This year’s edition of the South African Book Fair took place in the Women’s Jail at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg from 6 – 8 September, and was a great success. With more than 100 authors, more than 50 sessions and a dedicated schools programme, the fair attracted a record number of visitors, including more than
400 learners from outlying Gauteng schools.

Programme Manager, Olinka Nell, cites the abundance of good content as well as the move to a new venue as the main drivers for the reinvigorated event: ‘A whole new generation of writers are coming the fore. The authentic content readers have been yearning for for years is finally being published.’

Read about the South African Book Fair in the October edition of Bookmark magazine.
https://www.southafricanbookfair.co.za/

Veteran publishers Bridget Impey and Maggie Davey announced the acquisition of an 82% stake in Jacana Media through a consortium they formed. Their aim is to make Jacana “the only truly independent owner-run major publisher in South Africa”. Imprints MFBooks and BlackBird Books will remain in the fold.

Bridget grew up in a bookselling family, as daughter of the founders of Fogarty’s in Port Elizabeth. She worked at David Philip Publishers for nearly 20 years, before establishing a General Trade Division at Juta called Double Storey. Bridget has been at Jacana as both Publishing Director and Managing Director for more than 12 years.

Maggie was a publisher at David Philip and at the Mail & Guardian, and also taught publishing at Wits before founding Jacana Media in 2002.

Readers’ love affair with expletives continued into the year with no less than three titles containing the word f*ck making it to the Top 20 in August. South Africa’s plague of corruption remains a source of fascination, with Bosasa, the tobacco industry and the so-called Stellenbosch Mafia all covered on the bestseller list, the latter topping the charts. The boom in local memoir  and biography goes from strength to strength, seeing the month dominated by Letshego Zulu, Gabi Lowe and the story of Zephany Nurse. The surprise hit of the month was undoubtedly Living Coloured by Yusuf Daniels, making it to number 19 on the list. The most anticipated release of the month did not disappoint: Dr. T: A Guide to Sexual Health & Pleasure shot straight to number 17. Afrikaans books are still strongly supported in the market, with two titles on the top 20 list. The release of Mncebisi Jonas’ After Dawn was met with great enthusiasm, entering the chart at number 6. Only one children’s book featured on the list: Australian author Andy Griffiths’ The 117-Storey Treehouse. He tours South Africa later in September, which should further boost sales. Still lingering on the charts is Michelle Obama’s Becoming, where it has been since publication in November 2018.

Photo: John Fawcett-Peck

Trade stalwarts turned out in droves to commemorate the life of Jill van Zyl at her memorial on 4 June this year, 12 years after her retirement. Jill was revered as a custodian of knowledge during her tenure at Exclusive Books, and trained many of the prominent booksellers still in the trade. She started her career at City Books in Hillbrow in 1984, which later became the Bookworm before it was bought by Exclusive Books and moved to Sandton. She was later invited to the board and position of Literary Manager, and leaves a legendary legacy of excellence still fondly referenced by booksellers and publishers today.

Where book, reader and author meet is where the magic happens,and that so often happens in a bookstore.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to play in this space again.’

Batya Bricker has spent over 20 years in the South African book industry in various roles – as Programme Manager for three very different book festivals, as an independent publisher and editor, as lecturer in adult education, and course developer for SABA, but her longest tenure has been at Exclusive Books, where she spent 13 years managing and driving the Exclusive Books brand, from 1999 to 2012. It is indeed a homecoming of sorts to have her return to Exclusive Books as the GM of Marketing, Retail and Procurement.