Most booksellers exhibiting at the ongoing Zimbabwe International Book Fair or ZIBF say they are recording low book sales despite the high number of people visiting Harare Gardens.
Mambo Press representative, Gift Maduro, said it is surprising that sales are low even after slashing book prices.
Mambo Press is selling the cheapest book for a dollar. Another bookseller Rudo Nyabadza of Priority Projects Publishing concurred, stressing the number of visitors has not yet translated into expected sales.
Nyabadza said the low sales can also be attributed to lack of advertising by organizers of the book fair.
But ZIBF Board chairman, Obey Bvute, said book fairs have been hit hard by low sales in the last few years due to Zimbabwe’s harsh economic environment.
Bvute said the book fair is not mainly to sell books and related material but to explore new markets and opportunities.
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe’s stand has become the most popular pavilion as it offers an EcoSchool facility, which provides scholars and educators affordable and reliable access to world educational content through their phones.
Several activities like workshops are being conducted at the showgrounds.
Selous Cornway Primary School prefect, Ropafadzo Gandari, who participated in a spelling competition, said the fair was fantastic although she did not make it to the top.
The ZIBF is running under the theme “Growing the Knowledge Economy through Research, Writing, Publishing and Reading”. It is now open to the public until Saturday.
