FAQs

We can’t raise funds to publish and print the book by pre-selling it because if we don’t reach the fundraising target to publish and print the book we will need to refund the book buyers. Unfortunately we don’t have the time nor the administrative capacity to do refunds. We are working on this book as volunteers.

Another reason that we can't raise funds to publish the book using the pre-sales strategy is because our MaP alumni and potential book buyers are scattered across many countries and cities. This means that courier fees would vary greatly and it would be prohibitively time-consuming to calculate this for each alumnus and book buyer in up to 17 countries and many more cities.

With the rising price of printing and shipping we can’t give an exact price of the book at this point in time. Also we haven’t published the book on Amazon KDP yet so we don’t know how much the eBook and print on demand hard copy book will cost. We invite you to subscribe to the Memories of MaP emailer for updates on the price of the book, etc.

We are doing our level best to make sure that the book will be as affordable as possible.

Update: Aug 2022. The book costs Pula 320 in Botswana, Rand 400 in South Africa and on Amazon varies from country to country.

Memories of MaP has an insert of colour photos which is what makes it expensive to print. Also, the book is 101,000 words long which obviously makes it pricier to publish and print than a book that is 50,000 words long. Most trade non-fiction books (i.e non-fiction books that you would buy in a bookshop) are about 50,000 to 80,000 words long.

The book may only sell 500 copies in total within the region. Generally, smaller print runs are more expensive than larger print runs even with digital vs litho printing which is even pricier.

It costs a fair amount of money to get a book published via a reputable assisted self-publishing company, i.e. formatting, layout, book cover design, etc. Because we are only printing 500 copies locally we have fewer copies of the book to spread this cost across, i.e. we don’t have economies of scale in this situation.

We will print only 500 copies of this book locally because Memories of MaP is a fairly niche book and this is probably how many copies of the book will be bought in Botswana and South Africa. These two countries are where the bulk of our alumni and friends live.

Fixing the local print run at 500 copies gives us a defined quantity for fundraising. If we increase the number of copies to be printed we will have an even higher fundraising target to meet.

The editors are working on this project as volunteers and do not have the time to do more print runs beyond a once-off print run of 500 copies. It has been wonderful to work on Memories of MaP but we want and need to close out this project soon.

The Amazon KDP printed book will not have the “Limited Edition 500 Copies” badge on it because we won't be limiting the number of copies sold via this platform. In this way we can make sure that the printed version of the Memories of MaP book is available beyond a local print run of 500 copies to wherever Amazon delivers to.

The context of our decision to print 500 copies locally is that in Southern Africa if a book sells 5,000+ copies it is considered a bestseller. Some publishers in South Africa say that if a book sells 1,000+ copies it is also a bestseller.

We have already done this. Initially we specified that we wanted the book printed with hard covers (vs soft covers) but when we saw how expensive this is we changed the specification to soft covers. Memories of MaP is a commemorative book and it would be ideal to have it printed as a hard cover.

Printing the book as a hard cover would also push up the selling price of the book both as a locally printed version and as an Amazon KDP print on demand version. This would make it less affordable to those who want to buy the book.

We have saved many thousands of Rand / Pula / US$ by doing the editing, fact-checking and proof-reading ourselves. Glenda Daniels is an associate professor and has published three books, Warren Nebe has published one book, Batsho Dambe-Groth is a seasoned HR professional who has written and edited many corporate documents and Shams Essack is corporate communications consultant who has written and edited hundreds of thousands of words in strategic plans, booklets, audio and video scripts, newsletters, etc. for corporates.

Most people who are not involved in book publishing and printing are not aware of how much it costs to publish and print a book - especially a book like Memories of MaP.

Many MaP alumni story contributors, MaP alumni and friends of MaP live in about 17+ countries. Having an Amazon KDP eBook and an Amazon KDP print on demand book hard copy book will make the Memories of MaP book more accessible to our international alumni, friends and book buyers.

Fortunately, you don’t need a Kindle device to read an Amazon KDP eBook. You can download and read Amazon KDP eBooks on your smartphone, tablet, laptop and desktop - if you have enough storage space, etc.

We will post a YouTube “how to” video on this website to walk you through this process. If you’re still struggling with it you can contact the PC Guru aka Roderick Stirling (+27 71 226 1591, roderick@thepcguru.co.za) who will guide you through the process of buying, downloading, opening and navigating your way through the Memories of MaP eBook on Amazon KDP. We have negotiated a special rate of Rand 200 (for a 30 minute online session) with the PC Guru for this service. When you contact the PC Guru let him know that you need assistance with the Memories of MaP Amazon KDP eBook so that you can get this special rate.

You will also be able to buy a printed Memories of MaP book via Amazon KDP’s print on demand facility depending on whether or not Amazon delivers to your city or town.

Indeed, if we could have gotten a book deal with a traditional publisher who would have covered the cost of publishing, printing, distributing and marketing the book we wouldn’t have to fundraise at all. This would have been ideal.

However, due to time constraints it wasn't possible to pitch Memories of MaP to a traditional publisher.

The donation doesn’t cover a free copy of the book. But there are other benefits that you will gain from donating to get Memories of MaP published - depending on what you value.

6 Benefits of Contributing to the Memories of MaP Book:

i) The philanthropic gesture of contributing to the Maru-a-Pula Orphan and Vulnerable Children’s (OVC) Scholarship Fund. The proceeds/profits from the sale of the book will go towards the tuition and boarding fees for teenagers who have the academic potential to do well at MaP but don’t have access to funds to pay private school fees due to being financially disadvantaged. Scholarships for disadvantaged children and teenagers play a signifcant role in decreasing poverty and income inequality and creating a more meritocratic and just society.

ii) Being part of MaP’s legacy by being listed as a donor in the book and on this website.

> If you donate Rand 1,000 / Pula 800 / US$ 63 before the end of 29 June 2022 you will have your name listed on the Donors page at the end of the book and on this Memories of MaP website.

> Donors who contribute the above amount after 29 June 2022 will be listed on this website.

> Donors who make a contribution of less than Rand 1,000 / Pula 800 / US$ 63 will be listed on this Memories of MaP website. We appreciate all donations ... big and small in these challenging times.

Listing our donors in the book and on this website is a way of acknowledging their contribution and for posterity. We are listing the amounts donated on this website for transparency so that everyone involved in the creation of this book can see how much money is being raised.

iii) The satisfaction of contributing to getting a book published that has never been done before. Nowhere have we found an alumni book that has the large number of contributors that Memories of MaP has. If you have seen a book that is similar to Memories of MaP please let us know.

iv) The satisfaction of contributing to getting a book published that has such a diverse range of contributors, points-of-view and voices from a relatively wide array of alumni.

v) The satisfaction of contributing to getting a book published with contributors from 17 countries - Botswana, Australia, the Channel Islands, Denmark, France, Ghana, India, Namibia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, Uganda, the UK, the USA, and Zambia.

vi) The satisfaction of contributing to getting a book published that is inclusive vs exclusive. In principle, all MaP alumni of its first 20 years (1972 - 1992) were invited to contribute their stories and photos to the Memories of MaP book. We did our level best to contact as many alumni as possible to be part of this book through the MaP Alumni Office emailers, by word of mouth (tapping into the alumni grapevine) and via Facebook. This is in contrast to other schools and universities where only a select few are invited to contribute to alumni books. Some anthologies will only publish a contributor’s story if they each pay a substantial fee to get the book published and printed aka “the pay to be published” model. We haven’t done this. We have made Memories of MaP as inclusive as possible.

We invite you to make a donation via our crowdfunding page to be part of our story and part of the Memories of MaP legacy.