AFTER SLAUGHTERING OKADABOOKS, WILL OKECHUKWU OFILI SLAUGHTER WRITERS' CREATIVITY TOO?
A brief introduction of Okadabooks which was just brutally slaughtered by Okechukwu Ofili : Okadabooks was a brainchild of Okechukwu Ofili. She came into existence in the year 2013.

Okadabooks allowed authors to self-publish & self-promote their books online without having to go through the challenges of traditional publishing platforms that had sent many writers to the depth and expiration of their creativity. The advent of Okadabook and other self-publishing platforms revived the purity of literary art by ensuring writers' independence.

When writers publish on Okadabooks, the deal is 70/30. Okadabooks take 30% of our earnings while they remit the 70% balance in our account. But here is the twist, Okadabooks won’t be paying us the 70% until we reach the #5,000 threshold (It used to be #10,000). I won’t be going deep into how hard it was for authors to reach this threshold before they get paid but you can read this Nairaland thread (https://www.nairaland.com/6037550/dont-fall-into-trap-okadabooks) written by one of the riders on Okadabooks who sustained an emotional injury while riding their bike with his helmet on.

For a business to thrive, promotion is pertinent. It is the responsibility of writers to promote their books on OkadaBooks while it is the sole responsibility of Okechukwu Ofili and his team to promote OkadaBooks. Unfortunately, we observed that Ofili and his team were doing poorly in performing their end of the bargain for our dear OkadaBooks. Maybe they did the best they could but evidently, their best was not enough.

For an organization whose operation is based online, getting your social media page verified for more visibility is the least any responsible management would do for an online publishing platform they care about. I dare you to check OkadaBooks X and Instagram page, go through their posts, and you will find yourself asking OkadaBooks, “Poor kid, how did you survive this long?”

She survived with the promotion made by individual authors whose books and funds are trapped in her account. Maybe the 30%(s) Ofili and his team deduct through Okadabooks is insufficient to sustain the business, maybe the withheld 70%(s) that did not meet the threshold is also insufficient to give Okadabooks a #6,000 verified badge on Twitter. Ofili and his team designed Okadabooks with policies that discourage authors from withdrawing their funds yet Okadabooks was starved and looked malnourished till the managing team decided to brutally murder her on November 30.

Maybe someday we will be able to prosecute parents for starving and slaughtering their brainchild, but not today. Today, we seek to save the future of literary art by saving the freedom of the blazing writer’s spirit from the claws of Ofili and his team.

Before the death of Okadabooks (May her soul rest in peace), they called on authors to request a payout for their funds on the platform. After the request was made, they replied to some of the authors that their payment would be made after Okadabooks compiled the payout requests on their desks. This is where we suspected foul play. Okadabooks gave a deadline for withdrawal requests, why aren’t they telling us the exact date that writers should expect their pay? “When we are done compiling the payout request list” is indefinite. It could be next week, next year, or the next ten years. So we asked how the payment will be made. We wanted to hear them give an exact date that writers should look forward to.

Two days before the company closure, we expressed our concerns on a WhatsApp group created by Okadabook to resolve writers' complaints. Even though the Okadabook admin saw our messages, they chose to ignore them until November 30 when they started removing writers from the group chat.

Despite all the calls and cries, Ofili and his team did not bat an eye like they heard the writers. Ofili was busy posting about the Squid Game show he watched on his Facebook account.

This is no longer about the money. The greatest tool of a writer is his mind, the moment he feels small, limited, and powerless within – the art he expresses will no longer be true. Ofili and his team already murdered their brainchild, Okadabook, in cold blood, we appeal that you lend your voice to stop them from murdering the purity of our literary arts.

Our request from Ofili and his team is simple, make the payment or write us the exact date when the payment will be made.

At this juncture, I must state clearly that OkadaBooks does not owe me a dime. But if I choose to ignore the owed writers who are currently receiving silent treatment, nothing I and other writers earn on other online platforms will be secured because we may receive the same treatment someday. This is also why we are calling on other online publishing platforms in Nigeria to reassure their users by responding to the question:

@Bambooks- Can you give your writers a silent treatment like Ofili and his team are doing right now?

@Libribooks: Can you treat your users with such levity that Ofili and his team are doing right now?

Adieu Okadabooks, we wish you peace in a faraway land – far away from all the traumas that your handlers put you through. As for Okechukwu Ofili and his team, I care not if they rot in the hottest part of hell for all they did to Okadabooks and are doing to writers right now. #Okadabooks #MakeDpay #WriteDdate

This is bad! A whole Okadabooks.

AKANDAK:
AFTER SLAUGHTERING OKADABOOKS, WILL OKECHUKWU OFILI SLAUGHTER WRITERS' CREATIVITY TOO?
A brief introduction of Okadabooks which was just brutally slaughtered by Okechukwu Ofili : Okadabooks was a brainchild of Okechukwu Ofili. She came into existence in the year 2013.

Okadabooks allowed authors to self-publish & self-promote their books online without having to go through the challenges of traditional publishing platforms that had sent many writers to the depth and expiration of their creativity. The advent of Okadabook and other self-publishing platforms revived the purity of literary art by ensuring writers' independence.

When writers publish on Okadabooks, the deal is 70/30. Okadabooks take 30% of our earnings while they remit the 70% balance in our account. But here is the twist, Okadabooks won’t be paying us the 70% until we reach the #5,000 threshold (It used to be #10,000). I won’t be going deep into how hard it was for authors to reach this threshold before they get paid but you can read this Nairaland thread (https://www.nairaland.com/6037550/dont-fall-into-trap-okadabooks) written by one of the riders on Okadabooks who sustained an emotional injury while riding their bike with his helmet on.

For a business to thrive, promotion is pertinent. It is the responsibility of writers to promote their books on OkadaBooks while it is the sole responsibility of Okechukwu Ofili and his team to promote OkadaBooks. Unfortunately, we observed that Ofili and his team were doing poorly in performing their end of the bargain for our dear OkadaBooks. Maybe they did the best they could but evidently, their best was not enough.

For an organization whose operation is based online, getting your social media page verified for more visibility is the least any responsible management would do for an online publishing platform they care about. I dare you to check OkadaBooks X and Instagram page, go through their posts, and you will find yourself asking OkadaBooks, “Poor kid, how did you survive this long?”

She survived with the promotion made by individual authors whose books and funds are trapped in her account. Maybe the 30%(s) Ofili and his team deduct through Okadabooks is insufficient to sustain the business, maybe the withheld 70%(s) that did not meet the threshold is also insufficient to give Okadabooks a #6,000 verified badge on Twitter. Ofili and his team designed Okadabooks with policies that discourage authors from withdrawing their funds yet Okadabooks was starved and looked malnourished till the managing team decided to brutally murder her on November 30.

Maybe someday we will be able to prosecute parents for starving and slaughtering their brainchild, but not today. Today, we seek to save the future of literary art by saving the freedom of the blazing writer’s spirit from the claws of Ofili and his team.

Before the death of Okadabooks (May her soul rest in peace), they called on authors to request a payout for their funds on the platform. After the request was made, they replied to some of the authors that their payment would be made after Okadabooks compiled the payout requests on their desks. This is where we suspected foul play. Okadabooks gave a deadline for withdrawal requests, why aren’t they telling us the exact date that writers should expect their pay? “When we are done compiling the payout request list” is indefinite. It could be next week, next year, or the next ten years. So we asked how the payment will be made. We wanted to hear them give an exact date that writers should look forward to.

Two days before the company closure, we expressed our concerns on a WhatsApp group created by Okadabook to resolve writers' complaints. Even though the Okadabook admin saw our messages, they chose to ignore them until November 30 when they started removing writers from the group chat.

Despite all the calls and cries, Ofili and his team did not bat an eye like they heard the writers. Ofili was busy posting about the Squid Game show he watched on his Facebook account.

This is no longer about the money. The greatest tool of a writer is his mind, the moment he feels small, limited, and powerless within – the art he expresses will no longer be true. Ofili and his team already murdered their brainchild, Okadabook, in cold blood, we appeal that you lend your voice to stop them from murdering the purity of our literary arts.

Our request from Ofili and his team is simple, make the payment or write us the exact date when the payment will be made.

At this juncture, I must state clearly that OkadaBooks does not owe me a dime. But if I choose to ignore the owed writers who are currently receiving silent treatment, nothing I and other writers earn on other online platforms will be secured because we may receive the same treatment someday. This is also why we are calling on other online publishing platforms in Nigeria to reassure their users by responding to the question:

@Bambooks- Can you give your writers a silent treatment like Ofili and his team are doing right now?

@Libribooks: Can you treat your users with such levity that Ofili and his team are doing right now?

Adieu Okadabooks, we wish you peace in a faraway land – far away from all the traumas that your handlers put you through. As for Okechukwu Ofili and his team, I care not if they rot in the hottest part of hell for all they did to Okadabooks and are doing to writers right now. #Okadabooks #MakeDpay #WriteDdate

Go back to the terms and conditions... And get a good lawyer to file a case against them

dawnomike:
Go back to the terms and conditions... And get a good lawyer to file a case against them

We can't. They've covered themselves legally by promising to make the payment - (only God knows when). The media cry is all we can count on now.

stringa:
This is bad! A whole Okadabooks.

A whole Okadabook o. I read an article yesterday where Ofili attributes the closure to the macroeconomic downturn. Like Okadabook is taking more than it gave them, yet they couldn't pay or treat the writers right.

Okadabooks paid some authors today (the authors have been dragging them)but they only paid half of each author's trapped funds.

As for me, I've not received anything. I'll update when I do.

Wait! Hold up! I've got two thousand naira in my okadabooks wallet plus some body of work, I hope they've not disappeared?

Trapped N2,000.00
Okadabooks has refused to pay me the 2K I put in my wallet years ago. Why?

Anyways, that aside, the owner of Okadabooks should simply have looked for someone to buy the business from him, even if at some loss. I don't know why Nigerians do the things they do, really?

I'm sure someone out there would have bought the business & made it work - even better.

With the way the Gov of Lagos came out himself to personally chase after okada men along with the current skyrocketed price of PMS, one cannot be too surprised that a business named Okada would be forced to fold up too! My only concern is that they've closed shop with my lean #700.00 in the account I use to purchase books. That's like one litre of my fuel in their hands, not funny!

It is well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0hHeEUmmY0

Chukwuisgreat:
It is well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0hHeEUmmY0

What's this comment about?

profagbaje:
Trapped N2,000.00
Okadabooks has refused to pay me the 2K I put in my wallet years ago. Why?

Anyways, that aside, the owner of Okadabooks should simply have looked for someone to buy the business from him, even if at some loss. I don't know why Nigerians do the things they do, really?

I'm sure someone out there would have bought the business & made it work - even better.

After several messages to an unresponsive customer service, I have left Okada Books to the GODS of this land. They went away with my NGN2,000. 'Jobless Musings' & '4Lines' bodies of work I was looking to finish up & publish.

Q

It's interesting. I am even heating about the closure for the first time.

Really I looked away from offili and okada books some years ago. I have my books on it and my funds trapped in it.

The truth is that offili is a criminal in disguise.

I was in the WhatsApp group some years ago and I raised a complaint about the 10000 threshold. Admins ignore the message and even the WhatsApp group became a ghost of itself. I left the group and stopped Publishing on the platform.

You don't keep people's money with you for that long (some three to four years. Some don't even reach that threshold).

He changed it to 5000. And I said that is still stealing. Why not 0naira threshold.. If you keep my money in your account for that long are you going to pay me interest on it.

Many companies are reducing thresholds because online payment Is becoming easier and more sophisticated..but offili refused to change because he had ulterior motives.

Okada books will not give your books any extra promotion. In fact okadabooks died many years ago. He just announced the death last year.

Nigerian authors trusted him so much till his okadabooks died. Even after death he still can't fulfill his obligation. Shane on him. I ll ask for my trapped money anyway.

RIP okadabooks.

So Okabooks is no more. Hmm... I left the platform like 4 years ago when I noticed my books stopped selling when I was about to hit their 10,000 naira withdrawal threshold. I just used the money in my wallet to buy books of other authors on the platform, removed my books and bounced.