Nigerian startup Publiseer has launched a digital publishing platform that allows authors and music artists to publish and distribute their material across a variety of mediums.
Launched early this month, Publiseer distributes books and songs to over 400 premium stores, including Amazon, Google Play and the Apple Store.
The platform also offers product fine-tuning, taking the words written by an author and transforming it into a piece of work ready to be published. It does the same with songs, paying authors and artists US$1 in royalties for every copy sold.
Co-founder Chidi Nwaogu said Publiseer had competition from the likes of BookBaby and CDBaby, but said platforms like this charged artists and authors a hefty publishing fee.
“Most of these authors and artists spend so much on publishing that they have very little money left to market their book or album. That is where Publiseer comes in. We are the publishing company for the third world,” he said.
“Many people in Nigeria live under a dollar per day and they cannot afford to publish their works. Usually these works are breathtaking and these people are talented, but their talent wastes away because they don’t have the money to publish.”
Publiseer publishes this work for free, in turn for a share of any revenues generated.
“Most talents die when their work lies around with them, unknown and undiscovered. Publiseer wants to give them their first step, so that all they can worry about is getting their work marketed. And they don’t lose money marketing because their work is everywhere for everyone who is interested in it to purchase a copy,” Nwaogu said.
He said the self-funded startup, which is seeking angel investment, has seen a positive response from authors and artists so far.
“We receive about five submissions everyday. I discovered that some authors and artists are interested but they don’t have enough money to go to the studio and record a song, or access a a computer to type their book,” Nwaogu said.
“At the moment, we don’t offer those kind of services. Sometimes, we have to work even during the weekends to get more works published.”
