Mbo lauds overseas publishing standards

Gasebalwe Seretse | Thursday October 23, 2014 15:19

Speaking to Showbiz , Mbo said he believes that if he had published in Botswana, the end products would possibly have been of an inferior quality.

“If I had published my novels in Botswana, I would have been forced to approach either conventional publishing houses, which are mostly educational publishers or go the self-publishing route, which is not yet fully developed in the country. 

I have seen some of self-published works in Botswana and I would say most of them are not that impressive.

A self-publishing wing of Amazon has greatly helped me come up with good quality books,” he said.

So far, the author has published six novels namely, Wrong Turn (2009), A Crisis Of The Heart (2010), The Five Litre Container (2014), The Basketball School (2014), The Missing Corpse (2014) and The Village Doctor (2014).

All of the author’s books are set in Botswana.

Asked how he managed to pen four novels in a year, the industrious author said: “I always have four hours of leisure time everyday so since I am not into sports and other leisure activities, I work on my novels and this has given me ample time to write all those books.”

The author said despite his admirable accomplishments, he has not had enough time to promote his works in the country. 

Whenever he is in Botswana, he dedicates most of his time to visiting his many friends and relatives all over the country.

“I normally don’t have enough time to promote my works in Botswana since I hardly spend more than two weeks in the country, but sometimes I happen to meet some of my readers and autograph my works for them,” he said.

Mbo further said, he hopes that one day he will have the chance to launch his novels in Botswana.

His books are available at Exclusive Books and he is also making arrangements for Books Botswana, and the University of Botswana (UB) bookstore to carry his books.

Mbo decries that government and Batswana are not doing enough to support local authors, which he said can be discouraging to some.

“Despite our labouring while we write our books, there are always some people who ask us for free copies, which is sad indeed. 

Our government should also buy our works as a way of supporting and empowering us,” he said.

He added that he received an invitation to showcase some of his works at an international poetry festival in Maun.  

Sadly, he would not be able to do so, due to his busy schedule.

Mbo’s books are available from most online booksellers and Batswana who want hardcopies can purchase them at Exclusive Books.