Ghana’s long awaited art magazine:The Today’s Artist Magazine

Art is an integral aspect of life and can be found all around us. Contemporary art is one field of art currently being embraced in the Ghanaian society. In view of this, research shows that there is currently no art magazine produced in Ghana for the Ghanaian society.  Also, there is a gap in the market for a product that brings together well established artists and upcoming artists in Ghana.

The Today’s Artist Magazine is a unique magazine with the sole purpose of promoting upcoming artists in Ghana located in senior high schools and fine art colleges within the country with the hope of bridging the gap between them, professional and well established artists. It would not only contain artworks but also provide relevant news, advanced notice of upcoming events, be it social or educational activities and pragmatic real world advice about course structure and career development related to the broad field of art.

This magazine would be produced every other month, i.e. six copies a year. Five hundred copies would be produced and sold for the first edition with a thousand copies for each edition in the subsequent months for the first year of production. The initial startup capital would be funded by Jay-Ford Group of Companies as the Today’s Artist Magazine is one of their products. The inclusion of adverts in the magazine would be another source of revenue generated for its production.

As Ghana gradually embraces contemporary art as a prestigious career, more people in Ghana would be interested in art. This would increase the current market for the Today’s Artist Magazine. Sales are expected to rise by the second year of production.

A Changing Industry - PEST

The politics of the publishing industry are shifting, from the powerful to the everyman. While the rich aristocracy, who owned the publishing companies, formally dictated what was considered ‘good writing’ the ability to self-publish online is providing an open platform for the public. Although this opportunity is not without its problems, the legalities of ownership rights being one, this semi–amateur nature of digital publishing changes the traditional narrative of the industry.

Economically speaking, this is a positive change. For aspiring authors, or those so far relatively unknown, online publishing may be more profitable as they eliminate the middleman. Online publishing can also increase the distribution, which would increase circulation, whether it be books or magazines, this could only be beneficial to profits. The nature of digital publishing and the popularity of the e-reader has even widened the industry, with an opportunity for profit for outside companies. As our increasingly green society steps away from the paper trail of traditional publishing, and towards the economically friendly e-reader, hardware creators such as Apple and Amazon stand to gain in the digitization. It is not just the author and publisher who will make money.

With the advancements of technology in the industry, publishing is becoming increasingly social. Online publishing is impacting on the authorship of books by making it a social rather than solitary occupation; blogs that post chapter-by-chapter can allow the feedback from readers’ commentary to effect the direction of the narrative. Social media allows you to be an engaging community rather than just an isolated reader. The popularity and convenience of e-readers is no surprise considering the shift in attitude towards technology in recent generations, compared with our older relatives.

The technological advancements have without a doubt massively affected the publishing industry as it tries to adapt, and with their potential for constant improvement they seem able to change it further in the future. This effect can threaten traditional publishers and force them to compete in order to survive; such as Barnes and Noble and the ‘Nook’ (Erin Carreiro: Electronic Books: How Digital Devices and Supplementary New Technologies are Changing the Face of the Publishing Industry). For the consumer, the technology can be both positive and negative. While the technology does allow you to connect with the text and use social media to input your opinions, having a digital version with constantly changing commentary on it means you never get a complete, single version of the text. Either way, technology is by no means destroying the publishing industry, instead it is providing extra platforms through which we can interact and consume. 

Self-publishing; a threat or an opportunity to traditional book publishers?

Recently I spoke to an old acquaintance who asked me the question you ask most people you haven’t seen in a while. ‘So Kirsten, what is it you do nowadays?’.

Well, I study book publishing.

Upon this reply I often receive a skewed look. Have I not chosen a remarkably poor subject? With the decline in book stores, the increasing popularity of self-publishing, the e-book, and Amazon, the popular belief is that books are dying out.

Nothing seems further from the truth. From 2009 to 2011 there has been an increase of 13.46% of ISBN registrations (The UK Book Publishing Industry in Statistics 2011). This suggests that every year more and more people decide to write a book. However, my audience is right that all these factors have put the publishing industry in an awkward position.

In days gone by there was only one way for an author to get published. They sent their manuscripts to publishers who separated talent from rubbish. From the talent pile a selection was made and converted into books. From this small selection readers chose their next book. However, with such an increase of writers the pile of content which needs to be divided into talent and rubbish has grown to a disproportionate size. Publishing houses no longer have time or resources to carefully sift through the pile – some have even gotten rid of this so-called ‘slush pile’ altogether.

As a result authors (who often have an unwavering belief in themselves) feel unheard. They have started looking for other ways to distribute their work, and the internet has readily provided for their needs. At small cost authors now self-publish their content onto the web, and to the surprise of the publishing industry they also found themselves a readership which even markets their work for them through word-of-mouth. As supply of small titles is growing, giving readers much more choice, the demand of the big titles is waning and book profits are going down.

Despite all this, the publishing houses remain. Only they have the marketing and distribution resources to reach the major audiences. Let’s not forget the real hype around Fifty Shades really only started when E.L. James was snapped up by Cornerstone and the big retailers starting selling her paperbacks and e-books. Instead of being daunted by this development, the publishing world should be excited. Let the reader dictate what they want to read, and closely monitor what is ‘trending’. It should be easy to spot a bestseller from a mile off.

Publishers may be set in their ways and slow to adapt, but they’re certainly not dying. They are simply changing. So a poor subject? Not so sure. An exciting one? Definitely.