Edward Tsumele

Edward Tsumele

Are you a small publishing entity, publishing books in indigenous languages and need funding?

The re is now an opportunity to access funding from the South African Book Development Council (SABDC) .

The national survey of the reading and book reading behaviour of adult South Africans 2007 indicates that only about 14 percent of our population read books. One reason given by those who do not read is, "reading books is too difficult".

This points to the content of our books, which are predominantly written in English and Afrikaans.

The shortage of books for leisure reading by both children and adults is even more acute in the indigenous languages. In response, the SABDC, in partnership with the national Department of Arts and Culture, is launching the Indigenous Publishing Programme to assist publishers to produce books in indigenous language s. The programme also seeks to increase indigenous-language publishing and to support the ongoing production of books written in local languages by South Africans .

The SABDC invites registered publishing companies to submit applications for the publishing of original, creative works, including novels, short stories, poetry, drama and children's literature.

Application forms are available at the SABDC offices, Tel: 021-914-8626/7, Fax: 021-914-8615 or downloaded from www.sabookcouncil.co.za.

The closing date for receipt of applications is June 12.