ITAN Global Publishing (IGP) is Africa’s leading self-publishing platform for African authors offering open-access publishing, global distribution, and author marketing tools.
Learn how IGP positions itself in the African publishing market.
What Is ITAN Global Publishing (IGP)?
ITAN Global Publishing (IGP) is a Lagos-based self-publishing marketplace built specifically for African authors. Founded to close the gap between African literary talent and global readership, IGP operates as a two-sided platform: African writers supply manuscripts and books, while readers, including diaspora communities, institutions, and individual buyers are the paying customers.
Unlike traditional publishers that select who gets published, IGP is an open-access platform. Any African author can publish, distribute, and monetise their work digitally — without needing the approval of a gatekeeper.
The Problem IGP Solves: A Market Left Behind
Traditional publishing has historically treated Africa as a peripheral market. The few major publishers active on the continent, such as Cassava Republic, Farafina, and Heinemann’s African Writers Series operate with curatorial gatekeeping, selecting only a fraction of available authors. The vast majority of African writers, especially those outside Lagos, Nairobi, and Accra, have no viable commercial pathway.
Global platforms like Amazon KDP exist but were not built with African authors in mind. Payment infrastructure, local pricing, and discoverability all work against African writers on these platforms.
ITAN IGP fills that structural gap by combining the open-access model of Kindle Direct Publishing KDP with the cultural context and author-proximity of a locally rooted platform.
IGP’s Unique Market Position
IGP occupies the top-right quadrant of the African publishing landscape: African-focused and open-access. This is a white space that no existing player has claimed.
Traditional African publishers like Cassava Republic and Farafina apply curatorial gatekeeping. They decide who gets published. Global platforms like KDP and Draft2Digital are open but not culturally calibrated for Africa. IGP is the only platform that is both.
Three Defining Pillars of IGP’s Positioning
1. Cultural Authority
IGP curates, categorise, and market African books with contextual accuracy that a global algorithm cannot replicate. Genre tagging, local narrative traditions, and reader expectations across African markets require lived knowledge, not just keyword matching.
2. Author Proximity
Being Nigeria-Lagos means IGP can build real relationships with authors, not just process file uploads. This proximity enables the kind of editorial and marketing support that turns a self-published manuscript into a commercially viable book.
3. Institutional Credibility
IGP is building its catalog with structured metadata outputs, including ONIX and MARC formats which are the standard data languages used by libraries and academic institutions worldwide.
This positions IGP as a legitimate, citable source for African literary content for libraries in the UK, US, Canada, and Europe that actively seek to diversify their African literature holdings.
Who Does IGP Serve?
IGP serves three distinct customer segments:
African Authors (Supply Side) Writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and academic works across the continent. These are IGP’s primary content suppliers and the backbone of the platform.
Global Readers (Demand Side) Individual book buyers from across the globe, with a particular focus on African diaspora communities in the UK, US, Canada, and Europe. These readers want African books but face poor discovery experiences on mainstream platforms.
Institutions (B2B Segment) Libraries, universities, NGOs, and cultural organisations that need reliable, standardised access to African literary content. IGP’s ONIX/MARC metadata catalog makes it possible for institutions to ingest IGP’s catalog directly into library management systems.
How Authors Generates Revenue
IGP operates a layered revenue model designed to grow with the platform:
Book sales commissions — Author earns 70% percentage of each book sale. This is the primary revenue engine at the moment while ITAN adds other revenue sources.
Subscriptions — A planned subscription tier for readers (all-access reading) is in the process.
B2B catalog licensing — Licensing IGP’s structured catalog to libraries and institutions via ONIX and MARC metadata exports.
The Discoverability Challenge
The single biggest challenge facing African Literature is discoverability and visibility. African content is chronically underrepresented in global recommendation algorithms, search engines, and library systems.
This is not a content quality problem, but a structural one. Algorithms trained on predominantly Western reading data surface Western titles by default. African books do not trend, do not appear in recommendation engines, and are rarely indexed in institutional discovery systems.
IGP is addressing this through five strategies:
- SEO-first metadata — every book is tagged with structured genre, keyword, and BISAC category data from day one.
- Strategic partnerships — with Open Library, and African content aggregators to extend reach into existing discovery infrastructure.
- Community and influencer activation — African book influencers, diaspora reading clubs, and social communities drive organic awareness.
- Author marketing accelerator — IGP produces launch assets for authors, including Instagram reels, Amazon marketing copy, and launch playbooks.
- On-platform recommendation engine — a data-driven discovery layer that learns reader preferences and surfaces African titles by genre, mood, and reading history.
Why the Diaspora Reader Is a Strategic Priority
The African diaspora represents one of the most underserved reading audiences on the internet. Millions of readers in London, Houston, Toronto, and Paris actively seek African literature but face a fragmented, poorly indexed discovery experience on mainstream platforms.
An IGP storefront and app that speaks directly to this audience — with curated collections, culturally resonant marketing, and frictionless purchasing — could be IGP’s most powerful customer acquisition channel. No existing platform has built specifically for this reader.
IGP vs Amazon KDP: A Direct Comparison
Why African authors should consider IGP over KDP:
KDP was not designed for African payment infrastructure. IGP is.
KDP’s recommendation algorithm does not surface African titles to African diaspora readers. IGP’s discovery engine is built to do exactly that.
KDP offers no cultural context for marketing or categorisation. IGP brings editorial proximity and African market knowledge.
KDP is a filing cabinet. IGP is a publishing partner.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ITAN Global Publishing? ITAN Global Publishing (IGP) is a Lagos-based self-publishing platform designed specifically for African authors. It enables writers to publish, distribute, and monetise their books digitally, without the need for traditional publisher approval.
Who can publish on IGP?
Any African author can publish on IGP. The platform is open-access, meaning there is no editorial gatekeeping on who can list a book.
How does Authors make money?
Authors earns revenue through book sales, commissions from subscription plans for readers, and from B2B licensing of its structured book catalog to libraries and institutions.
How is IGP different from Amazon KDP?
is built specifically for African authors and readers, with African payment infrastructure, culturally calibrated marketing tools, structured metadata for institutional access, and a growing on-platform discovery engine designed to surface African content.
What types of books are available on IGP?
At the moment, IGP accepts only fiction across all categories into its catalog. Non-fiction submissions will be accepted at a later date, and this update will be communicated to the literary community.
Does IGP distribute to international markets?
Yes. IGP is in the process of distributing digital books globally and is building institutional partnerships with libraries and academic systems in the UK, US, Canada, and Europe via ONIX and MARC metadata exports.
About ITAN Global Publishing
ITAN Global Publishing (IGP) is Africa’s dedicated self-publishing marketplace. Built in Lagos, Nigeria, IGP exists to give African authors visibility, income, and a commercial pathway to global readership without requiring the approval of traditional publishing gatekeepers.
IGP’s first author payouts marked a milestone in the platform’s mission: proving that African writers can publish independently and earn from their work.
Explore the IGP bookstore: https://itan.app
Publish Your Book: https://publish.itan.app