14 Mar 2018

 Modest 34-year-old local author, Bridget Buzwani, who goes by the name Brigitta Zwani, is a first time author and publisher of her recently launched novel The Shrink.

The Mosojane-born author says she hopes to one day own an up market book café.

During an interview with BOPA, Brigitta Zwani admits the novel started off as a comic and later she decided to turn it into a novel, adding that the characters are imaginary people with real live problems.

The Shrink is centered on Tebogo, the main character who helps adolescents battling drug abuse, rape, suicidal cases, depression, broken families, different health issues and other disorders after having lived abroad for some years.

She mentioned that The Shrink took her three years to complete because during the day Brigitta Zwani is an assistant to John Mackenzie School head in Francistown and writes during her spare time.

She insists she writes for the love of literature and not for financial gain.

She is currently working on her next book Hope that she notes is half way through.

She considers herself a successful writer because of the positive feedback she gets from her readers; she adds that she writes best when she is travelling or when she is frustrated.

Zwani does not limit herself to writing novels only, she writes poetry, short stories and comics as well as blogging occasionally.

Zwani believes adolescents need people to talk to and be open with apart from their parents and teachers, therefore she insists there is a need for shrinks in schools, both private and public.

As a first time author, she acknowledged facing challenges, some of which included getting enough pre-orders to get the book published, sourcing the novel to big retailers such as CNA and Exclusive Books.

She also noted that supplying customers across the border with the book was a challenge as it requires large amounts of money.

She however stated that she has learnt a few valuable lessons in getting a book published one of which includes saving up money for publishing instead of relying on pre-orders.

Zwani also celebrates her novel being available on Amazon for her readers as well as having an online version of The Shrink comic for her followers.

Her biggest achievement, she says, is being able to publish her own book through her own publishing company, Biggles and Boggles, which she admits has only published her work, though she is hopeful to publish more authors. Ends