There is something about the relationship between two human beings and how they get together and hopefully, live happily ever after. This is why some of the biggest-selling books on the planet are in the Romance Novel category and at the top of that pile are Mills and Book and Harlequin series. This is also why Fabio that model dude is so so rich.
We started the romance novel discussion in Africa too. In 2011, the South Africans unveiled Nollybooks to fulfill the need for teenage girls to read about dreamy protagonists of the African variety. Then the Kenyans with Storymoja decided to get in on the action with their Drumbeat series where readers could get to feel the beat of East African love.
Our Nigerian brothers and sisters are finally in on the action. Cassava Republic are famous for being one of the publishers of cool folks like Teju Cole and Mukoma Wa Ngugi. They gave us all a sneak preview of their new romance imprint Ankara Press on Saturday at the Lagos Book & Art Festival. This was at a panel discussion entitled ‘Romance in the Digital Age’ which included Cassava Republic publisher Bibi Bakare-Yusuf and Ankara Press author Amara Nicole Okolo.
The new imprint Ankara Press will be launched on 15th December 2014, with six brand-new romance novels written by African women. The romances will be published as e-books and easily downloadable to mobile devices. All six e-books will be available to buy from www.ankarapress.com from 15th December. So if you want to see what our Western African authors think romance should be like then I suggest that you register on the website now and they email you with details of a special launch discount price offer as soon as the books are available!
Amara’s novel ‘Black Sparkle Romance’ is one of six titles that will be published at www.ankarapress.com on 15th December 2014.
P.s. A dreamy Naija man… Less actor Mr Ibu and more singer Flavour no?
Leave a Reply