Showbiz caught up with a local author, Ndulamo Anthony Morima, who writes textbooks especially for junior secondary consumption.
Morima, who was born 31 years ago in Tshesebe, in north-east Botswana is currently the National Coordinator with the Botswana National Youth Council (BNYC). He also had a stint as a teacher at Molopo River CJSS from 1997-2001 where he taught Religious Education.
He has so far produced four books on the subject: The Three year Religious
Education Revision Text and Questions, Moral Education for Junior Secondary Schools - Book 2 and 3. All the first three are published by Tassals Publishers. His fourth book: Moral Education Revision Text and Questions was published by Veri Book Education Publishers - a company he owns.
He has also written about 30 articles on contemporary moral issues, which were published in the local media, mainly in the Botswana Guardian and Midweek Sun. He could therefore be classified - by local standards - as an authority on authorship.
When showbiz quizzed him on what is really needed for one to be an author especially a textbook author, he said, “One needs to know and understand the syllabus of the subject he is writing about from the author’s viewpoint and also be able to write from the level of an academic to that of a student.” He emphasized that one should not write works that would be above the heads of the intended recipients. He also mentioned that there are guidelines set by the Ministry of Education which need to be satisfied. “There are also sensitive key issues that need to be looked into carefully such as gender, tribalism and racism,” he cautions
He has a lot of misgivings about the editorials that publishers undertake during production. “Publishers are always concerned about expenses and they therefore cut a lot of material during the editing stage. This more often than not leaves the book shallow and can reflect badly on the author,” he comments. This, he said, is sometimes even done without giving the author the benefit of a doubt and one can therefore be misrepresented in the final analysis.
When asked about whether they are making a killing out of their literary works, his face suddenly filled with sadness and he did not mince his words. “We are terribly short-changed by these multi-national publishers, the likes of Heinemann, Longman and others. On average, authors get 10 percent of the total sales as royalties. What is worse is that the publisher never tells the truth about the number of books they have sold,” he lamented. He said the reasons given by the publishers that printing and production is costly are not true. “We know these people take your work and send it to low cost countries such as India where a finished product is then sent back.” He said during editing, the publishers use local editors such as teachers who are paid meagre wages for their services.
He also mentioned that the other reason the publishers advance, is that marketing and distribution of books is costly. “These people do not even engage in that.
There are other autonomous bodies that offer distribution, and publishers do not lose anything nor take part in getting books to the readership,” he said.
When asked why they, as authors, permit themselves to be used in such a way, he said most authors are forced by the pressures of livelihood to succumb to these ‘predators’.
The other contributing factor that Morima alludes to, is that most authors are intimidated by the legal language on contracts and are also not conversant with issues of intellectual property rights.
He said there is no real relationship between authors and publishers. “Once your work has been published they forget about you. They do not even know their authors,” he said with concern.
On the way forward, he said there is need for authors to come together and form an association that will represent their rights. “There used to exist an organization called WABO - Writers Association of Botswana, but it seemed to have died a natural death,” he remembered. “Authors need to be assisted especially with soliciting legal representation during contract signing.
The association should also include other writers such as freelancers and even columnists,” he concluded.
