Building E-Publishing Capacity by E-Collaboration: An African Experience

Abstract

The invention of the World Wide Web made the Internet attractive for publishing, offering Africans an opportunity to publish for the global market. Notwithstanding, their e-publishing initiatives, emerging business models and competitive e-collaboration with global distribution giants are yet to be adequately interrogated from an empirical perspective. This study, therefore, describes the progression of e-publishing from the perspective of e-collaboration. In-depth interviews, website observation and survey methods were employed in data collection; and 97 purposively selected publishing firms filled out a questionnaire offline whereas online data were collected from 82 available publishing websites. Findings indicate that publishers are building e-publishing capacity by launching websites, e-book clubs and online bookshops, collaborating with global giants for distribution, thereby increasing output significantly. This study updates the history of e-publishing, providing hitherto unavailable information on the progression of digital publishing in Africa's largest economy.