Mbo lauds overseas publishing standards

Gasebalwe Seretse | Thursday March 12, 2015 16:36

 

Speaking to Showbiz, Mbo who is also a medical doctor, said that he believes that had he published in Botswana, the end product would possibly have been of a lesser 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 and one of the settings for most of the novels is a village with the curious name of Tsebeyatonki.

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”.

Interestingly, all Mbo’s books can be described as full length novels as they all contain over 300 pages.

The author said despite his admirable accomplishments, he has not had enough time to promote his works in the country because whenever he is in Botswana, he dedicates most of his time to visiting his many friends and relatives.

“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 that, he hopes that one day he will get a chance to launch his novels in Botswana.

Like other local authors, Mbo complained 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 further said that he has received an invitation to showcase some of his works at an international poetry festival in Maun, but sadly due to his busy schedule, he will not be able to do so.

Mbo’s books are available in most online booksellers and those Batswana who want hardcopies can get them at either Books Botswana or Exclusive Books.

He is also making arrangements that the book is availed at Books Botswana, the University of Botswana (UB) bookstore.