About the writer – Joel Savage

Joel Savage: Writer, journalist, and author. 

Joel Savage is a Ghanaian‑Belgian writer, journalist, and blogger known for his commitment to cultural diversity, investigative storytelling, and truth‑driven journalism. With decades of experience, he has built a respected voice across African and international media.

A former contributor to The Mirror, The Ghanaian Times, The Daily Graphic, and The Weekly Spectator, Joel is also a member of the Flemish Journalists Association. He currently writes the popular column “A Mixture of Periodicals” for ModernGhana News. He lives and works in Belgium.

Joel comes from a family of storytellers. His father, J.N.K. Savage, was a journalist under President Kwame Nkrumah at the Guinea Press (now The Ghanaian Times) and later a documentary film producer at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). This legacy shaped Joel’s passion for writing from an early age.

 Joel Savage at a press conference in Brussels 

Educated at Ebenezer Secondary School, Accra High School, and the Ghana Institute of Journalism, Joel developed a strong foundation in mass communication and writing skills. 

His work spans social issues such as child trafficking, teen pregnancy, smoking, child abuse, and crime, always written with honesty, courage, and a deep sense of responsibility.

 

A lover of creativity and adventure, Joel continues to write books, articles, and investigative pieces that inspire readers around the world. He is married and the father of three sons.

Discover Joel Savage’s books on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Joel-Savage/author/B008SCTYI6?

 

A GUIDE TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT PUBLISHER WITHOUT TEARS

A manuscript

Despite reading carefully on the internet about how to choose a good publisher, I submitted my manuscript to a very bad publisher, which nearly turned my life into a streak of nightmares.


After getting out of this terrible situation, I decided to write my experience as a guide to prevent other writers from being in the same situation. 

As an aspiring, enthusiastic would-be author or someone who wants to make money as a writer, keep away from publishers whose adverts are constantly seen on the internet soliciting manuscripts.

They often begin with, "We want the world to read your book. Our responsibility is to add your name to the list of famous writers, or do you have a script that could become a Hollywood film?, We are here to guide you to be a published author".

Please, when you read such things from a publisher who has placed an advert on the internet, don't be tempted to hand over your manuscript to them. They are Ghoul, they don't feed on the dead but the living. They are not to make you rich or famous in any way. They are only after your money.

They are sugar-coated tongue criminals in white-collar. Just imagine, how could a publisher make you rich and famous when one receives a package of $8.100 for a print-on-demand publication?

This happened to me, and I cancelled the contract with a good fight. The new package was a little over $2.000, which is also much better than the first package. It took me six months to pay the money, but believe it or not, the book is yet to come out. Do you call that a good publisher? Beware, brothers and sisters.

Remember, a good product doesn't need an advertisement. Good publishers never place adverts soliciting manuscripts, but you can easily get them at their websites. It is the writers who go after them. The question is, how can a writer identify a good publisher?

Go to the public library or bookshop and glance through most of the famous books in mind. You can quickly see the publisher's name in the book. Since almost all the good publishers are following print-on-demand (POD) as one of their services, you can contact them and ask for a package.

Via Google or Yahoo, ask "Best print on demand publishers". As soon as possible, you will get the information on the best print-on-demand publishers or self-publishing, including Lulu, Createspace, Amazon.com, etc. 

The above-mentioned publishers are those that I knew could let you see your book published, with good promotion and good royalties. You deserve to be helped, not to be robbed.

RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI's SHADOW OF THE SUN (My African Life)

Ryszard Kapuscinski, the Polish writer and journalist



As a foreign correspondent for PAP, the Polish News Agency, until 1981, Africa was like a second home to Ryszard Kapuscinski. 


He was an eyewitness to revolutions, coups, and civil wars in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Experience is the best teacher, they say. His life experience in Africa has given him one of the finest books ever written by a white journalist.

The shadow of the Sun (My African Life) covers Kapuscinski's experience in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, etc, making the book brilliant and interesting for anyone interested in great humanitarian writing. 

The book was actually published first in Polish before translation. He writes, "I lived in Africa for several years. I first went there in 1957. Then over the next forty years, I returned whenever the opportunity arose."

"I travelled extensively, avoiding official routes, palaces, important personages, and high-level politics. Instead, I opted to hitch rides on passing trucks, wander with nomads through the desert, and be the guest of peasants of the tropical savannah. Their life is endless toil, a torment they endure with astonishing patience and good humour."

On his visit to Accra-Ghana, Kapuscinski writes, "The street is a road delineated on both sides by an open sewer. There are no sidewalks. Cars mingle with crowds. Everything moves in concert: pedestrians, automobiles, bicycles, cars, cows, and goats. 

On the other side of the sewer, along with the entire length of the street, domestic scenes unfold. Women pounding manioc, baking taro bulbs over the coals, cooking dishes of one sort or another, hawking chewing gum, crackers, and aspirin, and washing and drying laundry."

The description of activities in Accra by Kapuscinski is actually Europe's image of Africa. More is hunger, disease, and skeletal children. However, he failed to ask or write the reason Ghana or Africa in general has been in such an appalling state for ages. 

Before the colonial masters scrambled over Africa, I might say Ghana was under development. Then, many years after European occupation, they left the countries they had occupied after independence, leaving the countries in the same way.

In this case, why did they go to Africa at all? Is it right or wrong when one says they were only interested in the continent's rich mineral resources? To loot but nothing else. They looted the continent to build Europe, and they left the countries in a deplorable state. 

Kapuscinski should have known better as a journalist. Was he expecting Ghana to be like a modern European country when, for a very long time, the country has suffered from the criminal activities of colonial rule?

The British and the Dutch were both in Ghana before the country attained its independence in 1957. The Ghanaians also moved in concert with cars, bicycles, cows, and goats. 

Even though Kapuscinski's book is an interesting book about Africa, he should have commented deeply on the mistakes and crimes the Europeans committed in Africa during the colonial era.

The Shadow Of The Sun is available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Sun-Ryszard-Kapuscinski/dp/0679779078/