Ever heard of a bookazine? Kate Sidley talks to Moky Makura about them

What exactly is a "bookazine"?

It looks and feels like a book, but it has elements of a magazine, such as word puzzles, a celebrity interview and use of colour on the page, and it's merchandised in the magazine section. The love story is the main draw, but I felt that if we're going to sell this "old technology" to a young market, we have to innovate.

There's also a glossary, because readers might not have a dictionary at home, and there's a page of discussion points for book clubs. Book clubs don't have to be the preserve of middle-aged women. We're hoping to encourage young readers to see that reading can be a fun thing to do with girlfriends.

The obvious comparison is with Mills & Boon.

It is a sort of African Mills & Boon. There's a girl and there's a hero, there's an attraction. The main thing is that the stories are African. Young people see heroes who reflect their lives, who speak like them, who live in South Africa. It's escapist - we don't do stories about Aids - but also real and relevant and reflecting the aspirations of young South Africans.

Tell us about the heroines.

The heroine in Nollybooks is a particular type of girl. She's feisty, hard-working, morally upright. She's a strong young woman who is getting on with her life. Yes, she falls in love and gets the man, but she doesn't need the man to make something of her life.

And the hero? Good-looking and rich? In Lights, Camera, Love there are references to Polo shirts, first-class luggage tags and top brands.

The hero is a man that a girl would want to be with. Yes, he's well-to-do, but he's not a billionaire. Our research showed that South African girls are aspirational. A girl wants a guy who will grow with her, not bring her down. The brands are part of setting the scene and also part of the aspirational aspect of the books. And yes, he's good-looking.

I notice there's no sex.

No. We're aware that this is a young audience, so we're careful about that. And I don't think you need sex to have a good love story.

Do you think that young South African women want to read? Or have we already lost them to more high-tech pursuits such as television, cellphones?

It's true that South Africa is not a nation of readers - more than half of South Africans live in households that have no leisure books. But on the other hand, we do have a growing middle class, and people do see reading as a good thing. Selling books is a little like selling a gym membership - it's good for you and if you try it you might like it.

Before we launched, we did focus groups with young girls in Alexandra. They were positive about books, but there were factors that put them off buying books.

They said they were expensive, and that the content didn't seem relevant to them. They also found book stores intimidating. We set out to change that. Nollybooks sell for R49.95, the content is targeted at young African women and the books are available in the magazine sections of CNA and other stores.

The books are short - 30 000 words, 10 chapters - and the typeface and cover are all designed to make them readable and accessible. We see these books as a stepping stone to the world of reading. The reader won't go into a book store and spend R200, but she might buy one of our titles.

It's challenging, in that there's no model to follow and we are breaking new ground with this. It's exciting and creative and immensely fulfilling. We offer book sponsorships, for instance, which is very unusual in the book world. And we've introduced an initiative called "Buy a book for a girl", where corporates or individuals can buy any number of books to be donated to an NGO or a school or any other programme in a disadvantaged community.

What about young men. Do you think they'll be interested in Nollybooks?

We launched with romances because women traditionally buy more books than men, and it made sense in terms of the business. There may be a few men who read them, but we have plans to create other ranges of books that are more geared towards male readers.

Our next project is to create a series of low-cost self-help books, a sort of "How to" approach.

The first one is about the first year in the workplace and getting and succeeding in a job. Another is about how to make money and look after your money. We're also looking at a series of Nollybooks crime novels, similar to the romance novels in size and approach.

• Thuli Ngcobo is an ambitious young receptionist at a hotel in KwaZulu-Natal. Jake Mkhize, a good-looking, Diesel-wearing, Hummer-driving Hollywood director returns to his South African roots to make a movie. They get off to a poor start, but when Jake's PA doesn't arrive, Thuli steps in to help. Professional, ambitious and - of course - a natural beauty, Thuli proves invaluable, thanks to her knowledge of local customs and her dealings with the chief. Things get complicated when Jake tries to find the missing pieces in the puzzle of what happened to his parents. Thuli, with her sixth sense and her connections with the village people, including the local sangoma, helps. In a final, climatic scene they narrowly escape death and finally discover their true feelings for each other. Lots of action and, after the obligatory misunderstandings that any two fictional lovers must face, a happy ending.

• Lights, Camera, Love is published by MME Media, R49.95