Stakeholders of the publishing industry recently brainstormed over the future and challenges of the industry at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC).
The meeting was also used to launch the 16th Ghana International Book Fair. The occasion was the first time a balanced representation of players in the industry gathered to deliberate on the interests of their occupation, DAILY GUIDE gathered.
President of the Ghana Book Publishers Association, Elliot Agyare, observed in a speech that because the policy document regarding the industry has no formal backing, every minister of education throughout the various regimes to date understood the subject differently, hence its haphazard implementation.
“The policy did not have parliamentary and ministerial accent, so most of the Ministers who passed through interpreted it the way they wanted, and that is difficult to rationalize,” Mr. Agare observed.
Mr. Agyare stated that the objectives—if effectively implemented—would bring about transformation of the indigenous publishing industry.
“We need biographies to inspire our children, but without the 85 percent of the market in the hands of local publishers making some money we will not be able to do the biographies,” he opined.
Mr. Agyare commended the scope of the policy, saying it envelopes all aspect of book development for basic and pre-tertiary schools.
He urged the Ministry of Education to consider effective testing of manuscripts, making sure policy documents contain punitive measures against civil servants in conflict of interest on the book development chain, effective book evaluations and time table to guide submission of proposals for book development.
Other concerns, he recommended, are copyright issues, book revision, selection and evaluation, about 70 per cent of authors should be locals, target book ration and a ‘one student one book’ initiative.