Marion in her 80’s and ambitious enough to want to publish a children’s book. Can she? - 31st October
This is the 2nd in my series of people in and around Gauteng, South Africa,giving a different view of Gauteng to those that don’t know it as a City by looking at the people who live and work in it. I know a woman who is in her 80’s living here in Gauteng who wrote and illustrated a book a few years back, about Dragon’s. She did it for a little boy who she met while on holiday in Majorca. She was reading a book about Vesuvius at the time and obviously described it to him and he became intrigued by Volcanoes. Since doing the first book for the little boy she has continued with what can be described as ’self publishing’ by colour copying the book, having it bound and selling or giving it to people who have shown interest. The illustrations and rhyming story capture the imagination of children in the 4-6 year bracket. She asked me if I thought it could be published and I suppose until it is sent to publishers in that field we won’t know. But is that the only route? The things against it are that it is not necessarily African in it’s content - but does everything we produce in this country have to be African? Children’s imagination goes beyond the limits of their location and don’t we want to encourage unrestricted creativity.?Apart from that, I can’t see any reason why it could not be published except maybe the numbers in South Africa make it difficult for any children’s book to be published. But wait… we have thousands of school children that need to learn the culture of reading and writing, so there is a market out there, but not a high paying one? So the answer to it being considered for publication might be that it can be produced at a reasonable cost so affordable for distribution among the numerous small schools throughout the country. How can this be done? To publish it without huge overheads and profits - Marion despite being in her 80’s is keen for the story to be published and enjoyed by a whole generation of South African kids rather than looking for high profits, might be the first step. So maybe a seed has been sown?…