Have you ever been so immersed in a book that you completely forgot your surroundings?
Or so attached to a story that it felt like the author wrote it just for you?
Do you have books that live rent-free in your mind; that they have now become a part of you?

Mine is Left to Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza. This book made me fall in love with reading. Which one is yours?

It’s World Book and Copyright Day!

Happy World Book Day to all book lovers, and Happy Copyright Day to all creators.

Don’t you find it interesting? Two ideas that may not be so obvious to book lovers, share the same global awareness day…. we’ll come back to that shortly.

April 23rd marks a special day for bibliophiles across the world. On this day, we celebrate the entire book ecosystem: readers, authors, publishers, illustrators, designers, educators, editors, storytellers, linguists, librarians, booksellers, historians, and everyone in between who makes reading possible and meaningful.

How Many Books Have You Read So Far?

According to my vision board, I should have read at least five books by this point in the year… what about you?

Keeping up with trends in the reading space can be surprisingly pressurizing. Readathons, book festivals, new releases, bestsellers… there’s always something to catch up on. Not too long ago, everyone was talking about Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Today, it’s Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins. And if you’ve spent any time on social media, you’ve probably seen posts that make it feel like you “should have read this by now.”

Still, as book lovers, we can admit, there’s something beautiful about it too. That shared excitement, the conversations, the way reading communities continue to grow. It’s a positive kind of influence, one that keeps the culture alive, even as we try to keep up.

In the spirit of celebrating reading culture, there’s a question we don’t pause to think about enough:

Where are we getting these books from?

Are we buying them from authors, publishers, or trusted bookshops that directly support the people behind the work? Or are we sometimes choosing convenience without fully thinking about its impact?

The Reality of Book Piracy in Kenya

This is where the conversation shifts.

Simply put, book piracy is the unauthorized copying, distribution, or selling of books (whether in print or digital form) without permission from the author or publisher. It can look like photocopied textbooks, illegally printed novels sold at lower prices, or even free PDF versions shared widely online. This happens more often than not. Sometimes it’s out in the open; book vendors selling suspiciously cheap copies. Other times, it’s more subtle, a forwarded PDF in a WhatsApp group, a download link shared “just to help someone out,” or a quick printout of an entire book because it feels more convenient.

How can you tell a pirated book?
In some cases, poor print quality, missing pages, blurry text, or unusually low prices e.g. 3 books for the price of 1. Notwithstanding in the digital space, one can get it for free by downloading it from suspicious websites or through forwarded PDFs. However, this is not always the case, and that’s where the lines begin to blur for many readers.

Which brings us to the bigger question:

Why does this matter?

Beyond the surface, book piracy affects more than sales. It touches livelihoods. Authors lose income from the very work they’ve invested time, creativity, and emotion into. Publishers face setbacks that affect production, distribution, and even the chances of new voices being discovered. .

Get it from the Horses’ Mouth

But this isn’t just a theoretical conversation. The people at the heart of the industry experience these effects firsthand. A well-known author and a credible publishing house share their perspectives on book piracy, and what it truly means for their work and livelihoods.

1.     Joan Thatiah

Award winning author of the popular series Confessions of Nairobi Men and Women.

• What’s something about copyright or publishing that completely surprised you as an author?

What surprised me most is how much of the work of protecting your book falls on you as the author. Also, how little protection exists in practice. You assume once a book is published, it is automatically respected and protected. It isn’t. You release a book and realize how quickly it can be copied, shared and stripped of ownership.

You quickly learn that writing the book is only half the work. The other half is constantly defending its value in a world where people think creative work should be free or easily accessible.

• What misconceptions do people have about ‘sharing books’ vs stealing intellectual property?

Many people think sharing a PDF is harmless, even generous. They see it as helping others access the work. But what they don’t see is that they are removing the author from the equation entirely. A book is not just a file or a forwarded message. It is owned work. It is time, research, emotional labour, and years of experience.

Sharing without permission is not support or community. It is redistribution of someone else’s labour without consent.

2.     Narrative Landscape Press East Africa

A Pan-African publishing house that is an extension of Nigeria’s Narrative Landscape Press.

• As we mark Copyright Day, how does copyright infringement affect your livelihood — directly and indirectly?

Directly, piracy costs us sales we can’t recover. But the indirect toll is what keeps me up at night. When a book is shared illegally, it quietly signals to the market and to funders that literary work has no monetary value. Over time, that erodes the entire ecosystem that allows us to take risks on serious, beautiful, important books. Small presses like ours don’t have a margin for error. Every lost sale is a conversation we can’t afford to have with a debut author.

• As a publisher, what’s one thing you wish readers understood more?

That a book reaching you is a miracle of sustained belief. Someone wrote it. Someone else believed in it enough to stake their livelihood on it. Designers, editors, publicists, all working, often for very little, because the story mattered to them. When you value a book, you’re not just valuing paper and ink. You’re valuing every person who refused to let that story disappear.

A Note for Book Lovers

Yes, we love to read, but loving those books also comes with a responsibility.

The best way to truly value books is to pay the price and access them the right way. In doing so, we honour not just the book itself, but everyone who played a role in bringing that story into your hands; from the author to the publisher, to the bookseller.

Every purchase, every intentional choice, is a step toward sustaining the stories we love and the people behind them.

Happy World Book and Copyright Day!