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Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent

The power of social media has assisted renowned playwright, Raisedon Baya market and sell his debut novel, Shut Your Eyes & Run, whose copies arrived on Monday.

As a self-publishing author of his book, Baya had to come up with innovative ways to sell copies to people. He decided to make use of social media where he would post updates about the book on his social media handles.

This proved effective because out of the 250 copies that he printed, 85 were pre-ordered while the remaining are steadily selling.

“I’m amazed at the power of social media. If they sell out, we can always do a reprint. We’re hoping and praying they sell out and that the story is good enough to make those who’ll read recommend it others. This is simply because we believe there’s nothing more than word of mouth recommendations,” said Baya.

He said the printing was costly but it was worth it.

“Printing is expensive, that’s why most writers are doing print on demand. I just took a gamble and so far, so good,” said Baya.

He described the novel as a coming-of-age story with themes such as love, politics and survival. Inspired by his upbringing in Makokoba, Bulawayo’s oldest township, the novel is rooted in Zimbabwe.