From lockdown layoff to literary payday, Duduzile Noeleen Ngwenya (NoeleenSaid), an independent author from Hammanskraal, Pretoria, is set to launch a self-publish online course aimed at empowering aspiring African writers.
The two-time self-published best selling author of Things I Never Said to Myself and This Time You Return to Yourself, alongside her Pan Macmillan South Africa-published third book, You Get Better With Love, is now taking her years of hard-won industry expertise directly to aspiring authors through this comprehensive digital programme set to kick off between March and April 2026.
Surviving COVID economy
Noeleen’s entrepreneurial journey dates back to 2017 when she founded Ayana Magazine, a digital women’s magazine which championed African women’s voices and featured cover stars including the late Dr Sindisiwe van Zyl, Nicolette Mashile, Mihlali Ndamase and Sihle Ndaba. When covid 19 hit, the magazine business suffered a hit, and it was suddenly gone. No warning. No soft landing. Just silence. But that did not stop Noeleen from pursing her life-long authorship dream. This experience was a path for her digital marketing path.
“The closure of the magazine for me was both painful and a push in my career, Ayana magazine did serve its course during its existence, but I was struggling with finances at the time and the lack of a marketing plan,” Noeleen said.
During the lockdown, her book of poetry collections, Things I Never Said to Myself according to Noeleen was an unexpected phenomenon. This was a viral moment for her on social media platforms, which ultimately landed on Amazon and Takealot bestseller lists.
Through this time, Noeleen had positioned herself as a rare voice with experience in both independent and traditional publishing pathways. All the knowledge she has attained from this lockdown experience and the hard-won knowledge is being packaged into a course. She is about to launch a story about economic self-determination for African writers, moving the narrative of “asking for a book deal” to “creating your own economy”.
From virtual seminars to an online course
Since late 2024, Noeleen has hosted three virtual seminars titled, Becoming a Self-published Author, to guide and share invaluable insights from her journey as a black woman author who has published chart-topping books. By this, she has aimed to contribute to the literary African community.
“One of the reasons I decided to move to the course is because I rarely did the seminars, so they have something I can refer them to than them having to wait for about six months for the next seminar,” Noeleen said.
The course is set to teach the differences between traditional and self-publishing and what the benefit for self-publishing is, building a personal brand, social media positioning and authorship.
Two-hat personality
Noeleen said she does not struggle with being an author and her own marketing personnel for her books. Navigating the viral moment of her authorship on social media as both the marketing/PR person and author was not too difficult as she describes it as overwhelming in a good way. “I was always ready to attend interviews on my book, market it and still speak authorship,” she said.
The digital community vs the traditional marketing has taught Noeleen that social media is a key aspect of the business.
Noeleen has been through social media scrutiny as a storm of criticism about how her book Things I Never Said To Myself, a self-love poetry collection of gentle reminders of love and healing to identity self-sabotage habits was said to lack enough “word” and was a waste of time and money. According to Noeleen, the book’s sparse pages and whitespaces were intentional as it is poetry.
Self-publishing vs the traditional deal
For Noeleen, there is no way an author can get both revenue and flowing process all in one. One needs to choose their struggle, money vs the growth. But Noeleen recommends self-publishing as there is a lot to learn and the royalties are for the author to keep, with no third-party payments involved. “You need to be willing to wear all the caps,” Noeleen said.
Noeleen has made more revenue with self-publishing and has mentioned that traditional publishing is a waiting game and the revenue is shared with the publisher.
With the course, Noeleen aims to fill the lack of self-publishing resources for African writers gap, offer culturally relevant, regionally conscious guidance from an author who has successfully navigated these very challenges.
“I wanna see more books in shelfs by African Authors knowing that I made an impact,” Noeleen.
