Running a publishing house requires one to be passionate about reading and writing, to be transparent with authors and give them full ownership of their works, according to motivational speaker and publisher Moses Zwane.
Zwane, who is the author of two books – “Your Breakdown is Your Breakthrough” and “Live the Life of Victory”, started Morez Publishers and Printers in 2019. His Mpumalanga-based publishing house has published more than 20 books since its conception.
Speaking to Vutivi News, Zwane said that he believed his business was successful because it of its transparency and the services it offered. “When we publish a book, we have to know the genre and language of the book. We then inform the writer of our services which include editing, graphic designing and others,” he said. “We then print the books for the writers with our own printing department. We also give authors 100% ownership of their books and do not get any royalties from them.”
Zwane said he operated this way so that an author was not restricted on using the book for other purposes. “If, for example, an author wants to transform their book into a movie or televise some aspect of their work, they do not have to seek permission from our company because they would have owned their entire works,” he said.
“We have to know what kind of book you are writing because we cannot accept your work without knowing the genre, which language (it is in), to inform what services we offer and we agree and charge you for everything. We also give you 100% ownership of your book.” He said it cost around R5000 to publish a book, but this figure increased according to the number of pages.
Zwane told Vutivi News that his team of graphic designers, editors and marketing specialists enabled him to navigate through challenges. “As long as you are honest with your client and you are transparent, it becomes easy for them to trust that you can publish their work for them,” he said.
“With my team of six employees, we aspire to turn any writers’ dream of publishing into a reality.” The next plan for the company was likely publishing books written by the children. “… because we believe that from the age where you can write, you deserve to be published,” he said.
