The Political Economy of the Publishing Industry in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper explores the political economy of book publishing in Nigeria. It looks at practices in the book publishing industry and at the various forces that influence the decisions made by the established Nigerian Book Publishers to accept or reject a manuscript for publication. It argues that the drivers for most of these decisions are largely socio-economic and political and that unless checked, these drivers could distort the basic values of books which are to promote the sharing of knowledge and cultural products for the development of a nation. The article identifies a number of barriers that exclude manuscripts by authors with low status and power from the shelf of the accepted manuscript list of the major book publishing houses. It examines possible coping strategies of excluded writers, including self-publishing, the challenges that these pose and ends by arguing that putting in place a mechanism that would ensure that valuable manuscripts by authors with low power and status should be seen as social responsibility by the established publishers and governments.