We braved pirates and high tax to water literary desert

Kenya’s publishing houses are facing their biggest threat yet from piracy. But Mr Victor Lomaria, Kenya Literature Bureau’s new Managing Director, says publishers are closing in on this menace.

He spoke to Julius Sigei just a few days before the Kenya Publishers Association and the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development launch a short code that schools and parents can use to identify genuine books. The launch is slated for Monday next week.

You are fairly new at KLB and in the industry. How do you find it here?

I am new at KLB, but not entirely new in the education sector. I was the Chief Operating Officer at the Higher Education Loans Board where the environment was not totally commercial. We got 60 per cent of our funding from the Exchequer, while the rest came from the recoveries. Here we are purely commercial. The government stopped supporting us in 1989 and instead requires us to contribute dividends (15 per cent of our net profit) to the Exchequer every year. I am proud that we have contributed directly to the Exchequer Sh106 million in the last few years.

What is the state of the publishing industry in Kenya today and what is KLB’s place?

Kenya’s publishing industry is the most vibrant in the region. We have more than 10 vibrant publishing houses and more than 1,500 booksellers. In all, the sector employs up to 10,000 Kenyans directly and indirectly. We pay millions in taxes and capital investment. You can’t ignore us. We, KLB, are the market leaders. Eight out of every 10 titles in the market are our books. We have achieved this because of our pricing strategy and the quality of our products. 

We also do aggressive marketing. We have now opened our sales and customer service shop on Kijabe Street on Saturdays. We have extended credit time for up to three months. Through these strategies in the last six months alone we have exceeded last year’s profits by Sh200 million. This is the best performance ever in the history of KLB.

Our business in the region is also doing very well. We have one of the best printing presses in the region and we are diversifying our revenue streams by printing more for other organisations. We also hope to tap into the bigger regional market through the envisaged harmonisation and standardisation of the East African Community syllabus.

How has the introduction of Value Added Tax on books affected the industry?

Taxing our books has made them very expensive. If the government wanted to improve access to education by making quality books affordable, then the taxing of books is untimely. It actually led to a reduction of our sales by nearly 30 per cent. But we are also in a catch 22 situation because the government tells us they use these taxes to fund Free Primary Education which then gives us market for our books. We are working through the Kenya Publishers Association to try and remove this burden from parents. This will also improve the pupil  to book ratio from the present 1:5 or even 7 in some places to 1:3.

What is KLB’s contribution to a culture of reading outside of textbooks?

We have a vibrant fiction department. This year alone we are publishing 15 titles in English and Kiswahili. We are also organising spelling and reading events. We have the National Spelling Bee challenge which is ongoing.  It is aimed at encouraging our children countrywide to read. We have put Sh6 million into this.

A new curriculum is in the offing. What does it mean for a publisher of educational materials? How prepared are you?

We are ready for the pilot phase. We are home to the country’s top authors and we have trained them in all subjects. We are also sharpening our editors. We are also consulting with the ministry and the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development for policy direction. We have also prepared the infrastructure by upgrading the ICT facilities as well as illustrators and proof readers. We have acquired new machines that print and fold at the same time. Our modern printing press can do 30,000 copies an hour.

Are we about to see the death of the book as we know it with the ongoing rapid digitisation?

Digitisation is a good opportunity for growth as the whole world is moving towards it.  We have taken advantage of the space by converting most of our books to e-format and making them available. We have 680 titles and I would say we have 10 per cent of this in the digital space. We are on word reader, e-Kitabu and Amazon-ecommerce and we are beginning to make good sales from this e-market. Our books are sold as far as Australia, Brazil, USA, Spain and Djibouti. From this we presently get a profit of Sh1 million every quarter.

The government’s Digital Learning Programme under the laptop project will greatly expand our reach digitally. This doesn’t mean we shall do away with the physical book. We shall still have physical books. Even the most technologically advanced nations such as the US have a vibrant physical book industry.

Are you guys giving up on piracy which is threatening to decimate the industry?

It is a real threat to all of us. Pirates don’t care about the quality of content, taxes or royalty so they sell books at very low process. Piracy has denied us up to 30 per cent of our market share. But we are now closing in on them using two approaches. We are coming up with security features (organograms) which will be embedded in the book seal. We are also asking the government to write to all schools requiring them to buy books from shops which give them electronic tax register receipts.

There have been complaints that corruption shrouds the selection of set books and that you can never have your book selected without parting with money. Is that the case?

Our books didn’t go through this time round, but we want to believe those who won are the best. So we went back and upped our game on this. That said, there is room to improve the selection mechanism.