Publisher keeps the written word alive

Armed with these facts, Mr Waweru carefully looked at what Kenyans were reading, and got his first business secret: Kenyans preferred well known authors because the content and packaging was well done.

This is also helped by aggressive marketing by the publishers— from television to reviews —and by the time the books hit the stores, there would be a rush for them.

“It was about having a love affair with a great author,” he says. That is why he can still remember his first book, Jeffery Archer’s Shall we tell the President?

Mr Waweru aggressively markets his authors.

Word Alive does big book launches and organises book signings.

Recently, it took seven authors to Uganda for a book signing and it is planning to do something similar in Tanzania in June, next year.

This is part of it programme called the “African Book Experience”.

Word Alive catalogue contains inspirational, leadership, personal growth, relationships, and theology books. Buyers can also order online.

It took him a long time to realise his dream.

He studied mathematics because boys did not do “soft stuff” like literature.

But when he left college, his first job was as an editor trainee at the University of Nairobi Press where he worked for 10 years.

He was also consulting for the NGOs when they were active in publishing.

Another reason for the delay to start was that publishing is capital intensive and the returns are slow.

Industry regulations demand that a publishing house secures about 70 to 100 titles to break even.

It can take up to seven or eight years to build up such a list.