Publish your books online
The President of the Ghana Association of Writers (GAW), Mr Francis Gbormittah, has urged children who have interest in writing or authoring books to begin with digital media such as WhatsApp, Amazon E-books and Adinkra Scrolls which are less expensive and easier to create.
Those platforms, he noted, created the opportunity for them to launch onto the bigger stage of publishing their own books.
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In an interview with the Junior Graphic, Mr Gbormittah said compared to traditional book publications, there was no cost involved in publishing their works on most digital platforms.
He, however, cautioned that before publishing their works digitally, the works should be proofread and edited to give value to them, adding that most people did not take editing and writing for digital platforms seriously and, as a result, there were mistakes in most of those write-ups.
"Don’t assume that since you have an avenue to publish, so you will just write and publish; it will not be of good quality. It is not good for you, as writers and authors, to start off with errors in your works,” he stressed.
According to Mr Gbormittah, there were two main types of publishing — self or independent publishing and traditional publishing.
The latter was where the manuscript went through rigorous editing, re-editing, further research, among others, he said, while self publishing did not effectively go through those processes, adding that although some independent authors went through thorough writing processes, others hurriedly wrote their manuscripts and published them.
He said children found it difficult to get their works published because publishing companies wanted manuscripts that were of high standards because publishers basically were in business to make money and could only invest their money in book ventures that were viable.
That business ‘discrimination,’ he said, discouraged children from writing.
Besides, he said, children who wrote were usually between the ages of 15 and 18, with such young people being either in senior high school or the university, where they had been exposed to writing of some sort.
Mr Gbormittah said it was always constructive to have young people write for their peers, adding that writing and reading provided the opportunity for children to improve on their language, gain knowledge beyond their familiar environments and also be confident.
He advised children who were interested in writing and authoring books to walk to the offices of the GAW in Accra for assistance, adding that Adinkra Scrolls was a GAW digital book-selling and shopping platform for young people to publish their books.
He said the platform served as a mentoring avenue for writers, and that when manuscripts were uploaded on the platform, they immediately went to a ‘waiting room’ where the Publications Committee of the GAW met to review them to satisfy itself that they met prescribed standards, before they were forwarded to the main platform for viewing by others.
Mr Gbormittah urged parents to encourage their children who showed the talent for writing and give them the necessary support.