Vanity publishing, bane of Nigerian literature – critic

He made the declaration in a recent chat with Sunday Trust, where he said the practice of self publishing by writers is doing more harm than good to the development of literature in the country. “You have vanity publishing going on all over the place and what that means is there is hardly any editing,” […]

He made the declaration in a recent chat with Sunday Trust, where he said the practice of self publishing by writers is doing more harm than good to the development of literature in the country.

“You have vanity publishing going on all over the place and what that means is there is hardly any editing,” he said. “A writer writes a story, copies it on a flash and takes it to the printer, then it comes back to the writer to carry a megaphone and try to get people to read it. And there are hardly any reviewers.”

Mr. Ali said that necessitated the development of Sentinel Literary Movement, which is an offshoot of the UK based Sentinel Poetry Movement founded by Nnorom Azuonye.

He added that the quarterly online magazine is geared towards encouraging Nigerian writers to find space for their works.”The idea is to create a space to promote Nigerian literature and to create a balance between established Nigerian writers and emerging Nigerian Writers,” he said.

He disclosed that in the first edition of its quarterly magazine, they have discovered at least two promising writers who happen to be women from the northern part of the country.

Mr. Ali called on all writers to avail themselves of the opportunities offered by the online magazine to have their works published by a team of dedicated literary experts who, because of their passion for literature, are working without pay to promote literature in the country.

The magazine is currently accepting submissions in prose and poetry and Mr. Ali said they would be looking out for good language, unusual perspectives and styles. Further details can be obtained at www.sentinelquaterly.com