Folashade Adebayo
The President, Nigerian Publishers Association, Mr. Gbadega Adedapo, has said that privileged members of the society are not left out of buying books from pirates. He added that lack of awareness and inability to identify pirated books were some of the reasons why they do so.
Adedapo said this recently during a session of the Nigerian International Book Fair held at the University of Lagos.
While noting that publishers would soon start the accreditation of booksellers and sale representatives, he said that such efforts would also protect the integrity of its production lines.
He said, “We urged government to address inconsistent electricity supply, as well as improve the policy on importation of printing materials. We had always thought that only the poor patronise pirates, but we realised that it also includes the rich probably because the awareness is not there, while others simply find it difficult to identify the original from fakes. This is why we must acknowledge the integrity of our book sellers.”
While speaking on the theme, ‘Book Distribution Chain and the Future of Publishing in Nigeria,’ the Country Manager, Cambridge University Press, Mr. Lawrence Aladesuyi, alleged that publishers had been at the mercy of book pirates posing as sales representatives.
He noted that fraud in the publishing industry would be greatly reduced if background checks were carried out on sales representatives and prospective business partners. He also advised publishers to work together to reduce production costs.
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