The five Africa-based Lambert authors we spoke to included three holding tenured academic posts (one Senior Lecturer and two Professors) at established universities in Nigeria and Kenya. One had published 17 books with Lambert, another had published three. Three of the five had been approached by Lambert offering to publish their thesis, the other two had found the publisher online.
Emmanuel, a Nigerian independent scholar who had recently completed his PhD, explained that Lambert ‘blew me away’ because ‘they have no restrictions’. He had first considered a Chinese publisher, but ‘they didn’t provide as much information as Lambert did’. He had been impressed by the ‘rapidity with which the process happened … in half a week they got back to me. I reviewed it. Within a week they sent back my final copy, so lots of positives.’ Two others also mentioned the ‘speedy’ publishing process as a benefit.
All five Lambert authors appreciated the publisher’s ability to ‘get your work out there’. Several cited the appeal of global recognition. Mulemi, a Kenyan academic with 17 Lambert books to his name, credited the publisher with ‘putting people from nowhere, the periphery, the villages, on the map’ through their ability to distribute local research internationally. He felt that no-one should ‘say nasty things about Lambert’. He claimed that his PhD thesis would have remained unpublished if it was not for Lambert. Three authors mentioned that Lambert books were sold via Amazon, Waterstones, and other web portals, offering the opportunity for others to discover their work. Bankatunji pointed out that these listings had led other academics to get in touch. Aware that his choice had not been about garnering reputation prestige, he said his ultimate ambition was to publish in ‘more renowned places’ since ‘the top publishers try to bring out the best in you’.
Thomas, a Nigerian Professor of Architecture, explained that ‘they have the edge over the Nigerian publishers, the print quality is better than our publishers’. He admitted that his university ‘consider Lambert to be a predatory publisher … they don’t consider them as acceptable for promotion … but the advantage is that Lambert can promote us internationally’.