Borrow a leaf from London Book Fair

The London Book Fair opens it's doors to the public today and already it is generating considerable buzz online as well as in other fora, particularly the media. One of the highlights of the fair this year is that it is focusing on China, which means that publishers in Britain are looking to the Asian country as a potential market. And the wisdom of such a decision is not difficult to fathom. Even the Frankfurt Book Fair regularly look outside the German borders for a guest country to feature. Not so long ago, turkey was the guest country and one of it's leading writers, Orhan Pamuk, was given German's highest literary Prize. China was also featured as a guest country shortly after that. In Kenya, however, publishers have over the last fourteen years looked inwards, rather than outwards, which has meant that even foreign exhibitors remain in the peripheries of the Nairobi International Book Fair which is held every September. Secondly, the fair has been positioned as something for schools and school parties and even the adults who show up are largely not readers in their own right but parents hunting for bargains for school books. The London Book Fair is mainly focused on the creative market inviting top writers not only from Europe but also Asia. And what's more, besides attracting readers, it is offering an auction market where small publishers can offer some of their rights for sale to those with bigger financial biceps. What this means is that both the writers and publishers have something to look forward as they can buy and sell books to each other and discover new partnerships for the growth of their businesses. In sharp contrast, most of the activities lined up for the Nairobi International Book Fair consists of children's activities. Even when there are high profile book launches, they do not feature individual writers but entire series. Two years ago, I attended one such launch during which 70 titles were launched in the space of one hour. What's more, the guests were addressed by the wrong speaker, an assistant minister who had been invited for the launch of an academic book. The confusion dawn after he unveiled the books and was surprised that the title he had been talking about was not there! It is worth noting that the London publishers have even commissioned an opinion poll in which they were asking whether the public thinks digital publishing will trump traditional publishing. As one would expect, this has generated a heated debate in the wake of the ongoing competition between companies like Apple and Amazon over the pricing of ebooks and ebook readers. Of course, Kenyans literary history is much shorter than Britain's but then again, that is why it can learn some valuable lessons from London.