Seminar Report
Young Writers’ Association of The Gambia (YWAG).
PUBLISH OR PERISH
Intro
‘Publish or Perish’ was initiated by Modou Lamin Sowe, known by his penname Modoulamin Age-almusaf Sowe.
Modou Lamin is the founder and out-going Chairperson of YWAG, and the interim Assistant Secretary General of the Writers’ Association of the Gambia, the parent association of YWAG.
He initiated the seminar having observed the acute need to introduce young and aspiring writers to the world of publishing; with much emphasis on developing and selling works as well as the laws that govern the profession.
Below is a rundown of the two-day interactive seminar:
Day One, 16 July, 2018
Introduction of participants and subject
Kicking off at around 7am local time, the participants drawn from across Africa shared short biographies with their photos, giving chance to everyone to know and recognize each other, as well as keeping up-to-date how far each of us has gone in writing.
The sole resourced person of the seminar, Modou Lamin, wasted no time by formally starting the educative forum with documents; audios, videos and texts, shared and explained, ranging from The Global Peace Leadership Conference GPLC 2018 to the UN FAO World Food Day 2018 Poster Contest link.
As the seminar progressed, more important topics emerged. Modou Lamin took time to introduce participants into writing-proper; beginning with pre-writing, writing, revising, editing and publishing. Each and every young writer faces challenges in at least one of the above-mentioned stages; therefore, having a colleague but a more experienced writer breaking it down was more significant than initially thought.
Day two, 17 July, 2018
Copyrights and intellectual property
Since many of the Gambian participants have been more focused on growing as a writer than knowing the laws that govern writing, Modou Lamin, himself a scholar of intellectual property, harped on the need to learn how to protect one’s work against pirates and plagiarists.
One by one, he explained to common understanding, the meanings of copyright, plagiarism, intellectual property, along with abbreviations like ISBN.
In between lectures, participants also had time to ask questions and or share their experiences in matters dealing with copyright. This gave him an idea of how to guide each of us to avoid future occurrences by suggesting people and places, where each writer could seek help.
After laws regarding publishing were dealt with, Modou Lamin shifted attention to publishing, a core subject that inspired the seminar in the first place. This time, it is ‘how’ to publish one’s work and ‘who or where’ to publish it.
Three key areas were discussed and summarized herewith:
Publish by a publisher
It was no surprise to Gambian participants that Modou Lamin started with this because almost all the writers in the country, especially the young ones, have had to take their manuscripts to publishers before the book is printed.
This is where the writer submits his/her manuscript to a publisher, who will thereafter offer the writer a book contract. This contract embodies all the rights and obligations between the parties.
However, Modou Lamin briefly discussed the downsides of this, chief among which is having to pay outrageous amount to a publisher.
Publish with a journal
Aside from individual publishers scattered around, there are also journals that publish works of writers. He singled this out as an option to those who find it hard to reach publishers, for whatever reason.
Self-publish
As information gets even more digital, writers have also found ways to avoid paying ridiculous amounts to publishers by just publishing on their own.
Being a self-publisher himself, Modou Lamin rates this as the most convenient for young writers, especially those who would struggle to get cash for publishing.
He also showed how one can sell your work by using social media handles anywhere you are, by tweeting about it or making a book trailer, etc., which allows your book to reach unimaginable places.
Summary
The topics mentioned above were a few of those treated during the short seminar. It is important to note however, that since it was literature, inspiration was needed to keep the seminar alive and the participants got it in abundance with bios and photos of literary giants of Africa, example Wole Soyinka, Lenrie Peters, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Chenua Achebe, the list goes on.
Moreover, as part of the early activities of the seminar, Modou Lamin reviewed manuscripts of some participants and shared the review notes with the group.
The seminar ended but the general impression of the participants, considering the voice note and text contributions, is that it was an enlightening forum during which everyone learned at least a few things.
(Written and Edited by Mr. Talibeh Gibran Hydara, The Standard Newspaper, The Gambia.) For more information, please visit the Facebook PAGE of The Young Writers Association of The Gambia ( YWAG ) on this link:
https://youngwritersgm.blogspot.com/?m=1
Or visit the website of The Standard Newspaper:
http://standard.gm/site/tag/gambia/page/2/
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