Country of Origin

Publishers use various positioning strategies to market books, but when books are marketed outside of the domestic market, publishers adapt their strategies in a way that would appeal to the specific foreign target market. Country of origin (COO) is a strategy that a company can use to promote products outside of country borders. Specific characteristics and unique qualities of a country are used strategically, to promote a certain idea about a country and its products and associated quality. In this article the idea of a national identity for South African literature is explored. Country of Origin (COO) is used as the theoretical framework for this study and Aichner (2013) identifies eight COO strategies. By conducting paratext analysis of three Afrikaans titles, an official language of South Africa, it indicates if and how a South African national identity is reinforced by local and international publishers. The three Afrikaans titles were selected by purposive sampling and represent different genres and publishers. COO elements including stereotypes, words and language, as well as symbols were mostly used. It also seems that it is not the South African publishers that consciously include COO elements, but rather the international publishers using COO as a strategy to position South African titles in a new target market.