Meet high school dropout who became a global bookseller

Andrew Yap, the founder and CEO of Big Bad Wolf Sharjah Books. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

For almost a month, a mega book sale featuring over half a million books has taken place in Nairobi.

Andrew Yap, the founder and CEO of Big Bad Wolf Sharjah Books, says this is his first major sale in Kenya. Before coming to Kenya, he'd had similar mega book sales in Tanzania.

"I sell books across the world. This is my first time in Kenya and the second country African country after Tanzania where we're having the biggest sales event with over 500,000 books and 15,000 titles at a 95 per cent discount," he tells Enterprise.

But because of what he describes as amazing and successful sales in Nairobi, Yap wants to replicate mega book sales in the cities of Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru.

The mega book sale took place at Sarit Centre, starting on December 14 and ending this week.

It featured over 500,000 books including categories in music and movies, family and relationships, home and garden, biographies and memoirs, arts and photography, fiction, non-fiction, history politics and current affairs, craft and hobbies, adult colouring, science and technology, puzzles and games, religion, travel and business and economics sections.

Others are religion, sound books, drawing and colouring that target children readers.

Also on shelves are albums with photos and architectural drawings from around the world that have existed for many years.

My start with books

As a child, Yap didn't have access to books to read compared to most of his friends. He came from a poor single-family environment that couldn't afford to buy him books.

"While in school, l realised there was a big difference between me and my classmates who grew up surrounded by books. They were ahead and could write and spell better in class. This experience hounded me a lot and almost turned into childhood trauma," recalls Yap.

Because of this, Yap left school. He says, "I wasn't a good student. I never finished high school. I don't have a diploma or degree. My teachers are shocked l have excelled selling books globally."

After leaving school, he tried his hands on being a car mechanic, before starting a small bookstore in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2007. He says the biggest challenge was the affordability and accessibility of books.

This ignited his passion to trade in books at discounted prices, making them affordable and accessible even to the less fortunate. This was a mission to change the world through books.

He recalls in 2009 when he took books from publishers and sold them at a 90 per cent discount. It turned out to be the biggest sales event ever. It marked his turning point in book sales.

Affordability challenge

And just like Malaysia, Yap notes that neighbouring countries had similar challenges in accessing and affording books.

He started plans to have him sell books in neighbouring countries. In 2016, Yap got the opportunity and sold books at discounted prices in Indonesia and later Thailand. The response was great and had huge sales.

"After discounted sales in several countries, l learned accessing and affording books was a global problem. We resolved to move and sell books to countries across the world," he says.

Apart from Tanzania and Kenya, Yap reveals he's sold books in 15 countries and 37 cities. He's now heading to the third country in Africa.

"The journey has been tough, long but equally amazing and that is why we are here and going further," he explains.

At Sarit Centre, Yap says the books are extremely affordable for many people at a 95 per cent discount. It's the reason buyers are picking many books with some going to stock in their bookshops.

For instance, the lowest book going for Sh50 will cost around Sh500 elsewhere.

Joint venture

He recalls, in 2018, they had huge sales in Dubai. That is how they became to partner with Sharjah Books to start a joint venture, Big Bad Wolf Sharjah Books in 2019. Initially, it was Big Bad Wolf Books.

He says, the biggest market so far remains Indonesia, because of its high population of over 200 million people. He's sold over 15 million books across the world.

All are brand new books, some in hardcovers and wrapped with nylon bags, sourced from different countries, but mainly the UK and US.

His trick is selling at a discounted price and making huge sales volumes.

"With discounted prices, we sell and make more money in a month than we would in a year if we sell without discounts," he explains.

He says they don't deal with curriculum books. "We leave curriculum books to the individual country to manage."

For local languages like Kiswahili, Yap explains he's here to study and understand the market, and will probably work with Kenya Publishers Association (KPA) to cater for local books.

Digital media

Has digital media affected sales? Yap says digital media has been around for over twenty years but is yet to heavily impact sales, as the majority still want books in their physical forms.

"Many people stay glued to phone or computer screens at workplaces, and the majority would want to unwind with a book offline. It is the reason why over 90 per cent still opt for physical books," he explains.

In Kenya, Yap is contributing 500 books to Emmie Erondanga, the CEO of Miss Koch Kenya who is dealing with the less fortunate.

"The books l donate will support school-going children she works with in her organisation. She's helping prevent neighbourhood youth from engaging in criminal activities," says Yap.

He says that the books industry needs to change. Currently, books are accessible and affordable to five per cent globally.

"What about the 95 per cent? If we change how the industry thinks we can capture the 95 per cent by selling at discounted prices, there will be more profits than selling to the five per cent few."

"And the industry will see its full potential," he says.

Yap reveals, it hasn't been easy. The investment requires huge expenditure which involves purchasing, transport, warehousing and extremely high taxes.