In a hospital bed fearing his death was imminent, English teacher Othuke Ominiabohs thought ruefully of his four unpublished novels. “My biggest regret was I was going to die, and no one would see my work,” says Ominiabohs. “When I got better, I decided to self-publish and put those books out there for the rest of the world to read.”
His kidney failure was later cured by a transplant, and his literary ambitions led him to found Masobe Books, one of Nigeria’s fastest-growing independent publishers.
Initially he spent two months driving across Nigeria, his car boot full of his novels, visiting bookshops he found on Google, begging them to stock copies, and organising readings. Within a year his first book, Odufa, had sold 2,000 copies and he was receiving requests for more.
Ominiabohs was also getting calls from other writers, seeking advice on self-publishing. “I came across some very solid manuscripts and it dawned on me there was a gap in the market,” he says. The established publishers “were looking outwards, not inwards”, reprinting books already published in the west, “which left local writers struggling to get their voices heard”.
Ominiabohs started Masobe – which means “let us read” in the Isoko language – in 2018 with a $7,000 (£5,600) loan from his sister. In doing so, he joined a wave of new independent African publishers nurturing emerging African writers and getting fresh, exciting literature to African readers.
Masobe Books has achieved impressive growth. In 2024, it sold nearly 60,000 copies of 41 titles, up from 28,000 copies of 28 titles in 2023. This year Ominiabohs expects to shift at least 80,000 copies and build on revenues of more than $1m over the past four years.
The sales reflect a thirst for literature among Nigerians, who for a long time had limited options, says Ominiabohs. “When we started our first print run, other publishers advised to print a small run – not more than 200 copies, ‘because books don’t sell here’,” he says. “I knew that wasn’t true from my own experience. So we printed 1,000 copies of several books, and they sold out in six months.”
Although Masobe Books acquires rights to distribute international hits by Nigerian authors in Nigeria, its main focus is publishing original work. The themes vary. Novels from northern Nigeria, beset by Islamist insurgency, are more fantastical, whereas the west produces more historical and romantic fiction.
“Nigeria is a very unique country. There’s a lot going on in the economy, politics. Our daily lives can be tough, and this is reflected in the stories we get. It’s possible those northern authors, in their writing, are looking for escape.”
Among Masobe Books’ most popular titles are The Incredible Dreams of Garba Dakaskus, a story about a quest for an obscure book, by Umar Abubakar Sidi, and Michael Afenfia’s The Mechanics of Yenagoa, a humorous tale about the daily struggles of working-class people in a provincial city.
These titles illuminate overlooked aspects of daily life in Nigeria, says Ominiabohs. “People were tired of reading stories about Africans migrating and living abroad. These stories were timely, they were new.”
Masobe Books has struck deals to distribute titles in Kenya, Ghana and South Africa. In 2023, A Broken People’s Playlist by Chimeka Garricks was acquired by an imprint of HarperCollins in the US. Film studios have optioned the rights for two works by the author Abubakar Adam Ibrahim.
The relationships Ominiabohs formed with bookshops during that cross-country road trip have been key to Masobe Books’ success. The publisher has also partnered with a national pharmacy chain, helping it reach deep into Nigeria. Masobe Books puts resources into producing striking cover art and works with influencers to promote novels on social media, but the biggest selling point, says the proud founder, is the quality.
“The best way to market a book is word-of-mouth, and if a reader is going to recommend it to a friend, it has to be a good book – interesting and unputdownable,” says Ominiabohs, who was selected as Literary Person of the Year in 2024 by Brittle Paper, an African literature website.
His success is the result of “trial and error”. The biggest challenge has been building a skilled team of editors, designers and marketers, he says, as well as securing funding and logistics.
“I remember one author I approached in the beginning,” Ominiabohs recalls. “I told her I wanted to acquire her book. She asked me, ‘What is your plan, how are you going to sell it?’
“I told her I wasn’t exactly sure, but I would learn as I went along. There is a saying: a path is created by walking. It doesn’t just appear. You have to move.”
