Cape Town - Kyle Jantjies, 27, teacher and published author from Mitchells Plain, played host as an exhibitor at Comic Con Cape Town, where he engaged with his fans in person and spoke about the rewards of going solo.
Speaking to the Cape Argus as one of the featured local talents at the event, the self-published author said he’d had more success publishing his books by himself and selling to an international audience than working with publishing houses.
“This was my first time at Comic Con. They asked if I wanted to speak and I said ‘yes’, but I didn’t think I’d be accepted because they usually take panels, and now I’m a speaker.
“From when I published in 2020, it’s been a journey. I’ve tried to go to market places and I never broke even, but you pay R300 just to be there, but I never even made R300 at those places.
“I’m now at Comic Con and I broke even on the first day, and everything from there is just profit,” Jantjies said.
He has published a series of fantasy/fictional novellas titled Journey of the Soul with the first edition The Search for Power available at bookstores. Speaking on stage, he told fans and aspiring writers and authors that he started writing because he wanted to be a superhero.
“In our culture, they don’t want to read or if they do want to read, they don’t want to pay to read, and I believe paying to read is important because if you invest in something, it forces you to read it.
“I have many books at home that I never read. The only ones I read are the ones I pay for, because I paid for it.”
The UWC student said he wants to teach aspiring authors as he has seen both sides of the industry.
“I know both sides of the field. Traditionally, there is less risk, I don’t pay anything to publish my books and the two books I did traditionally, I paid nothing to get them printed but when you get royalties from them you only get like 15 to 30% – which is very little – and you still have to push for marketing.”
Adversely, he said as a self-published author “you take all the risk, you pay for it, but at the same time all that money comes to you and if God comes through, and somebody says they want to make a movie of my books … the ones that I self-published, I get all the money for it because I hold the copyright.
“People do not like reading in South Africa. My e-books sell so much better than my physical books because I sell to the US market and they love reading,” Jantjies said.
“Our community needs to invest in reading, especially our local authors. I feel books are very valuable so you should have to pay for it but most people don’t want it. I think their brains are lazy. What I tell my schoolchildren is that they need to push for their goals, and open their imaginations.
“People are struggling to get their books out. They don’t know where to start and they want a lot of help, so that is something that I’m trying to do. If I could, I would host a course to teach people how to get their books out,” Jantjies said.