I had to share the post MADE IN NIGERIA BOOKS on my personal Facebook wall and I got a number of reactions.
One of our objectives is to help writers connect with readers by hearing what readers have to say about their work and I believe that any teachable writer can pick a thing or three from theses readers’ reaction and make necessary adjustment.
I would begin with the positive feedback which read,
“It’s not really a Nigerian problem. It’s probably just that Nigerians are exposed more too poor Nigerian works and great foreign ones. All over the world, there are works that have been hurriedly done or that may not have been a good idea in the first place. Those works would not make it down to Nigeria and so we could easily assume that many Nigerian works alone tend to be bad. The average and great foreign works are the ones that make it down here, either because of the author’s acclaim or the fact that the work has already become successful abroad.”
Moving on to the negative feedback on why most Nigerians do not patronize books written by Nigerian authors like they do foreign authors.
We can tag the way the reaction went as thus; Buying books written by most Nigerians could be a total waste of money because;
- The plot lines are usually cliché, and tend to ramble off on tangents.
- Lots of typos.
- Most publish their diaries.
- Most of the time though, there’s a struggle to sound deep and profound. It usually just comes across as being pretentious.
- Nigerian Authors are always money conscious.
- Most times the problem comes from the publishing processes. No proper editing, proof reading, criticisms etc. And most Nigerian writers are quick to get their books in prints without incubating and nursing this ability of theirs.
In the end, some affirmed that we do have amazing writers, newspaper columnists, op-ed contributors and poets who live and breathe in Nigeria.
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