Brace yourselves: matric exams are coming!

Paperight matric packs: accessible learning at last!

Out of the over-1 700 brilliant books we have on Paperight, the ones that sell the most are our packs of past matric exam papers. We think it’s because they are probably the most easy and accessible way for matric learners to get their hands on these valuable learning resources. (Don’t believe us? Click here to find our how it took us six months to source all the exams ourselves!)

Paperight’s matric packs are cost-effective for both learners and copy shops. All subjects come in multi-year and single-year versions, with each containing all papers, answers and addenda for a subject in a given year or years. They are also relatively high-volume documents, helping outlets’ machines keep printing. Everyone wins.

(They’re also awesome to sponsor and give to needy schools.)

Paperight past matric exam packs are available for all languages and subjects from 2008 to 2012. Click here to see all Paperight multi-year exam packs and here to see all Paperight single-year exam packs.

Oxford University Press and Mindset Learn study guides: taking it to the next level

If matrics need some extra help with their exam preparation, we also have the best study guides around from Oxford University Press and Mindset Learn.

OUP’s Exam Success series of high school study-guides emphasise a holistic approach to studying, offering mock exam questions, practical studying suggestions and timetables to learners, helping them to maximise the amount of knowledge and insight they gain from the time they spend in front of their books. Exam Success guides are available in 15 subjects in English and Afrikaans, as well as for a selection of languages and English literature set works. Click here to find them.

Mindset Learn’s Revision X-Sheets and Comprehensive Study Notes offer super cost-effective supplementary learning, available in ten subjects in English. Click here to find them.

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We’re helping more matrics get prepared for the most important exams of their lives, and outlets can get in on the action. Get in touch with us if you want us to make you designs for flyers and posters to advertise them in and outside your shop!

O’Reilly books now LIVE on Paperight!

Hold the phone! From today, ten fabulous technology textbooks from O’Reilly will be live and available from your local Paperight print-on-demand outlet.

O’Reilly’s techy textbooks are world-famous, and are among the most prescribed textbooks for computer science classes worldwide. O’Reilly has partnered with Paperight to bring better access to technology learning resources throughout South Africa through Paperight’s network of 180 print-on-demand outlets – many of which in places where traditional book stores don’t exist.

They’re usually cheaper in our outlets than in academic bookstores, too! Head First Design Patterns, for example, is an important programming textbook. From a normal bookstore, it costs about R550. From a Paperight outlet (when charging R1 per double-sided A4), a customer will pay R340. That includes R120 to the publisher, R30 to Paperight, and R190 to the copy shop for printing and binding. Many Paperight stores are even cheaper than this.

‘The irony of the digital revolution is that while democratising knowledge production, it has increased the gap between the Internet-haves and have-nots,’ said Arthur Attwell, founder and CEO of Paperight earlier this year. ‘If you’re not online, you can’t learn about technology, and you can’t close that gap. O’Reilly books on Paperight can change that. Many of our printing outlets directly supply schools and computer training centres, and these books will give them a huge advantage.’

This is the culmination of an agreement penned shortly after Paperight was named ‘Most Entrepreneurial Startup’ at the O’Reilly Tools of Change Startup Showcase, held in February in New York City.

Click here to find out which books we have available, including titles from the Head First and Learning series. So, check them out, and get learning!

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If you would like a poster or flyers for your outlet advertising O’Reilly books, get in touch with us at team@paperight.com, and we’ll be happy to assist you.

Enter the Youngsters!

Till now, it’s been hard for teens to read in-depth about their favourite South African icons. From today, you can get the inside scoop yourself at hundreds of Paperight copy shops around the country. The Youngsters series are short books by celebs and leaders Danny K, Khaya Dlanga, Anele Mdoda, Zama Ndlovu and more.

These trend-setting authors offer fresh and sharp insights into the triumphs and travails of their lives, their professions and South Africa at large. From gender and race to hair and makeup; from radio and comedy to personal empowerment. Love and sex in the time of Facebook and Twitter. Racism and prejudice after apartheid. Being tongue-tied by South Africa’s many cultures. Each one shares the reality of being a youngster in South Africa. As Khaya Dlanga says of his book, “ I write like people talk. No fancy language; nor do I show how smart I am.”

“There’s this myth around that young people don’t read. That’s crazy. They just can’t find anything they want to read,” says Arthur Attwell, founder and CEO of Paperight. “This series is different, and it’s super exciting to be working with Picador to get it out there.”

You can buy any of seven Youngsters series books – including books by struggle royalty Shaka Sisulu, columnist Sipho Hlongwane and funny-man Nik Rabinowitz – from any Paperight outlet countrywide.

Click here to see all of the Youngsters series books available on Paperight, and follow this link to find your nearest print-on-demand bookstore.

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We’ve put together a The Youngsters poster for your outlet, too. Click here to check it out, or click here to request a custom poster from our design team.

Paperight Young Writers’ Anthology 2013 Winner no. 1: Jenna Solomon

The woman tried to defend him when the security guard scolded him for hassling the tourists. He protested but spoke softly – nobody heard. The woman did not understand a word and hurriedly left. No doubt her expectations of Africa had now been fulfilled. Joseph cursed. Turning, he smacked the security guard and the next thing he knew, he was making a run for it as he was chased down by a one-man horde.

This is Jenna Solomon, a Grade 10 pupil at the German International School in Cape Town, and the writer of the winning fiction from this year’s Paperight Young Writers’ Anthology. Her short story, “The Harbour Child”, was chosen as the best story out of over a hundred fiction submissions from high school writers across South Africa.

A tale of family, migration and the hardships of urban life, “The Harbour Child” impressed our fiction judge Professor Russell Kashula from Rhodes University’s School of Languages so much that he awarded it first place, earning Jenna a R1000 cash prize.

We went to DSK’s final school assembly for the term to congratulate Jenna and present her with a certificate and a copy of the Anthology. (Oh, and to speak to the school about Paperight and its awesome exam packs, among other things.)

Jenna was thrilled with the prize and the honour of being chosen as the best young fiction writer for our inaugural anthology. Her teachers and deputy principal, Mr Christoph Abt, were equally proud of her.

She said she got the idea for “The Harbour Child” from a photo her dad took of Cape Town’s harbour, and set about writing the story after seeing a call for submissions for the Anthology in her school library. (A special advance call for submissions for next year’s anthology is included in this year’s book, so get hold of it now if you want a head start on winning that R1000 prize next year!)

When we sat down to chat with her, we found out that she is looking forward to taking a gap year to travel once she finishes school, and then studying archaeology or journalism afterwards. Her favourite author is probably Eva Ibbotson, though her favourite book is Mary Renault’s Fire from Heaven. We hope that she’ll continue writing, whichever career path this talented youngster ends up taking.

So, congratulations Jenna! And congratulations to our other winners, who we’ll be profiling over the next little while.

And, of course, you should get your hands on the spellbinding Paperight Young Writers’ Anthology 2013 – which includes “The Harbour Child” and many other brilliant short stories in English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa and Sotho – at your local Paperight outlet. Check here to find your nearest outlet.

The Paperight Young Writers’ Anthology 2013 has arrived!

Today we have the honour of introducing the world to South Africa’s future poets, writers and illustrators with the release of the first ever Paperight Young Writers’ Anthology.

Compiled from the very best work from thousands of submissions from South African high school learners – in English, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho and Afrikaans – the Anthology celebrates a new generation of South African writers and artists.

“The Paperight Young Writers’ Anthology was conceived as a way for us to help spark a culture of writing in our country, in the places where it must be allowed to grow – our schools,” said editor Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana.

This is an outstanding achievement for the selected students who made it through a highly competitive shortlisting process that lasted over three months and involved thousands of entries in four categories – poetry, short stories, essays and illustrations. Together, the pieces represent a broad spectrum of South African experiences and concerns. In the run-up to Youth Day, we wanted to uncover and celebrate a new generation of South African writers and artists– we think the Paperight Young Writers’ Anthology 2013 is a great example of the high standard of writing and illustration emerging in our country that is too often overlooked.

We also took the opportunity to reward a winner in each of the four categories with a R1000 cash prize. The selection process was undertaken by a panel of esteemed judges and critics, including poet and academic Sarah Rowan, Dr. Hedley Twidle of the UCT Department of English Language and Literature, Professor Russell Kaschula of Rhodes University’s School of Languages, and art curator Gabi Ngcobo. The winners are:

Poetry: James Sulter (St John’s College, Johannesburg)
Short fiction: Jenna Solomon (German International School, Cape Town)
Essay: Triston Liebenberg (Bergvliet High School, Cape Town)
Illustration: Chad van Heerden (Eden College, Durban)

The Anthology will serve as an important introduction to the Paperight network to those who currently need it most, our country’s youth. “Many of the people using our network are high school students, buying matric study guides and past exam papers,” said Paperight founder and CEO Arthur Attwell. “The Anthology is a way for us to engage with these learners and find talented young writers among them. Now it’s blossomed into a rich piece of literature in its own right.”

The Young Writers’ Anthology is available right now! So get to your nearest Paperight outlet to see what the fuss is about. Follow us on Facebook to take part in the mounting excitement as we launch Anthology teasers and competitions.

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We’ve been kind enough to put together a Young Writers’ Anthology poster for you, too, whether you want to put them up in your school, or your outlet. Click here to check it out, or click here to get a custom poster done for your school or outlet from our design team.

O’Reilly distributes with Paperight

O’Reilly Media, one of the world’s leading publishers of technology books, has signed with Paperight to increase access to their books in the developing world.

The deal allows over 150 Paperight outlets throughout South Africa – many in rural villages and poor townships where traditional bookstores do not exist – to legally print out O’Reilly books for their customers on demand. Depending on individual outlet printing prices, books are around 20 per cent less to print at a Paperight outlet. More importantly, customers save time and money by not travelling to distant bookstores, where books may or may not be in stock. Instead, any local copy shop can meet their needs.

The new distribution agreement comes shortly after Paperight was named ‘Most Entrepreneurial Startup’ at the O’Reilly Tools of Change Startup Showcase, held in February in New York City. Paperight also took first place, via popular vote, at the Digital Minds Conference Innovation Showcase this week at London Book Fair.

‘The irony of the digital revolution is that while democratising knowledge production, it has increased the gap between the Internet-haves and have-nots,’ says Arthur Attwell, founder and CEO of Paperight. ‘If you’re not online, you can’t learn about technology, and you can’t close that gap. O’Reilly books on Paperight can change that. Many of our printing outlets directly supply schools and computer training centres, and these books will give them a huge advantage.’

Some of the O’Reilly books that will soon be available on Paperight include Learning Web Design, Programming C# 5.0, and Learning Java. Titles from the Head First series will also be available, including titles focusing on PHP & MySQL, Python and Excel.

“Paperight was one of the most exciting new services featured in the TOC NY Startup Showcase,” says Joe Wikert, General Manager and Chair of Tools of Change (TOC). “They were selected ‘Most Entrepreneurial Startup’ because of the creative solution they’ve developed to convert copy shops into a new distribution channel.”

“We’re pleased that O’Reilly content is being distributed through Paperight and we encourage other publishers to sign up as well,” Wikert adds.

New Africa Books signs up with Paperight

We’re proud to announce that legendary South African publishing house New Africa Books has signed up with Paperight.

Over the coming months, books from New Africa Books and its various imprints’ will be available at Paperight outlets. New Africa Books’ imprints include:

David Philip, an award-winning publisher of high-quality general books;
Spearhead, a publisher of contemporary self-help and alternative lifestyle books; and
New Africa Education, an education publisher publishing for and beyond the South African national curriculum, and a publisher of illustrated children’s books.

Paperight and Together We Pass launch Now What? A guide to studying with Unisa

Paperight and Together We Pass are proud to announce the launch of our new book, Now What? A Guide to studying with Unisa.

With upwards of 300 000 enrolled students – including a full third of South Africa’s tertiary student body – Unisa is the largest university in Africa, and one of the biggest distance-learning institutions in the world. By enabling people of all ages to study a wide range of courses in their own time, Unisa has entrenched itself as a valuable part of many people’s lives.

But as with most things, distance learning has its pitfalls. Without daily contact with peers and professors, distance learning can be difficult to plan, manage and fund – plus, doing all of those assignments and studying for all those exams by yourself can be terribly lonely.

“We’ve spoken to hundreds of Unisa students throughout South Africa about their distance learning problems,” explained Paperight’s Content Manager Tarryn-Anne Anderson, “and it turns out that there are a lot of problems with studying through Unisa, problems that nobody really tells you how to solve. How should I plan my degree? How can I finance it? How do I find other people I can share tips with?”

Now What? is here to answer all those niggling questions. A short, friendly guide to the biggest problems Unisa students say they have, Now What? includes sections on:

degree planning
time management
joining a study group
effective and enjoyable studying
keeping motivated
dealing with stress
understanding exam questions
finding and managing funding
getting in touch with Unisa’s different departments

and more flashpoints of distance-studying angst.

So, if you’re in need of a little help in your time of study-induced frustration, get your copy of Now What? from any Paperight outlet. And join our Facebook group – where you can find study partners and share exam tips – while you’re at it!

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Click here for access to an A1 poster advertising Now What? to stick up in your copy shop (600kb PDF)

Mampoer Shorts: short, sharp South African non-fiction

What happens when you take some of South Africa’s best journalists, let them write about what they want, and take away word counts and deadlines? Easy: you get Mampoer Shorts, a collection of hard-hitting and searingly relevant non-fiction novellas; as bracing and breathtaking as the spirit they’re named after.

Ever wanted to know about the private life of the mysterious cricketer Hashim Amla, the world’s best batsman? Check out Firdose Moonda’s Bearded Wonder. How about the seedy underbelly of Johannesburg’s sex industry? Try Richard Poplak’s Fifty Shades of Jozi. Or how about the secrets of one of South Africa’s most powerful media magnates, Koos Bekker? Get into Anton Harber’s Gorilla in the Room.

Mampoer Shorts are shorter than a book, but long enough to satisfy, investigating South Africa’s big issues without fear or favour. Give them a shot at any Paperight outlet – find your closest one here.

For a full list of Mampoer shorts, click here.

If you are registered as a Paperight outlet and would like a poster advertising Mampoer Shorts, get in touch at team@paperight.com, and we’ll be happy to assist you.

Paperight Print Catalogue: February 2013

The Paperight Print Catalogue for February 2013 is now available free for download (1MB PDF).

This is the first full catalogue of Paperight products we’ve made: a 67-page A4 booklet listing every one of the over-1000 books and documents on Paperight.

Products are organised both alphabetically and in specially-curated categories, making it easy for your staff and customers to browse books by interest and genre. Print it out and let customers find the books they want to print out more easily than before.

If you would like a specially-branded catalogue for your store, email us at team@paperight.com, and we’ll be happy to assist you.

Paperight matric packs: accessible learning at last!

Oxford University Press and Mindset Learn study guides: taking it to the next level

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