Naijastories Anthology – Of Tears and Kisses, Heroes and Villains

naijasories.com

Read on NAIJASTORIES.COM – 200 NSpoints per story

Buy Paperback from the NaijaStories Createspace Store

Buy in Kindle format and Print from Amazon.com

Buy the NOOK version from Barnes&Noble online

Buy the eBook from Smashwords.com

**If you live in Nigeria and want the book delivered in PDF to your inbox, please contact [email protected] for payment details (via Zenith Bank and GTBank).

_____

Naija Stories: Of Tears and Kisses, Heroes and Villains is the first Volume in the “Best of Naija Stories” series. The stories featured in the anthology were all originally published on Naijastories.com between March 2010 and March 2011. They were selected through a combination of member nominations and editor selections of the most popular and well written stories on the website. Over a period of six month, about 60 stories were whittled down to 30 as the writers signed contracts, and then worked with editors to polish up their works. Though it was not an easy process, I am happy to say that we all took away some important lessons that will surely help us as we continue to work with writers on Naijastories.com.

NaijaStories.com came as an idea from my experience sharing excerpts of my first novel on my blog, and later coordinating an online interactive story. I also found out about other writing sites like Authonomy, joined some of them and then realized that Nigerian aspiring writers could benefit from such a platform as a way to improve and network. Today Naijastories.com is the leading community for Nigerian writers and book lovers, combining elements of a writing critique website and a social networking site.

The mission of Naija Stories is to use community networking to encourage and support aspiring writers to improve their writing and feel more confident sharing stories from a Nigerian perspective. We also aim to encourage reading amongst the general public by making such engaging stories available on Naijastories.com, on other available partnering channels, and also in anthologies. With the mix of content and activities, Naija Stories is especially versatile, attracting a diverse crop of readers, writers, and those with general interest in Nigerian literary affairs. We’re committed to telling fresh Nigerian stories; and we also promote authors, and book publishers by sharing publishing news, events and literary opportunities.

The website’s mailing list currently has almost 2000 members and it receives an average of 1500 daily visitors. Our online community welcomes Nigerian writers of all skill levels and readers of both genre writing and literary fiction. Since inception in 2010, we have published almost 4,000 stories in various categories, including short fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. We have also organized several writing contests and online writing workshops, as well as interviews and real-time chats with publishers and authors.

The feedback shows that writers use the Naijastories.com platform for peer review and networking. Most of the members aspire to be authors and realize that their first draft may not be as good as it ought. They post their stories so other writers can critique and review them. They go away with the reviews to redraft and edit their manuscripts. They then have the opportunity to put forward their best work for the Naijastories quarterly writing contests which usually come with cash prizes. Some members have equally gone on to win external writing contests and have been featured in other anthologies, journals or magazines.

For a lot of the members, Naijsatories.com also serves as an online writing portfolio. One such member was recently accepted for a creative writing and journalism course at an Australian University after he sent a link of his author page on Naijastories to the admission officials. By also being on our email list, registered members receive regular updates of writing news, including publishing opportunities, writing tips, and contests.

Among its membership, Naijastories counts editors, literary agents, publishers and journalists, and these either use the site administrators as a conduit to offer opportunities to writers or they approach them directly through the private messaging service. Some selected NS stories have had a short run in a LagBus newspaper and some stories are being read on radio. Recently, NS Publishing signed an MOU with Worldreader to have NaijaStories on their book reading app in the BiNu mobile platform.

If you wish to be considered for any of these opportunities including future Naijastories anthologies, please sign up to naijastories.com and become a part of the community, or contact [email protected].

Finally, thank you to everyone who has been a part of this vision, and I ask for your continued support.

 

Myne Whitman

Founder/Publisher

Naijastories.com