having read my work, never mind other stuff available locally. ouch).
So how do we do this? How do we let the average person know that our work is out there, and when it is, that there is something for everyone even my friend who claims he doesn’t read fiction/South African commentary because somehow Chomsky and Pilger are the last word on that?
Over the last couple of days I have been toying with a few ideas – some ambitious, some expensive but I really believe, quite doable but largely with the intention of putting writers and their work in the psyche of the people.
Enough writers know editors of magazines so surely this is an angle where we can use our influence? I am thinking Laurian Clemence and Makholwa on the cover of mass-marketed magazines like You and Drum. Or perhaps Kevin Bloom and Siphiwo Mahala on the cover of GQ with a tag ‘Men of Letters.’ We could have some light-hearted features in Glamour, Elle, True Love, destiny et al by guys like Tom Eaton and Niq Mhlongo telling us why they find women who read sexy or it could be a male magazine with Bridget MacNulty and Futhi Ntshingila on how charmed they are by men who have read their work.
I see the red flag going up. Some writer is about to highlight that it is not about us but our work. I do not dispute that for a second. And I know many of us are an introverted lot. But could a little publicity be dangerous for the sake of worthwhile book sales?
But let’s not just leave it at the print and broadcast media. Writers, as any other artists in the country, have a full ministry dedicated to them. That’s right. The Department of Arts and Culture. Maybe it is time DAC did as much for writers as it does sponsoring jazz festivals. Nothing expensive, something along the lines of those many government posters that people see in clinics, libraries, social welfare offices and Home Affairs departments that people read while waiting for the slow pace of bureaucracy to move.
In the case of the DAC posters, they would be encouraging people to READ SA. Perhaps DAC could be kind enough to even sponsor a public service announcement on television featuring the big man. I am here envisioning Msholozi in a slot telling one of his 40 people at the call centre to ‘take a message’ as he is still pondering at the similarities between Trinity’s father in Fiona Synckers’ Trinity Rising and his Minister of Housing, Tokyo Sexwale. After all, if the government keeps talking about the need for greater literacy, should they not put their money where their mouths are?
And then there are organisations like Goethe Institute, British Council, and ALLIANCE Francaise which have always promoted the arts in South Africa but which probably need some concrete request of just how best they can help us.
Finally of course, there is the corporate world. Nedbank already sponsors a Read-a-thon but I am sure they could be convinced to do more because I believe the initiative is not reaching enough schools– or failing that, their competition. A Read-a-Thon that’s advertised on television just before Rhythm City or Ben10 will reach more children and more schools than any newspaper adverts. Add to it the brilliant Gcina Mhlope telling a story of why the children should enter and I guarantee you a definite increase in entries.Other corporate sponsors could try to beat that by sponsoring a minute advert on television with a role model on a plane (yes, I know how expensive it is but do you know how much banks make in bank charges per year?), ‘hi, my name is Bryan Habana. When I am on an 18-hour flight to Australia, I keep myself entertained by reading SA writers. Do you?’ Or one on the BRT, ‘my name is Julius Malema, when I am tense on my way to a rally, I relax by reading SA…’ (no, that wasn’t a joke. Jules has pull y’all).
And then of course tagline – brought to you by Nedbank (or MTN, or Group Five, or Alex Forbes), greatest supporter of South African Writers. Although if that’s gonna be the tagline, perhaps the sponsor should be SABMiller, for all the inspiration it has given South African writers over the last five years.
How better to market SA literature so that books can be considered as much the art of this nation as our movies, music, and Isidingo. Your thoughts?
