THOSE who had thought that Nelson Publishers Limited would soon roll out its titles may have to wait a bit longer before they see a widening of the nation's literary space. Although a text message to the contrary had emanated about a fortnight ago, the first title may not be due out until late next year.In a chat with the former editor of African Writers Series (AWS), author and consulting editor to Nelson, Adewale Maja-Pearce, stated clearly that the outfit was yet to receive enough publishable manuscripts to meet its target of six titles a year. Also, Nelson was yet to meet certain minimum requirements needed to position the imprint to compete globally in literary publishing.Maja-Pearce, nevertheless, affirmed the seriousness, commitment and vision of Evans Publishers and its managing director, Mr. Gbenro Adegbola in making the Nelson literary imprint project a workable one. He gave reasons for this: It will confer on them fillip and respectability. Also, Maja-Pearce believes the project will make money in time, but that the publishing company needed to up its ante for this to happen. That way also, Nelson could take its titles abroad to broaden its customer base, he stated.But first, Maja-Pearce wants Nelson to set up a good website for the imprint that would receive traffic from the literary community. That way, it will also be part of the global online community since the world has since moved to the net.However, Maja-Pearce's major problems lie in the quality of manuscripts Nigerian writers are churning out daily. From his experience as editor of AWS and Index on Censorship, Maja-Pearce is appalled at the quality of writing he receives monthly. Whereas six titles were originally billed for released at the end of the year, he could only boast of two and a possible three titles so far. This is in spite of receiving an average of eight titles every month from intending authors.Maja-Pearce lamented, 'Almost all of what we receive is unsuitable for publication. We don't have highly trained editors in Nigeria. And there is a huge problem of usage of English language. Most writers don't seem to understand the usage of the language, whether American English, British English or Nigerian English. For instance, they use 'out of the blues', when it ought to be 'out of the blue'.'I'm informally working on a style guide to be used by publishing companies. Local books have to conform to international standard for audiences abroad'.He insisted that things must be done properly first before Nelson could come out with its titles so as to avoid certain minor lapses that mar many a book. Maja-Pearce stated that starting may take time, but that Nelson would get it right eventually. Such lapses include typographical errors, spelling errors, poor layout and graphic design and many others that may be a distraction. He advised publishers to pay extra attention to details so as to get things done properly.Although he also acknowledged that good manuscripts were rare to get, Maja-Pearce is of the view that a sharp fall in standards in education over the years is to blame for the poor manuscripts being churned out.
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