Storied

A new take on everything

Jacana Media’s life as a trade publisher began some 16 years ago in 2002. The brainchild of Maggie Davey who was joined by Bridget Impey, the publishing house has been making strong moves with regards to increasing diverse representation in the structure of the business, their list, their employees and even their funding models.

The Jacana Literary Foundation (JLF), started in 2011, is a not-for-profit organisation which seeks to promote and foster writing excellence from Africa by securing funding for key projects. The JLF works towards publishing literature that might not otherwise see publication for purely commercial reasons, thus allowing Jacana to produce literature which supports the concept of bibliodiversity.

At the end of 2012, Jacana created a platform for maverick publisher Melinda Ferguson to grow a new and exciting list of titles: MF Books Joburg. In 2015 Thabiso Mahlape launched her new book imprint BlackBird Books, in a similar fashion. BlackBird provides a platform and a publishing home to both the new voices and the existing generation of black writers.

Jacana’s latest initiative is Storied, which is also geared towards diversity and inclusivity, however, unlike imprints MF Books and BlackBird books, Storied is a separate publishing entity operating in partnership with Jacana Media.

The entity, capitalising on Jacana’s commercial experience in the South African publishing sector, hopes to reinvent the local creative writing and fiction sector through targeted financial investment and innovation. It will use Jacana’s extensive publishing experience and operational footprint to nurture South African voices and help them tell their stories.

“The 2017 Nielsen BookScan figures show that South Africa’s publishing landscape significantly favours non-fiction publishing, which presents an opportunity for Storied to capitalise on this gap. Storied has a first-to-market advantage because it will engage with the entire value chain in its publishing decisions and invest in the creative talent and voices that meet a long-ignored market segment and readership,” says campaign project manager Leabiloe Molapo.

Jacana Media recognises that non-fiction sales have outpaced fiction sales to the extent that publishers are increasingly making the commercial decision to publish increasingly more non-fiction. This is of significant concern to our society, given the vital role fiction plays in aiding meaningful social dialogue.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Storied is their funding model which is as innovative as it is young. Storied seeks to raise R3 million using Uprise Africa’s equity crowdfunding platform. An amount that will be directed towards growing the ecosystem that fiction needs to survive as well as the editorial, production and printing of its titles. Storied already has the advantage of having Jacana’s existing infrastructure, and formidable editorial, publishing and marketing teams at its disposal. The minimum investment is ZAR 1 200, and the campaign, which is running for 90 days has garnered some interest from investors.

“We are equity crowdfunding from investors. A Storied share costs R300. The minimum investment amount is R1 200 which buys you shares in the publishing company, Storied. We do caution investors that the returns that Storied promises are based on industry performance over the past five years. Our caveat is that: Storied is a social equity investment, with incredible potential social returns. Your Storied shares will be supporting writers and editors and building fiction publishing in South Africa.

There will be returns once the company begins to turn a profit – projected to be in 2021. Storied investors will see their returns in the books that Storied will publish; in the donations to libraries; and in the growth in the local fiction market.”

Visit www.uprise.africa and invest in Storied. Invest in African fiction.
Campaign page on Uprise.Africa: https://www.uprise.africa/view_pitch/storied
Campaign microsite: www.storied.co.za
https://mg.co.za/article/2018-02-09-00-the-fight-against-the-extinction-of-fiction