Anyone who attended the Hop Skip and Jump book launch at the Alliance Francaise, last Saturday, will attest to the fact that the Nairobi literary scene is alive and well. The event also showed that social media is a powerful mobilisation and marketing tool.
The book is written by Scholar V. Akinyi. The library has a sitting capacity of 145 people, but the number that showed up was 200; meaning that there were very many people that remained standing throughout the event.
It is also important to note that a large percentage of those who attended the book launch were under 35. What this means is that, unlike people of an older generation, young people are more willing to stand with and support each other.
And yes, the people who showed up had come with the express intention of purchasing a book. Sadly, not everyone left the venue with a book.
The books ran out!
Clearly, the author, though she had done a superb job of mobilising people to the launch, had underestimated the numbers that would turn up; or the fact that there were people who would purchase more than one book.
The other fact worth noting is that Hop, Skip and Jump is a self-published effort. The self-publishing part is very important when you consider that the author bankrolled the whole process of producing the book, from editing, designing to printing.
More and more of the younger generation of writers are opting to self-publish their books, as opposed to waiting for mainstream publishers to come to their rescue.
Although this is not a topic for today, many authors tell harrowing tales of how publishers reject their manuscripts offhand or when they accept them, it takes forever and a day to have the books published.
Akinyi has aggressively marketed her book on social media ever since the cover design came out. The entire stock of the initial print run was bought off well before the launch date. She had to make another print order to cater for the launch.
Even on the launch day, the printer was delivering new copies of the book. Whoever said that Kenyans do not read should go back to their notes and make amends.
Mainstream publishers should borrow a leaf from these young self-published authors, on what to do, when it comes to marketing. You do not produce a book, keep quiet about it and expect readers to buy it.
You might have the perfect book, a great storyline, excellently edited and designed, but if you do not market it, readers will not know of its existence.
The only reason people bought Akinyi's book is because she made noise about it, on social media.
Do not, for a minute, think that social media marketing is easy. It takes lots of hard work and patience to post something on social media, many times in day, even when there is little or no reaction.
So, what is Hop, Skip and Jump all about? Well, from the title alone, the subject matter might appear to be 'child's play', which it is and it isn't.
Confusing, right?
It should be noted that the Jump in the title has been cancelled out.
Why?
These are the questions that have been preoccupying the minds of people who see the book for the first time. The author was kind enough to answer their questions during the launch.
First of all, Hop, Skip and Jump addresses the sensitive topic of the 2007/8 Post Election Violence (PEV).
When the PEV demons struck, the author, who was born and brought up in Naivasha, was in primary school. Seeing as she belonged to the 'wrong community' in Naivasha, at the time, her family was uprooted and forced to relocate to their 'ancestral home' in Migori, where she completed her primary education with a lot of difficulty.
"This is a monumental book," announced Akinyi, clearly not averse to tooting the horn for her book. "This is the story of PEV, as told from the perspective of children."
She retreated back to the memories of her experiences at the time and packaged them into a book. It is a well-documented fact that when tragedies like PEV occur, it is women and children who bear the brunt of it all.
Children, by virtue of their age, are passive victims. Adults, too preoccupied with what is going on, do not have time to consult the children, to find out what their feelings are.
If adults cared to ask, they would know that children, too, have thoughts and they form opinions of what is going on in their lives. Hop, Skip and Jump is testament to that fact.
Thus, hop, skip and jump, being a child's game, acquires new meaning when the jump is crossed out. To Akinyi and other child victims of PEV, the violence happened just as they were preparing to jump out of their childhood existence, meaning that part of their childhood was violently stolen from them.
The author said that Hop, Skip and Jump falls into the genre of autofiction, meaning that she fictionalised her childhood experiences to deliver the message in the book.
The success of the launch made Dennis Mucheru, the chief librarian at Alliance Francaise, a happy man, seeing as what he started is now bearing fruit.
In 2019, a young self-published author, who was at his wits end, approached Mucheru with the request to have the library host the launch of his book.
Mucheru consulted his bosses, who gave him the go-ahead to host the launch of the book free of charge. They also agreed that book launches become a weekly feature at the library.
"Last year alone, we hosted 58 book events at this venue," he announced during the launch. "This year, the venue is fully booked until November. Such is the demand."
Alliance Francaise also organises the Nyrobi Book Fest, an annual three-day event, where self-published authors exhibit their books, again, without paying a dime.
This year's Nyrobi Book Fest will take place in June.
Mbugua Ngunjiri is the curator of Maisha Yetu, an online media platform for books and the Arts. Mbugua5@gmail.com
