Pedestrians along Chad Street, near Mexico Square, glance at the books Belete Damte sells by the side of the road, near Bunana Shay. Some stop to take a look. They may ask the prices and some of them will make purchases, from a business that Belete has found to be more profitable, than his previous job as a barista in a cafe.
The 26-year-old went for the roadside business five years ago, using savings of 1,180 Br from the cafe business.
At 9am, on Tuesday May 14, 2013, he had already spread out some of his 118 books across a property wall on the sidewalk, while the rest lay on the ground, shielded from the sidewalk by a tarp. He has 3,500 Br worth of books for sale at various prices.
“There are a lot of book sellers on the streets today,” said Belete. “It wasn’t like this when I first started doing this work.”
Many young girls enquired about the price of various books, while Fortune was talking to him, but none bought any. Some looked shocked by the prices he was quoting.
The price tags on his books range from 19 Br to 65 Br. He quotes larger prices when asked, however, as much as 15pc over and above the cover price. If business is slow, he will request as little as two Br above the cover price. Sometimes people ask him for rare and old books. He goes around to his contacts and if he gets the wanted copy, it could sell for as much as 250 Br.
His display includes a wide variety of categories, including; fiction, educational, self help and personal development books, mostly locally published. Some of the books are translations, others whole works by foreign authors, printed locally, as is.
A survey conducted by Mega Printing & Distribution Plc, two weeks ago, found that nearly half of the books in the market were educational, while 33pc were general knowledge books, 11pc historical and 10pc fiction.
“The need for educational books is growing nowadays, while the trend of readers on general knowledge and entertainment is somewhat slow,” said Hassiet Fisseha, general manager of Mega and an author of four books.
Belete says that the number of book titles that are available for retail has also increased dramatically. The book market has improved his life; he manages to pay rent on his home on time, and he sends money back to his parents, who live outside Addis Abeba, twice a year.
“I sell up to 10 books a day, but there are days when I go home without selling a single one,” said Belete. “I earn a decent living now, like many others that do the same thing.”
Natnael Girma, one of those who does the same thing, roams the streets with a stack of books piled high on a folded piece of cardboard, which he balances between his palms and his torso. He does not stay in one location, rather choosing to walk around the streets of Addis Abeba.
Fortune found him on Haile Gebresellassie Street, in the area commonly known as Haya Hulet Mazoria. He feels that luck has a lot to do with success in his business. Sometimes he walks around with no sale at all and then he could find a place where there are many people who want to purchase books. Some travelling vendors like him settle for a location that they deem fit once they have managed to establish a customer base.
Belete settled on his spot at Bunana Shay, after trying to sell at the Cherkos, Paulos, Bole and Arat Kilo areas.
“I moved around for over five years,” he said. “The police never used to allow us to settle in any one place; they always threatened to take our books.”
Some vendors have been in the business for over 30 years, scaling up to container and other rented shops. Some of these businesspeople have grown to become distributors as well.
Aynalem Mewa, owner of Aynalem Bookstore, behind the National Theatre, has created a name for himself as one of the major retailers and distributors in Addis Abeba. He has a reputation for carrying some of the rarest titles in the city. He supplies books – both local and international titles – to small scale vendors, often at a 25pc discount. The vendors that buy from him pay upfront.
“I have been in this business for 22 years and although there have been significant improvements, the culture of reading is just now beginning to develop,” Aynalem said. “The only way to get books out there is to make sure that they are available everywhere. Right now, the only people that can do that are the small street vendors.”
The books do not seem to be coming by easily, however.
“Most of the indigenous writers in the country do not have the financial capacity to reprint their books when their titles are scarce on the market,” said Hasseet. “There are really no full time writers to speak of and we lack writers that write based on the needs of society, so that they could make more money.”
The price of books is reasonably cheap in Ethiopia, compared to other countries, he says, but still expensive compared to per capita income.
Author, Bewketu Seyoum, says that he has found the cost of publishing his books with major publishing houses so expensive that he deals with the printers directly and pays for the job out of pocket. He has published five books so far, and pays 35pc of the price to distributors as commission.
“Most writers can’t get their manuscripts published, because they can’t afford to pay the costs,” said Bewketu. “This is a serious loss for both the reader and writer, alike.”
He added that it was important for the more established institutions, including the publishers, printers and distributors, to find a way to improve the industry and to make a plethora of choices available to the reading public. But, even as writers like Bewketu Seyoum go for self-publishing, importers, such as Shama Books Plc, are facing challenges from unauthorised local prints of popular foreign titles.
Shama, also a major publisher and distributor, imports books to sell through its retailer, Book World, which has six branches in Addis Abeba.
“Some authors and book stores buy our original copies and reprint them,” said Asfeha Tesfay, head of marketing at Book World. “Some people, even publishers, will go as far as downloading and printing foreign books to sell at extremely low prices, since they don’t really have any costs to speak of.”
But, although this practice may make the latest titles and reading choices available to the reading public, Shama says it is paying dearly as a result.
“We incur major losses, since we import original copies at international prices,” said Asfeha. “Our importing capacity has been cut by more than half because of this.”
Yet again, local publishers, such as Aster Nega General Business Plc, are taking their materials abroad to India, where printing is cheaper.
“There are two reasons that we print abroad,” said Zenebe Deneke, the manager of the publishing house. “First, the cost is much cheaper; India has a well established print industry that can supply almost any titles at unbelievably low prices.”
Book World sells more imported books, than it does the local ones published by Shama Books; its local books are often high priced.
“Our editing costs are extremely high,” says Asfeha, justifying the act. “We adhere to international standards of publication, so we edit a single manuscript nine to 10 times to produce the highest quality product. Add to that distribution and launching costs and royalty payments; it’s a lot easier to just import.”
Self published authors also find the opportunity to make more money during reprints of their works.
“Some books’ first prints have reasonable prices and then the publishers double their rates if it becomes popular,” Aynalem said. “By the time it is on its fifth and sixth editions, the prices go through the roof.”
Hasset’s books include; Ma’ebel (2008), Misterawi Mezagebt (2010), Temsalet and Kiya Tegadlo (2012). They used to sell for 18 Br on the market, when he was first published. Nowadays, however, his latest titles average 90 Br.
Whatever the prices, most of the books make their ways to the readers largely through street vendors, such as Belete.
“Once you start selling books you can never stop,” said Belete. “It is like an addiction.”
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