E-books on growth path

Electronic books and self-publishers are on the rise in SA, as the Kindle opens up to international content.

In addition, at the end of next month, local self-publishing company Crink aims to take a mobile solution live.

Rhode Odendaal, business development manager, says the company is testing a mobile solution that allows people to type their books into their phones, which are then stored on Crink's servers.

The concept, done in conjunction with Crink's majority shareholder, Naspers, and MXit, has been successful so far, says Odendaal. The company expected 10 000 users after the first eight weeks and had 30 000 within the first five weeks.

Odendaal says self-publishing “is a huge thing”. The company was started two years ago by three publishers, including Odendaal, because they had realised “authors are not getting published”.

Turnover from books, which are mostly sold online, is increasing month-on-month, she says. The company expects the business to keep growing, as Kindle has now made it possible for international authors to sell their e-books through the devices.

Odendaal adds that the company also offers people the opportunity to publish for free, which empowers those who cannot afford the fee. She explains that this model involves people using a template on its Web site and uploading a written document. Crink then puts commission on top of whatever the author wants to earn.

Having an e-commerce site, which displays the books for sale, also allows the authors to print a small amount of books through the print-on-demand concept, which cuts down on costs. Previously, says Odendaal, authors who self-published had to buy a huge amount of copies, and store them somewhere. “You had to sell them out of the boot of your car.”

Pieter van Vuuren, founder of African Publisher, says that, for the first time, Amazon sold more e-books on Christmas Day than physical books. He expects devices like the Kindle and Apple's iPad to bolster e-book sales.

At the moment, says Van Vuuren, there are only two or three companies in SA that self-publish and sell e-books online. He adds that there is a small base of Internet readers in SA, but this is growing.

African Publisher is setting up a mechanism that will allow its authors to be published in a format that can be read by the Kindle, and sold through that medium, Van Vuuren says.

“It's not growing the same way that cellphones are growing, but there is upward movement,” he says of the industry. In addition, authors have access to free tools such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to do their own marketing, Van Vuuren says.

Sally Shaw, founder of Self-Publish SA, says “it's definitely a growth area... because so many people are writing books, and South Africans from all walks of life have been contacting me, for advice, information and work”.

She explains that self-publishing is about shifting the risk, and the potential reward, from a publisher to the author.

Shaw is not a traditional publisher, but instead offers editing and design services for which she charges. She also helps people to market their books so they can be sold independently, as selling to retailers is costly.

Self-publishing allows people to print at a fraction of the cost of traditional publishing, says Shaw, because of digital printing, which allows authors to print 10 or 100 books on demand with very little difference in the cost per copy.

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