*she went further to ask.
"I think it reflects poorly on the French people that you have to ask me that question."

However there's a huge gulf between the reality in Nigeria and the deserved clapback Chimamanda gave.

I think it was a missed opportunity and I will say how. https://twitter.com/TheSeunL/status/1347166036097986563

First off, it was indeed a silly question. But there was some logic behind the silliness of the question. In France, generally if your book is published traditionally (nearly every publication is traditional), federal and regional governments buy copies to stock in libraries.

There are over 3000 public libraries situated in and around the entire country so if your book is published, chances are that a bulk of the distribution and marketing stress for your publishers are lifted and your book is near instantly available everywhere in due course.

The French Library system is a very strong mechanism for book distribution in France. If that interviewer knew of our non existent library system, you can almost understand how and why she would begin to wonder how Chimamanda's books are read here in Nigeria.

So why did I say it was a missed opportunity? Because asides drawing attention to the state of libraries in Nigeria, she could more importantly have drawn attention to the traditional publishing quagmire in the country and how difficult it is to sell and distribute books.

And for Chimamanda, "Do they read your books in Nigeria" is a very valid question. A very strong pointer would be to question how much of her books are sold in Nigeria (paperbacks). How many reprints of the Ankara paperbacks did Narrative Landscape do?

How many unique readers?

Because Chimamanda is only one of many great Nigerian writers who cannot sell plenty books locally. In fact, she is one of the more privileged. Combine ALL the traditional literary fiction publishers in Nigeria and they won't sell 50000 traditonally published books in a year.

In fact, I dare say they won't sell 30,000. ALL LOCAL PUBLISHERS. ALL.

How many local writers published localy are sharing in that 30,000? What are they going home with? Publishers? Bookstore owners? Etc.

It's a very cruel and unforgiving market which is why debt is mad here.

One major reason is the economy. The average book is N3500. Minimum wage is 30k. On average, Nigerians earn 50k. How do you afford books?

If we had a library system similar to France's, we might actually see one writer doing those 30,000 books in a year.

Locally.

Heck, there are entire states in Nigeria without credible bookstores. Entire states.

Without these bookstores, how will Chimamanda (and others) have their books distributed? A library system would seriously mitigate that challenge and take books to far flung places.

So yeah, sweet clapback, but a missed opportunity because we could have opened a national (and perhaps international) convo or advocacy on libraries and book distribution.

Instead we focused on "energy" and "my queen."

Oh well.