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Gweru, the capital of the Midlands Province, is a place that has become synonymous with writing and will soon be known for its publishing and literary criticism talent. In the literary circles, Gweru has come to serve as the cooking pan for the “natural best” that talent can give.

Even in the days when budding writers all over the country began to organise themselves into associations in the early 90s, Gweru was conspicuous at various meetings because of its vigorous membership in those associations. Today, writers like the late Stephen Alumenda, Ignitius Musonza, Tinashe Mushakavanhu, and others, are known scribes who one way or the other drank the literary absinthe of the place’s inspiration. The publishing arm, despite the general challenges, has a promising future and one prays it will grow to cater for the growing pool of untapped writing talent in the area and beyond.

Some small and bigger publishers have landed in the area and to this day, the publishing landscape in the Midlands has established an optimistic identity of its own. This is attested to by the presence of a number of Gweru-based book stakeholders at the annual Zimbabwe International Book Fair. One of the key figures behind the publishing inspiration in Gweru is Emmanuel Makadho who in 2010 or thereabouts founded BookLove Publishers. In a wide-ranging interview, Makadho acknowledged that there is amazing literary talent in Gweru although this could be discouraged by the nose-diving reading culture.

“The reading culture in Gweru, like in other cities and places in the country, is being affected by the social media, high cost of books, and economic and social challenges,” he said.

Booklove Publishers, for which Makadho was founding director before he ceased to be actively involved in it in 2012, is a general book publishing organisation which publishes fiction books in English, Ndebele and Shona for both children and adults, and autobiographies, biographies, books on culture, history, and dictionaries.

It boasts of being publishers of the NAMA nominated books such as “The Incubus” by Kawengo Samachai and “Mukoma’s Marriage and Other Stories” by Emmanuel Sigauke. There is a saying that no one gets into a battle without the will to win it and this holds true for Makadho who, having launched his career in publishing about twenty years ago, has vowed not to stop. He believes the role of book publishing in the community is to enlighten readers, to assimilate new knowledge that will in turn influence their lives and careers. He sees a community that is estranged from new knowledge as destined to be poor and underdeveloped in every aspect of life.

And yet, what actually drove Makadho into publishing was his love for editing and his dream to be a ‘doctor’ for books that would become Zimbabwean world classics.

“When I joined publishing in 1995, I was very zealous and ambitious to be an editor of a big organisation like Mambo Press, by then book piracy was unheard of and book sales even of general books were quite good. The public had to pay a fee to get into Harare Gardens to participate in the events of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair. As the years went by and at the same time, the economic challenges also took their toll, the international event correspondingly lost its lustre. The deep passion to be a publisher was largely driven by the ambition to produce books that were widely read nationally and internationally, books that would become world classics,” said Makadho.

As someone who has always regarded his career with high esteem, Makadho feels happy to have achieved part of his dream as he is the one who handled (as editor) some very important titles such as “Simon Vengai Muzenda” and “The Struggle for and Liberation of Zimbabwe” by Ngwabi Bhebe, “Phineas Mogorosi Makhurane — An Autobiography”, “Pieces of Time” by the late Celia Winter Irvine, “Masango Mavi” by Emmanuel Chiwome and “Mukoma’s Marriage” and “Other Stories” by Emmanuel Sigauke.

Five Shona titles from his publishing stable have also been selected into the school curriculum as literature set books at Ordinary and Advanced Levels.

While today there seem to be a rise in the number of backyard printers who are calling themselves publishers and duping vulnerable, impatient budding writers, one asks: is publishing today the same as it was ten years ago? What has changed?

According to Makadho, many new publishers have mushroomed in the country with self-publishing being on the rise. The significant increase in the availability of publishing software has had its negative effects. Budding writers are not aware of the difference between a printer and a publisher. A printer simply prints whatever literary material that he/she is given. He is a machine operator. A publisher consults, typesets, proofreads and markets the books.

“If this sort of confused trend continues, there will be a general deterioration of standards in the book publishing industry since most of these young writers do not normally work with experienced authors or editors. Some of them are too zealous and too confident. The effect is that Zimbabwe’s reputation of producing good literary works will be greatly undermined. Our products, generally, will not be able to compete at international level and this limits their market locally and internationally. In short, there will be proliferation of sub-standard literary material on the market,” Makadho said.

The long step-by-step process of publishing seemingly frustrate some budding writers who then pester those with printing machinery to print their works the way they (budding writers) want it to look. In most cases, it is the budding writer investing all he/she has in printing a half-baked book. The printer has no say and will not be lenient or want to be aware of what contents lie in the book simply because his machine will be generating income for him — printing as many copies of the budding writer’s work as he is told.

In a proper publishing setting, Makadho said that although the author may finance the publishing process of his/her book, as the publisher, he stands the ground in defending the case against the author if there is something unacceptable in the manuscript.

“For example, if there is something libellous. As the publisher, we stand our ground by trying to educate the author about the publishing process, so that we do not end up fast-tracking the publication of the book. We try to avoid the obvious blunders that would occur,” he said.

BookLove Publishers, like other legitimate publishers in Zimbabwe, has not been spared by book piracy. Makadho said that publishing is financed by sales of the books publishers produce. With piracy, publishers are bound to set very low sales which directly affect their revenue and, in turn, problems arise in financing certain publishing projects especially the printing phase and in paying author royalties, wages and rentals. The recent years have seen local publishers embracing technology to promote their products. Publishers such as AmaBooks in Bulawayo and Weaver Press in Harare have either a blog or a website and a Facebook page to keep them visible online.

Asked why BookLove seem to be shunning social media and if digitisation is a must for every publisher, Makadho said he hopes BookLove will have a website, Facebook account and blog before the end of the year.

“Certainly, digitisation is a must for every publisher in this era of advanced technology because it is fast, efficient, and reliable and is also cheaper compared to the traditional mode of publishing,” said Makadho.

To fellow publishers, he said they must have a strong and undying passion to acquire academic and professional qualifications that are related to their career. He believes that sharing ideas especially with those that have been in the book industry for a long time will help build it.

Born Emmanuel Arifious Makadho in Gutu, Masvingo Province, Makadho trained as a primary school teacher at Musami College and taught in the primary school for eight years during which period he privately studied for his Advanced Level. In 1985, he went to the University of Zimbabwe to do BA (Gen), Grad CE, BA (Hon), Post Graduate Certificate in Education and MA in Applied Linguistics which he completed in 2000. After his first degree in 1987, he re-joined the education sector as a teacher at Gokomere High School where he taught for seven years until he resigned in early 1995 to join Mambo Press as a senior Editor.

At Mambo Press he rose to the post of Managing Editor at the end of 1997 and held on to this post until he resigned in 2010 to establish BookLove Publishers. In 2012, Makadho gave up his active leadership at BookLove and founded the MSU Press at the Midlands State University as its publisher. This is where he is currently employed.