After querying agents in the UK, the response I got most of the time was that YA, Fantasy, Romance doesn't fit in with the books their looking for. The second most popular reason they gave me was that they wanted authors in the UK or EU region.

So i've decided to self publish my book. My biggest problem right now is to find a printing press and a book illustrator in Lagos. I'm not famliliar with the self-publishing industry in Nigeria, but I am familiar with the self-publishing industry in England. I'm expecting it to be similar, expect of course i won't be using a book distributor because they charge a freakishly large amount of money and to top it all off, if the book doesn't sell that well, you will be lose a lot of money.

Anyway,
I'm rambling. My main reason for posting this is to find a book illustrator, printing press and maybe a proof reader. I'm still trying to decide on that because i understand quite a few people have certain reservations about fantasy books, especially ones about humans who have powers. If you are an illustrator or know of a printing press, please contact me at

doherty_15 at hotmail.com with some samples of your work (for illustrators) or books you've printed (printing press).

All the best to you Rowe, though actually YA and Fantasy are among the fastest selling books right now. Especially about people with powers, call it Paranormal and the agents will be very interested.

My advice is to make sure it is as well written as it could be. I'll give my comments when you post it here. If your story is set in Nigeria, you can also join naijastories website to get comments from many other aspiring writers and authors.

If you live in Nigeria, I think you're making the best decision to self-publish locally. You will have more hands on relationship with them.

@Rowe,
In addition to what Myne said, may i suggest joining as many literary forums as you can. Expensive (think cyber-time) and time-consuming - especially if u live in Nigeria - but really that's pretty much the cheapest way to advertise your writings. Post excerpts and short stories, and ask readers for review - and don't forget to review theirs

One more thing: pricing. When you do get around to publishing the book(s), abeg try and keep the price down - something between N500 and N1,000; anything higher will be a hard sell. I know this is gonna be a balance between the quality of your book and its price, but then the greater portion of folks that read paranormal/sci-fi/fantasy novels in this country are undergraduates - tells u something about their purchasing power.

I live in P.H, and haven't really been among literary cycles for long now, but i'll ask around for a good press.

@Myne, do u think S.K on blogsville could do a good illustration?

@Orinkila: dude if you reading this, could you suggest a good press?

@Kay9, you're right on target with the pricing thing, and also to get on the forums and work it! That was actually how I started.

Who is S K? I know Afronuts has some illustrators.

Sugar King.

I didn't even know he was into illustration, thought his thing was music?

Kay9 and Myne are both correct in their suggestions.
As for the idea of posting in forums like naijastories.com, i will highly recommend that. You will get heavy and down-to-earth reviews there. But, you have to be prepared mentally to take everything everyone has got to say cos, believe me, there are people who will just come over to your story post just to SHOW YOU THEY ARE ALMIGHTY EDITORS AND CRITIQUES,sent from heaven above to put you where you belong. one of my stories which everyone said they REALLY REALLY enjoyed was however criticized, counter-criticized, counter-counter criticized, both constructively and, you know. But! I enjoyed their comments. It made me see things i was blind to while basking in the euphoria of writing a supposedly beautiful story. You will like the folks at naijastory, belief me, Umm, what other pseudo-naijastories platforms do we have? Any ideas?

First you need to make sure the work is actually well-written. Join critiquing websites. I recommend www.scribophile.com

Secondly, fantasy and YA and paranormal is hot. Harry Potter, Twlight, the series by the millionaire self-published author Amanda Hocking is all paranormal YA. That said, you need to make that what you have written is original and imaginative.

Thirdly you can query agents in the US. which means you need to write a smoking hot query letter. I suggest you look at www.queryshark.com for help on how to write query letters.

Fourthly, if you are writer from Nigeria, in writing in YA or paranormal then you need to makes your writing does not sound like someone who learnt english as a second language. Believe me, readers and editors can tell. The only way you can check this is to have an international critique circle.

I do not know how it works in the Nigeria but if you want to self-publish, you better of not paying for it. If you have to pay for it, you're being scammed. It is really hard to store inventory and hawk your books. I would look at e-book publishing. Like the amazon kindle store, and smashwords. It is free to publish on there. You set the price usually a dollar and above and you get royalties of from 30-70%. Needless to say if you make it big like Amanda Hocking, more power to you. You need to grow your audience and such. For more on this phenomenon, look at Joe Konrath's blog. Check out the Amanda Hocking blog

I think for authors in Nigeria, this is probably the best way to put your work out there, ebook publishing and it is free. But you need to do a lot of marketing, like blogging, tweeting, giving your books to book reviewers who will write reviews on Amazon and stuff so that international readers can read your work. Needless to say, you really need your work to be top notch. Again I suggest www.scribophile.com. Between critiques from scribophile, you may not need a line editor after all.

There are critiquing sites like www.reviewfuse.com, critiquecircle, critters. But I prefer scribophile.

Again, if you have to pay to publish your book, you're being scammed, at least in the US. The rule is the money flows to the author.

One of your best option is ebook publishing so that you can prejudge the success of your print book. I would suggest you note as a self publisher that you are equal in responsibility with all the actors in book publishing process. If you are ready to publish ebook targeting nigerian readers then go to www.ebookmarketnigeria.com.