Book Publishing and Its Fundamentals as a Parameter for Socio-Economic Development in Nigeria: a Comparative Appraisal

This study delves into the paramount role of book publishing in steering Nigeria’s socio-economic development. It highlights the far-reaching impacts, encompassing cultural diffusion, financial empowerment, job creation, and global information dissemination. The study underscores the vulnerability of societies lacking quality books, leading to economic instability and skill deficits. By comparing global publisher numbers and situating Nigeria’s meager 31 indigenous publishers against a potential 2,712, the disparity becomes glaring. Employing a comparative appraisal methodology with a blend of primary and secondary data sources, the research illuminates the transformative journey of book publishing. The study advocates for substantial investments from government bodies, NGOs, and corporate entities to amplify the circulation of knowledge. The implications resonate with the urgent need for strategic interventions to bolster the dissemination of quality information, thereby fostering national development and addressing the challenges posed by a burgeoning population in Nigeria

This study delves into the paramount role of book publishing in steering Nigeria's socio-economic development.It highlights the far-reaching impacts, encompassing cultural diffusion, financial empowerment, job creation, and global information dissemination.The study underscores the vulnerability of societies lacking quality books, leading to economic instability and skill deficits.By comparing global publisher numbers and situating Nigeria's meager 31 indigenous publishers against a potential 2,712, the disparity becomes glaring.Employing a comparative appraisal methodology with a blend of primary and secondary data sources, the research illuminates the transformative journey of book publishing.The study advocates for substantial investments from government bodies, NGOs, and corporate entities to amplify the circulation of knowledge.The implications resonate with the urgent need for strategic interventions to bolster the dissemination of quality information, thereby fostering national development and addressing the challenges posed by a burgeoning population in Nigeria

INTRODUCTION
Book publishing manifests itself as the art and processes involved in conceiving and circulating knowledge and information through print media such as books, calendars, magazines, diaries, newspapers, newsletters, et al., with the aim of educating society at a fee and/or for free as a means of service to humanity, which is usually made possible by a missionary, government, individuals, or NGO.Like other businesses and industries, book publishing has materialized as one of the mechanisms for national development in all its ramifications.This can be further reflected through the diverse socioeconomic developments that are prevalent in various countries across the world, which have been benefiting massively from the inherent benefits of having book publishing companies in abundance in such countries (Ihebuzor and Anaeto, 2010;Ihebuzor, 2021).Meanwhile, the reverse is the case in Nigeria, a country considered to be the 6th most populated country in the world and the first in Africa.Therefore, this comparative study sought to refocus the attention of the Nigerian government, Nigerians, and relevant stakeholders on the meager state of the nation as far as the production cum the circulation of quality books that could broaden the intellectual capacity of its youths and educators across the country is concerned.From the perspective of giving attention to a facet of societal growth that is inherent in book publishing and its associated socioeconomic benefits.The strength of this abstract lies in its comprehensive exploration of the role of book publishing in socio-economic development in Nigeria and its use of persuasive language to highlight the importance of this aspect.It effectively brings attention to the multi-faceted benefits of book publishing beyond just knowledge dissemination.
In this study, the importance of book publication as a gauge of Nigeria's socioeconomic development is clearly highlighted.It proves the value of books as a vehicle for the spread of knowledge, culture, financial empowerment, and other things.Additionally, it outlines a number of advantages of book publication, including boosting economic empowerment, contributing to national development, and promoting mental health.This thorough method shows how in-depth the research is.The negative effects of a society without good books, such as economic risk, unemployment, and illiteracy, are also emphasized while using simple language.This wording grabs the reader's attention and emphasizes how urgent the subject is.The study successfully situates the problem from a worldwide perspective, lending weight to its significance.It does this by contrasting the underdevelopment of African countries with that of other continents and pointing out how little Africa contributes to the world's published books.Similar to that, this study presents a particular number of indigenous publishers and conducts a quantitative comparison of the number of publishers in Nigeria with that in other nations using secondary data sources.The study's conclusions gain validity through this utilization of data.While the study's conclusion, which makes specific recommendations for various stakeholders, such as governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and corporate organizations, to invest in starting book publishing companies, is also significant, it also serves as a clear International Journal of Applied Economics, Acounting and Management(IJAEAM) Vol.1, No.4, 2023: 213-226 215 call to action based on the study's conclusions.Although the basis for this study's depth is historical and comparative analysis, the comparison of Nigeria's colonial past to that of its previous colonial ruler provides nuance to the argument and highlights room for improvement.Additionally, it makes a connection between the need to increase book circulation and Nigeria's expanding population.The study's importance is increased by the connection between demography and the problem.
One of the travailing challenges facing the African continent still hinges on the shortage of books in circulation (Ihebuzor, 2021).Viable books are a paramount parameter that helps in educating minds that would emerge as industrialists and be instrumental for the operationalization of the existing workplace in the built environment.Therefore, the channel through which such quality and viable books are mined is the book publishing industry.
National development, on the other hand, is the ability of any nation to improve the standard of living of its citizens through various provisions that can empower them against a downtrodden standard of living (byjus.com, n.d.).For example, a country (Nigeria) that was once a global pride in the 1970s has deplored consistently becoming the world's poverty capital in the 21st century, precisely in the year 2018.(Adebayo, 2019;worldpopulationreview.com, 2022).Consequently, in revamping the country's economy from the disparaging status quo, much attention has been given to several sectors and industries that are fundamental for economic resuscitation.Hence, the few industries and resources imbibed as lifelines are already exhausted or choked into a dysfunctional status quo.This is a result of the attention being solely focused on an infinitesimally small number of areas, such as oil and gas and agriculture, among others, in a bid to look for salvaging solutions to the reoccurring economic challenges crippling the growth of the nation, as the country keeps soliciting loans from developed nations to survive.Whereas, according to the World Population Review (2022), education, sustainable health care and hygiene, potable water, and job creation have been identified as effective parameters that can be used to revivify dwindling economies, especially those in abject poverty.Meanwhile, education, which is paramount among the above-mentioned parameters for revamping economies, is made possible through books, which are products of the modern book publishing industry.Contemporary book publishing encompasses several units under one roof to look critically into the affairs of conceiving, processing, and distributing quality books permeably across the nooks and crannies of the built environment.This is why the study aims at articulating the fundamentals of book publishing as a way of widening and simplifying the horizon of book publishing establishments for potential investors, as well as showing the criticality of the number of publishers available in Nigeria compared to other developed nations.This study's primary aim is to canvass the urgent needs of massive numbers of book publishing companies in Nigeria.
The impacts of books, through which knowledge, information, and skills are purveyed from one place to another (Bittner, 1989;p. 76;Folarin, 1988;p. 27;Ihebuzor and Ihebuzor, 2016), on socioeconomic development cannot be overemphasized.According to a submission from Roos (2019), the philosopher Francis Bacon, who was actually a citizen of England, was credited with having developed the scientific method, after which he theorized in 1620 the three innovational discoveries that would forever change the world.Book publishing is the creation and transference of a product of thoughts, observations, or knowledge culled or documented by a group of persons or individuals, and how the final product reaches the audience in focus (readers or viewers).Ihebuzor, (2021).The impacts of books on the industrial evolution and technological growth the world has been experiencing could not have been made possible if the key parameter, the book, through which the transfer of knowledge is made possible, was inexistent.Of course, the preservation of information that impacts knowledge and educates minds is made possible through books, and this is paramount for humans to experience growth and development.Ihebuzor, (2021)a; Ihebuzor, (2006) in Ihebuzor, (2021)b.

LITERATURE REVIEW
This study was aimed at reflecting on the pressing need for more publishing outfits in Nigeria, which will foster the seamless spread of education across the whole country, improve the literacy index of its citizens, and benefit from the positive consequential effects for national development.It was anchored by Durkheim's Theory of Education as well as the Corporate Social Responsibilities Theory.

Durkheim's Theory of Education
The functionalist sociologist Emile Durkheim first proposed this thesis in 1972.This thesis postulated that there are two significant purposes for education in advanced industrial nations.Specifically, it imparts the specialized knowledge required for a labor market based on a specialized division of labor as well as society's shared ideals."Society can only survive if there is a sufficient degree of homogeneity among its members," according to Durkheim."Education preserves and promotes this homogeneity by fixing in the baby from the beginning the essential similarities which collective life necessitates."(Durkhiem; cited by Haralambos, 2013).This study is grounded in this theory because one of its contextual stances is to project the necessity of publishing companies, which are seen as the main centers for creating tools for disseminating high-quality knowledge and information across a country.These tools are crucial for educating and improving the literacy rate of the society, which in turn materializes the socio-economic wellbeing of the country.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Theory
Howard Bowen, who offered one of the first and most illustrative definitions of CSR as "the obligations of businessmen to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or to follow those lines of action that are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of our society" (Bowen, 1953;Aminu et al., 2015), is regarded as the founder of the concept, according to Carroll (1999).According to the CSR perspective, it is ideal for businesses to have obligations in the fields of economics, law, ethics, and charity.Businesses that follow the triple bottom line philosophy strive for sustainability in the economy, society, and environment.
The theory is significant to this study because it highlights the urgent need for corporate organizations to support and fund publishing companies in Nigeria as part of their corporate social responsibility.This will increase the number of publishing firms in Nigeria and have a negative impact on the ability to produce high-quality books at lower prices, which is necessary to raise the country's literacy rate and create a workforce that is creative and resourceful.

METHODOLOGY
This comparative study adopted a qualitative research approach.The sources of data for this study originated from primary and secondary sources consisting of data sourced from authors' observations, field surveys, and content analysis, while other data were scooped from published and unpublished print and unprinted media such as textbooks, journals, reports from worldometers.info(launched in 2008), which is a reference website providing counters and real time statistics vis-a-vis the official website of the National Population Commission (NPC), magazines, internet sources, lecture notes, inaugural lecture proceedings, et.al.all in a bid to gathering data to solidify the comparative reflection aimed at reawakening the pressing need for more book publishing organizations in Nigeria to corroborate efforts in availing quality books to advance the literacy and research strength of the Nigerian citizens.A simple percentage calculation was also used to provide depth to the critical rate of existing publishing companies in Nigeria in juxtaposition to the three selected countries, the USA, UK, and Germany, which are the countries with the highest numbers of publishing companies in the world.  1 above shows that the country with the highest number of publishers in the world is the United States of America, with 2,829 publishing companies conveniently situated within the territory.Germany, with 1,071, is the second country with the highest number of publishers situated in the country, while the United Kingdom is the third country with the highest number of publishers with 904.The population of the United States of America (USA), which is the country with the highest number of publishers (2,829) in the world, as of August 20th, 2023August 20th, , was 340,247,875 according to worldpopulationreview.com (2023)); the figures of its citizens helped the country be ranked 3rd in the world's highest population countries.On the other hand, Germany is the second country in the world with the highest number of publishers (1,071) among its 83,288,790 citizens.While the United Kingdom is the third country with the highest number of publishers in the world, with approximately 940 publishers available for its 67,767,875 citizens.

DISCUSSION
Judging by the presentations in Table 1, Nigeria has about 31 publishers resident in the country, which is the world's 6th most populated country with over 224,537,880 citizens.While the USA, being the 3rd most populated country in the world, has the highest number of publishers in the world, with precisely 2,829 publishers located in the country to spread knowledge, information, learning, and cultural diffusion across the country's 338,308,043 (Figure 2) citizens, Comparing the population of Nigeria (Figure 1) and that of the USA, it is crystal clear that the difference between the populations of the 2 countries is 120,730,708.Which means Nigeria has over 63% of the USA's population.While calculating the percentage of publishers resident in Nigeria in juxtaposition to that of the USA, Nigeria only has about 1% of the number of publishers resident in the USA to spread knowledge across its 217,577,335.This apparently is disparagingly low in comparison with that of its other counterpart (the USA), which is in the top 10 most populated countries in the world.
On the other hand, according to Table 1, in comparing the number of publishers that exist in Germany (1,071) with that of Nigeria (31), it becomes condescending to know that Nigeria only has approximately 3% of the number of publishers available in Germany.While the population differences between the two countries are134, 208,794.That is to say, Nigeria's population is 134,208,794 more than Germany's population.Synoptically, Germany only has 38% of Nigeria's population to feed with products and services from its 1,071 publishers.Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, on the other hand, has about 904 publishers to spread knowledge, information, foster learning, etc., through quality books and equivalents, across its 67,511,582 population, considered to be about 31% of the population of the country (Nigeria) it colonized until October 1st, 1960.
Ceteris paribus, with the analysis above, it means that by using the UK, which colonized Nigeria as standard, and the varied population capacities of the two countries, Nigeria is supposed to have triple the number of publishers in the United Kingdom stationed in the country.Consequently, it means the number of publishers in Nigeria should be nothing less than 2,712 (904 x 3) publishers spread across Nigeria to avail viable and quality books to convey knowledge, information, and enhance learning seamlessly to its massive populace.The consequential effect of that is that Nigeria will be next to the USA in the ranking of countries with the highest number of publishers, and the positive effect is that there will be the availability of many a viable book, which is acronymically described as the bearer of outstanding and oracular knowledge (Ajayi and Oginni, 2022) to be spread across the country, and that will improve and equip informed minds that would be industrialists to regurgitate the dwindling economy of Nigeria.Just as we have it in the USA, Germany, and the UK.
Since the emergence of the industrial revolution, the printing press has been fostering cultural diffusion, which has unearthed globalization.Print media was made possible as a result of the industrial revolution, which gave existence to many discoveries.It is necessary to note that the notorious Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in the 19th century was part of the discoveries.Meanwhile, during the era when Venice was popularly referred to as Europe's capital of book printing and publishing, the cost of books was ridiculously high as a result of its autonomy.This situation can be directly linked to the current situation in Nigeria.The critically low number of publishing companies in the country has been responsible for viable books being expensive, and the effect is that the few publishing agencies could spread enough quality books across the whole population of the country.The vilifying situation has created a lacuna for the pirates to be in business of draining the profit of the publishers in the country.The same lacuna has made some verifiable books that would have been viable enough to inform minds expensive.Hence, some youths end up searching for free e-books that are uncensored or unedited online, and the repercussive effect is that wrong information and mediocre knowledge spread fast, which has not been favoring the socioeconomic development of the most populated country in Africa..

Book Publishing as a Veritable Tool for National Development
The innovations he noted are gunpowder, the nautical compass, and the printing press.It is no gainsaying that the printing press sparked the advent of publishers, and since their emergence, the global space, especially in countries that have great numbers of publishers resident in their jurisdiction, has never remained the same economically or in other national development areas.There are numerous benefits attached to having quite a good number of book publishing agencies available in the built environment, as exemplified by the USA, Germany, and the UK, respectively.A few of the benefits attached to having massive publishers are: • Literacy Promotion: For a country to develop, an informed society is a requirement.The majority of security issues in some nations, particularly in Africa, have been brought on by an illiterate population of natives or invaders who believe that education is a byproduct of Westernization and should not be permitted, especially for girls.This worsens the bad effects of illiteracy and lack of literacy, which include significant loss of life and property as well as other aspects of insurgency suffered by a nation with a volatile economy.The best way to encourage literacy is to make books that can educate people, foster dialogue, and strengthen the country's unity widely accessible and inexpensive.• Job Creation/Employment: One of the merits of having more book publishing firms operationalized in the country is the availability of job employment opportunities for teeming youths, which is useful and, from there, more relevant.The ensuing effect is that it will reduce joblessness among youths, which is one of the contributing factors that proliferate insurgency and banditry.The jobless are offered pennies to create disunity and chaos by those hungry for power at all costs.• Revenue Generation: The contribution of the publishing industry to the economic strength of Nigeria will come from taxes paid by the publishing companies.This will, in turn, salvage the deplorable economy of the country.Assuming about 3000 publishing companies are remitting their taxes into the national treasury, it will add to the economic strength of the nation.Financial Gratification for Writers/Authors: Since the book publishing processes begin with the manuscript(s) from the authors/writers, the financial remuneration, otherwise called royalties, will be paid to them, and that will motivate writers and authors to produce more quality contents for society to be informed and empowered, fostering civility and a safe built environment

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Conclusion
This study has been able to, comparatively, put into perspective the economic relevance of the book publishing industry as far as national development is concerned.Through this study, it has been established that Nigeria is critically suffering from the abysmally small number of book publishers saddled with the responsibility to spread quality information and knowledge across the massive population of the country.Hence, considering the current 31 indigenous publishers, the study has condemned the critical number of publishers and theorized factually nothing less than 2,712 book publishers suitable to be situated within the country, using the United Kingdom, which has 904 book publishers for its 67,511,582 population as the yardstick.

Recommendations
With the present critical number of book publishers in the country (31), therefore, as it has been comparatively analyzed in this study that at least 2,712 fully equipped publishing companies should be the ideal number of publishers in Nigeria, it is hereby suffice to theorize that it is high time all three tiers of Nigerian governments, NGOs, missionaries, corporate organizations, individuals, groups, et al. invested rapidly in ensuring more publishing firms unfold in large numbers with immediate effect.Also, book publishing can be used as an internally generated revenue source by tertiary institutions in the country.This will increase the number of book publishers in the country, and the consequences will spark more industrial activities liable to regurgitate the nation's economy.There is also a need for budding young writers to be encouraged and mentored to be good writers.This can be made possible through the encouragement of co-authorship between budding writers and prominent writers with street credibility and pedigree.This will broaden the rate of writers who would be resourceful for the availability of manuscripts for the publishing industry, in line with what Ihebuzor, (2021) theorized during his inaugural lecture.

Table 1 .
Publishing Companies in the World: Categorized by Countries The table below Gives an Analysis of the Figures for Indigenous Publishers in Some of the Selected Countries Across the Globe