Did you miss the webinar by Pan Macmillan South Africa and All About Writing on how to understand and navigate the publishing industry? Watch the video for everything you want to know about publishing in South Africa.
All About Writing founder Jo-Anne Richards opened the discussion before introducing the local Pan Macmillan team—associate editor Sibongile Machika, publisher Andrea Nattrass and digital and editorial coordinator Sandile Nkosi.
‘As one of Pan Macmillan’s authors, I am so proud to co-host this publishing webinar with the local publishing team,’ Jo-Anne said.
‘We are the ones responsible for publishing South African-based authors,’ Andrea explained. ‘Pan Macmillan is a relatively small publisher. We publish about twenty to twenty-five titles a year, and of those titles, I would say eighteen to nineteen are non-fiction titles, and the other six or seven are fiction titles. Why do we have this breakdown? It’s very specific in relation to the South African reading public and what they are interested in.’
Andrea advised authors to find out what type of books different publishers print each year. Pan Macmillan, for example, publishes mostly non-fiction books about politics, current affairs, memoirs related to politics and current affairs, true crime and narrative non-fiction.
After Andrea’s brief overview of the local publishing environment, Sibongile spoke about the submission process and what happens with your manuscript once you’ve sent it to Pan Macmillan. She also talked about marketing, self-publishing and genre, before handing over to Sandile who spoke more about self-publishing and digital book formats.
Pan Macmillan SA remains committed to developing writers as part of its ongoing transformation objectives. This requires more than addressing the technical aspects of writing but also assisting potential authors to understand and navigate the publishing industry. The team shared their knowledge of and experiences in publishing and answered the questions that new and experienced writers often ask.
Watch the video:
