Skewed pricing hurts publishing

Not many years back, one could count the number of serious book publishers in Kenya on the fingers of one hand.

Not any more. Ever since the emergence of free and universal basic education (which is funded by the government) the publishing industry has seen many new players come onto the scene.

As it stands now, the industry has grown to an extent that one cannot possibly keep track of the number of publishers in the country.

“We do not know the exact number,” admits James Odhiambo, the Executive Officer of the Westlands-based Kenya Publishers Association (KPA). “But, I can tell you that we have 53 registered KPA members. You see, not all publishers in the country are members of KPA.”

Most of the new educational publishers came on board around the year 2002, when a new curriculum for schools necessitated the publishing of new books to schools.

Many of these new players bought bid documents and started preparing educational materials to be vetted by the Ministry of Education through its curriculum research centre at the Kenya Institute of Education.

Other new players have joined the fray to cash in on the annual submissions for approval of supplementary reading materials, which keep the list of story books and reference books recommended by the ministry for schools growing.

The reason the onset of free education attracted new investors is that, unlike in the past when parents bought books in small quantities for their children, the government would be sending money for books to schools all over the country.

Government funding struck many investors as a cash cow from which they could benefit, and hence the dash into the school publishing business.

The first shock for the tens of publishers was that though the whole syllabus was being overhauled in four phases between the year 2002 and year 2005, the ministry had only six slots for approved books.

Thus, for every subject, the number of approved books for every level could not exceed six.

This means that if more than fifty publishers had submitted Geography books for Form Two; only six of those publishers would have their books approved by the ministry for that level.

The issue of six slots has been a thorny one, with industry players arguing that it leaves room for subjectivity.

They argue that if more than 20 books are suitable for use in one level, the exercise of narrowing down to six slots may be riddled with subjectivity and underhand dealing.

They argue that the slots should be increased, a view that the ministry has adamantly ignored, citing the need to be precise about the number of books that every level must choose from per subject.

The real fiercest war in the industry is not even in the scramble for the six slots, but in the pricing of books.

While all the books approved by the ministry have clearly determined prices, some publishers, especially the small ones that have no huge overheads, collude with schools to have their books bought exclusively especially under the curriculum support materials budget.

Huge discounts

They extend huge discounts to schools in exchange for what analysts think are kickbacks to brokers and schools, a luxury that big publishers are unable to indulge in as their prices include a figure to offset huge overhead costs incurred in running their businesses.

On average, publishers give a discount of about 30-35 per cent to booksellers.

With competition getting cut-throat in the market, especially for books that have not been approved by the ministry and whose prices are, therefore, not regulated, new small publishers are giving discounts of close to 50 per cent, which entices private schools and other buyers, thus disadvantaging the mainstream players.

A few weeks ago, the media reported that these small outfits had colluded with school managers and had sunk huge sums of money.

The mainstream publishers knew that the cash had been released, but they did not get a share of it, as the World Bank threatened to stop financing the whole arrangement.

Munene is a publishing editor based in Nairobi. Email: henmunene@yahoo.com.