Six Types of Jobs You Can Build Around Book Publishing in Kenya.

1. Editing

Become an Editor. I have mentioned the five reasons why you need an editor here. This job is perfect for you if you love language, are meticulous with your reading, and don’t mind spending hours rereading and rewriting sentences.  If you have such a passion, try it out. Editors edit copy in magazines, manuscripts, copy used for advertising, and other printed material used by organizations and businesses.

2. Book Formatting/Printing

Book formatters often work directly with printers. They design books, and arrange content for print. If you have a knack for design, this is a great skill to pick up. If you would like to open a printing shop, it is also a great skill to have.

3. Creative Design

Creative Designers in the book publishing industry have the most fun. They are artists who create art for book covers, art for use in between paragraphs, illustrations, and color pages. The list is endless. They can also create book marketing logos, banners and social media posts.

4. Book Marketer

Authors spend a lot of time writing their books. They try to market their books, but it takes up a lot of their time, and they might even lose hope in between this process. This is where a book marketer comes in. If you have the skill to market products, take on book marketing and create a winning marketing formula that will get authors to reach out to you.

5. Book Publisher

Do you love books, and think there should be more publishers in Kenya? Then start a publishing company. Become a publisher. Publishers acquire authors proficient in particular genres and who are able to create content in that genre often. They market these authors and pay authors a particular royalty percentage, the rest of the profit is left with the publisher. Genres are many: mystery, fantasy, folklore, school books, romance novels, literature, comics e.t.c. If you are hoping to encourage a reading culture, and love books, become a book publisher.

6. Translator

Kenya is blessed with 50+ languages within its borders. There are also many different types of stories told in all these languages. Translation work does not have to be for foreign languages. You can choose to translate beloved stories written in English or Swahili, and translate them into these languages to encourage reading across the nation. Translation does not need to be limited to fiction. You can take topics in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering and translate this information into tribal languages. Who knows, you might inspire a budding engineer who only understands their mother tongue.

There are many different types of jobs one can create in the publishing industry, including printing, and paper manufacturing. There is of course the most creative one: becoming a writer, or comic book creator. There are so many possibilities.

Which one would you choose?

Q. Should I Use Print on Demand for Book Publishing in Kenya?

Answer: Yes. It is a reasonable and affordable way to print your books on a budget.

Here is a scenario. If you have tried to publish a book in Kenya, chances are you have approached a large printing press and they have quoted for you a minimum of 100 books. (500 copies in our case). The price of this entire job comes to around Kshs. 100,000 or more depending on the size of the book, color requirements, etc. If you do not have this amount, you will feel instantly discouraged and think, “Ah, publishing in Kenya is very expensive!”

The most interesting truth about the printing press’s quote is, that it is cheaper to print a large number of books with them. It also guarantees the availability of the book.

However, Smaller Printing Press shops offering Print-on-Demand are the best for authors who are growing, starting out, and hoping to get out there in the market. They need an affordable starting-out option that will not make publishing seem impossible and obliterate the savings account amounts.

What is Print on Demand?.

Print on demand in book publishing is the production of a small number of books as requested by the publisher, author, or customers.  The printing happens at a fixed cost per copy each time regardless of the size of the order that is, 1-5 books or 50 books. It allows the author to keep up the availability of their book for their customers, and have a dependable printing source who will always make the books as needed at the same price.

The author’s biggest challenge is finding a Print-on-Demand company that will keep the fixed cost per copy reasonably intact. There might be fluctuations as per current inflation challenges in Kenya, but there should be no life-changing increases.

For example, a book first printed at 180/- per copy cannot suddenly change to 350/- per copy the next time it is needed for print.  Such a change would increase the retail price and the author might have a hard time finding customers with a new price to match the new printing cost. The author might not be able to afford this change of printing cost either.  It is important to find a Print-on-Demand shop that will work with you and keep prices reasonably intact for your book.

Kenya has gone through a very large shift in terms of offering Print-on-Demand Services. There are more Print-on-Demand printers, alongside the Offset Printing shops.

An author hoping to put out books can easily find a printer who is willing to print out 5-10 copies of a book at a reasonable price. The author can then sell the books and return to print another set. The more the book’s demand grows, the more you can print. In time, you can work up to getting the 500 copies, of which you’ll find an offset printer to keep you stocked at mass-printing levels.

For entrepreneurs in Kenya, the Print-on-Demand industry has a clear existing gap waiting for you to fill it.  Affordable printing prices are attractive to budding authors. The existence of these services at reasonable costs and offering quality end-products will also encourage more people to print their books.

Are you interested in printing a book, You can email Publish4All Kenya for a quotation. – p4akenya@gmail.com

You have completed your book.  You are now ready for publishing in our beautiful country of Kenya. You need a copyright page in both the e-Book and Printed Format.  The copyright page is the second or third page depending on the items you have planned for the first pages. It should contain the following information:

1. Title of the Book

– This one is easy. Your Book’s Title and the Subtitle if you have one.

2. Name of the Author

– The author who has written the book.  Make sure to add in all authors and contributors if there is more than one.

3. Copyright Holder

• This looks like this: Copyright © Year by (Name).  If there is more than one author, include their names.
• Copyright holders should be named for the text contributed, and images found in the book or the book cover. Sometimes, the image owner may give copyright to the owner but require a credit on this page for producing the image.
• Copyright holders can be authors, publishing companies, businesses, and organizations.

4. ISBN Number

• If you have an ISBN from the Kenya National Library, include it here. You can write the number and/or include the barcode that comes with it.
• If you are internationally based, you might have a Library of Congress number, which you can include on this page too.

5. Rights & Permissions

This is the paragraph that reads, All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. There are different variations of this paragraph, ending with the means to contact the copyright holder for permission to quote, use or adapt the content in the book.

6. Contact Information

• You will most likely put down the contact information of the person who will be responsible for handling the permissions in the Rights & Permissions paragraph. This can be the publisher’s contacts or the author’s contacts.

7. Permissions

• If you quote or use information from another publication, author, or image copyright owner, you need to credit their work. You can use this page to include the permissions given or granted to you by the owner of the borrowed content.
• This includes lyrics from songs, which do have copyright ownership.  The Kenya Copyright Board has a site for these registrations and searches. Consult with the site to check out who owns what and how to get permissions.

To remember:

• If the author is the writer/ editor/ and publisher, then he or she will include their information in all the parts mentioned.  Otherwise, include the names of those who have contributed, depending on agreements of services rendered.
• If more than one author writes the book, make sure to add in all authors.
• Images and book cover creators may ask you to credit their names on the Copyright page.
• A Printing press/ book formatting service may include their logo on the copyright page, as well as their information.

Here is a copyright page sample to see what it should look like:

Title
Author

Copyright © 2022, Author
Cover Art © 2022 (Moon Artist)

Edited by Awesome editor
Published by (Abc Publishers)
ISBN Number: 
(ISBN barcode) optional
Library of Congress Number:

All Rights Reserved.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole
or in part in any form.
Or
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book
with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If
you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your
use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard
work of these authors.

For Permissions reach out to Abc Publishers info or Author’s Information/ email and phone number and/or Address.

You can include a disclaimer if you have written fiction.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual
events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Some publishers in Kenya do include the Kenya Copyright Law that governs copyrights on this page. You may include this part depending on how much space you have left on your book’s page.

The copyright page is there to say who the copyrights belong to, and who to contact for permissions to reproduce, copy, adapt, quote or reuse the content found in the publication. It also helps to know who has contributed to the work.

Do not forget to visit the Kenya Copyright Board website to copyright your work.  You get a certificate for your efforts, and your rights are searchable in the database.