But the ride to the top spot was hardly a smooth one. To date her Hlomu series – Hlomu the Wife, Zandile the Resolute and Naledi His Love, has sold tens of thousands of copies, first out of her car boot and then mainstream bookstores began to notice and carried her titles which have made it to the top spot in just a few weeks of release. I began to toy around with the self-publishing idea, little did I know the challenges that awaited me”. “So, I started to blog a few chapters to test the waters, and people seemed to love the bit I had put out, which was very encouraging. She said she had completed writing her first novel Hlomu the Wife and had sat with it without a plan, never even ventured into trying to solicit securing publishing rights as she was aware that it wasn’t material commercial publishers would warm up to. The Journalist caught up with Busani-Dube at the festival to converse about her maverick approach to publishing.

Tumelo Moleleki author of His Joy: T he life of Nell as Makoti, Her Heart, The Dry Tears of a Bleeding Child and a Sesotho eBook on the economy Senyethe: Ho atisa leruo la Hao ho matsohong a hao Monde Nkasawe author of Journey of the Heart, Pieces, The Death of Nowongile, The Madness of Rodney Makhelwane, Liziwe, The Fullness of Time and Go to the Eastern Cape and Dudu Busani-Dube author of Zulu Wedding, Naledi His Love, Hlomu the Wife and Zandile The Resolute, have all walked away from commercial publishing that comes with the comfort of having a publisher, an editor, marketing advantage as well as existing distribution networks, at great cost. They shared experiences on the sweet success of self-publishing while wrestling the distribution demons that come with the territory. Three self-publishing writers sat down at the Abantu Book Festival in Soweto with Thabiso Mahlape, a publisher committed to providing a platform for black writers and narratives.