Surprisingly little is known about how the South African publishing industry has operated over the past 35 politically tumultuous years. Yet the value of publishing as a cultural benefit and an adjunct to academic research is commonly recognised.
I have worked in either publishing or the academy all my life. Straddling these two “industries” has given me insights and experiences that are both unique and vulnerable. Because skills in publishing are gained through experience rather than pedagogy, knowledge is transferred via personal contact rather than documented
research. Authors and journalists have contributed memoirs, but those in book publishing have mostly been silent.
Just before the pandemic, Karavan Press commissioned me to write a memoir on editing in anglophone Africa. I got Covid instead. Serious illness underlined my privilege in having had access to deep learning about editing, writing/writers, and publishing in Africa: about the riches of literature springing from this continent, the need to tell OUR stories, and equally the need for publishing tools geared to OUR experiences. Hence my wish to collate and transfer my experiences in the form of such a work: one that will serve as a chronicle of African anglophone publishing and a compendium on editing from African roots.
