Unconventional author Dudu Busani-Dube, of Hlomu: The Wife fame, says the lack of black book publishers in South Africa led her to self-publish her popular series. Hlomu: The Wife is part of a collection that includes Zandile: the Resolute and Naledi: His Love ."My writing is ghetto and I did that because it's the way we talk; and I did that on purpose because it's not my duty to promote the English language," she said.Her unique style, using slang and making reference to black culture, is what the author said prompted her to bypass finding a publisher."I thought about getting a publisher, but I was afraid that they would not get me and what I was trying to do and say."I also couldn't find a black publisher. If we had black publishers, I think a lot of people would be able to publish their books and their stories because we are writing black stories in a black way and I don't think the publishers we have now understand that - understand us - and know what we want to hear," she said.Thabiso Mahlape, of Blackbird Books, dubbed a pioneer for her focus on publishing local stories, said that Dube was on to something: "Like any industry, publishing is a white industry. There has been some transformation, but not in the areas that matter."Mahlape said that what is lacking in the industry is a market for stories with a black narrative."We need the government to step in and make sure that they are stocking libraries with local books. This allows publishers to absorb new staff - to train new publishers - and publish more books.""We need more black publishers," she said "because blackness and its stories are not something that can be contained or quantified, so two black publishers are not going to resonate and have interest in all black narratives."Mahlape said although she was initially sceptical about self-publishing, the growth of self-publishing is "significant".It is doing "incredible work in helping the growth of book reading and buying cultures".Caren van Houwelingen, editor in the fiction department at Kwela Publishers, saidthe problem is found in the "roots in our country's political and social history"."The majority of South Africans live in poverty, or are part of the country's slowly developing middle class."Working as an editor or publisher in South Africa is not financially very lucrative," she says...