911,help! Nairalanders

i took a bold step by submitting my first story of about 130 pages to a renowned publisher. publisher has seen the manuscript and he is impressed. the problem is that i need t raise 180k for publishing within a short time.how do i raise it? i need your honest opinion. pls.

thats kul of you to take such bold steps you know.if you are a worker i would suggest a loan,but if not,then source for it,if you have gud frnds.

thanks.zuyeali.i am yet to be employed. i tried to source and all my relatives turnd dia backs on me.

junky, you are a victim of 'publishing fraud'.
A publisher is not supposed to ask you for money.
A publisher is supposed to give you money, period.
If your publisher truly believes in your work, then why can't he provide the money?

Seun,
Thank you for the perfect response.

Any publisher asking you for N180K to publish you is not a publisher, but a printer.

The publishers of the Nigerian genius Helen Oyeyemi gave her over 200, 000 pounds advance before publishing her classic first novel, Icarus Girl.

From my first published book in 1987 to my last published Nigerian civil war memoir in 2007, I never paid one kobo, penny or cent to my publishers.

I published Adeleke Adeyemi's The Mandate of MKO Abiola without asking him for even pure water.

So, Junky submit your work to real publishers, such as Longman, Faber and Faber, Jonathan Cape, Random House and Ayebia.

thanks seun and orikinla.i had no idea that am not supossed to pay the publisher.i wil contact yhe ones you listed.thank God i hv not paid him.

in addition, dont be supprise to see ur work bearing another persons name soon.

that what they do

ON PUBLISHING.

ANY HONEST  AND SERIOUS NIGERIAN AUTHOR OR WRITER KNOWS THE PROBLEM  OF PUBLISHING IN NIGERIA. THE SO CALLED ESTABLISHED PUBLISHING OUTFITS SELDOM PUBLISH A NEW WRITER because OF THE MARKET CONSIDERATION. THEY WANT ESTABLISHED WRITERS THAT WILL SELL,  THE CHIMAMANDA'S , WOLE SOYINKA'S, BEN OKRI'S, AND OTHERS. EVEN IF THEY DO, THEY  DEMAND MONEY  BFOR THEY PUBLISH ,  SO THEY DO NOT LOSE, IF THE BOOK  DOES NOT SELL .
COURAGE AND BOLDNESS ARE SOME OF THE QUALITIES OF A GOOD WRITER. IF YOU ARE SURE YOUR WORK IS GOOD , YOU CAN APROACH SOME WRITER FRIENDLY PUBLISHERS AND GET YOUR BOOK PUBLISHED. HELON HABILA  WAS BOLD , HE SELF PUBLISHED  HIS DEBUT WAITING FOR ANGEL. THE BOOK LATER CAME TO WIN THE CAINE PRIZE AND THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS PRIZE. HIS SECOND NOVEL MEASURING TIME IS NOW HITTING BOOKSHELFS WORLD WIDE. AND HABILA IS NOW A LECTURER IN A PRESTIGIOUS UNIVERSITY IN THE US.WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF HELON WAS NOT BOLD ENOUGH TO FINANCE THE PUBLICATION OF HIS BOOKS. BE BOLD, PUBLISH.

ON PUBLISHING 2
MOST OF LOCAL PUBLISHERS SHORT FALL THE STANDARD, IT IS ALSO NOT COMPLETELY WRONG TO CALL THEM PRINTERS. THEY ARE JUST A REFLECTION OF THE COUNTRY ITSELF, NOTHING IS AS IT SHOULD BE. IN THAT CASE YOU MAKE DO WITH WHAT YOU HAVE. I SEE NOTHING WRONG IN FINANCING THE PUBLICATION OF YOUR BOOK. HOWEVER, YOU HAVE TO BE FULLY INVOLVED SO AS TO MAKE SURE THE FINAL PRODUCT IS OF HIGH QUALITY.
FIRST : join a writer's club say ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIAN AUTHORS where u will meet writer's, book editors, literary journalist and even writer- friendly publishers, most of who are writers like you , forced to become publishers because the big publishing houses wont publish them. there, u will sharpen your skills,and get useful critism, and learn more about what it means to be awriter in a writer unfriendly economy.
SECOND:read literary columns of national dailies and literary magazines for info on publishers , editors and writing related issues. i recoomend literari on SUNDAY SUN, bookshelf on WEEKLY TRUST,the write stuff ,ON NEW NIGERIAN WEEKLY, AND ARTS PAGES OF SUNDAY VANGUARD, GUARDIAN,THISDAY ON SUNDAY, SUNDAY INDEPENDENT.

ON PUBLISHING 3
THIRD: DISTRIBUTE copies of your manuscript to trusted book editors,grammarians, academicians, critics,literary playmates for editing , proof reading and constructive criticism. listen to good advice especially from experienced writers. re- draft if need be. CHIKA UNIGWE RE DRAFTED HER novel , the phoenix 11 times. don't be in a rush.
FOURTH:APPROACH a writer friendly publisher, discuss the aspects editing, proof reading, publicity, cover design, distribution network, and printing. be fully involved and demand for the best quality. some locally published books are produced up to international standard, eg, THE GHOST OF ZINA BY CHARLES AYO DADA, YELLOW -YELLOW BY KAINE AGARY,NINE LIVES BY EL-NUKOYA etc. THE GHOST OF ZINA WAS A SECOND RUNNER IN PAT NATIONAL UTOMI BOOK CONTEST. YELLOW-YELLOW WON THE ANA PRIZE and VICTOR NWANKO BOOK PRIZE.Pay particular to distribution, make sure the book is properly advertised, and well distributed and if you are sure of your onions enter for contest locally and internationally. REMEMBER, helon habila published his debut before it won THE CAINE. IN Nigeria of TODAY even professors and established authors finance the publication of their books:PROF. LAMIKANRA, ABUBAKAR GIMBA, REMI RAJI, AHMED YERIMA,NIYI OSUNDARE , THE LATE OHAETO TO MENTION A FEW.

ON PUBLISHING 4
YOU CAN ALSO SUBMIT YOUR WORKS TO INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS,  LIKE FABER AND FABER, BLOOMSBURY , JONATHAN CAPE ,IF YOUR WORK IS ACCEPTED YOU WILL PAID ROYALTIES. DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED however IF YOUR WORK IS REJECTED. HELEN, CHIMAMANDA ,SEFI ATTAH  and the rest ,had and still have the advantage of living in writer-friendly environments.  YOU CAN ALSO TRY FARAFINA(a Nigerian company,publishers of most recent african fiction,U can find them online) TO publish in naija ,  my sister you may have to pay for it , and dont be deceived that you will make money out of it, except during the launching if you are lucky or if you win an award, not every good writer wins an award .anyway.
ON SOURCING FOR A SPONSOR that may be quite difficult as u are not working,  I STRONGLYC advice that:YOU KEEP WRITING, JOIN WRITING CLUBS, SEND REGULAR CONTRIBUTION TO LITERARY COLUMNS, READ WIDELY,MINGLE WITH ESTABLISHED WRITERS , AND KEEP IMPROVING YOUR WRITING, WHO KNOWS U MAY SIGN A contract with CORGI and even win the BOOKER? USE THE INTERNET WELL, IF YOU PROVIDE AN E-MAIL I MAT SEND YOU A LIST OF ESTABLISHED PUBLISHERS THAT ACCEPt UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS DIRECTLY FROM WRITERS. If you are ready to publish locally, the naija way, I may also recommend some very good naijapublishers .

FORGOT TO SAY , MOST OF THE INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS DO NOT ACCEPT UNSOLICITED  MANUSCRIPTS DIRECTLY  FROM AUTHORS. THEY HAVE AGENTS, AS I SAID THEY GO FOR AWARD WINNERS, VERY FEW HOWEVER RECOGNISE NEW TALENTS, SO TRY YOUR LUCK .
By the way which of the genre have you thrown yourself into ? we may xchage writings 4 critism , i also have a work that is receiving attention from a publisher, a naijapublisher o, I have hopelessly allowed the intimidating muses of poetry to seize my soul.

LASTLY, [b]BE BOLD PUBLISH AND ALWAYS REMEMBER THE ADAGE, [[/b]]publish or perish.[/i]

ya man. these guys are right, you should not pay to get published unless u r using a vanity publisher. a traditional publishing house would publish your books and pay you royalties which is a % on the number of sales. It is true that most of these traditional publishers do not accept unsolicited manuscripts but if u search hard enough you would find one. But please please avoid Publish America. they r based in Baltimore and would publish just about anything u send them, they make their money by asking u to BUY your own book at a discount !! When I lived in England I had my book published by them in 2004 and till date I have only made $1 . 12cents !! least I forget, they get u to sign a 7 year contract, so u can imagine how I feel. Y not try out Blacksands books , Cassava republic or farafina. they r all here in nIgeria and dont require agents. Good luck!!

its a really nice idea but i think you should be business savvy about it all as well, with the reading culture in nigeria,dyu realli see people buying it even if its good?if the publisger realli believes in your book then they should part fund it and not leave you to get the whole funds, ill suggest you look for a reputable website where you can post your stories and get feedback as readers appreciate good works in the western world and you might generate enough interest for smone to actually contact you especially with the recent award being collected by nigerians/africans abroad recently,