Sue Nyathi’s The Polygamist went from a rejected manuscript and self-published copies to a Netflix hit streamed across more than 60 countries. At the Gaborone Book Festival, the Zimbabwean author unpacked what happens when a story leaves the page and why writers need to understand the business waiting beyond the book.
GOSEGO MOTSUMI
A book can be a finished story or a passport. Sue Nyathi knows the difference. Her The Polygamist began as a self-publishing gamble and ended up as a Netflix phenomenon, proving that sometimes the stories publishers overlook are the ones the world cannot stop watching.
At the Gaborone Book Festival, Nyathi pulled back the curtain on the journey from novel to screen, offering authors a lesson that had little to do with glamour and everything to do with knowing the value of their work.
FROM 500 COPIES TO GLOBAL STREAMING
Nyathi’s path was hardly instant. After several publishers rejected The Polygamist, she found her own editor, typesetter before self-publishing copies in 2012.
The was book eventually adapted into a Netflix series that reached the platform’s Top 10 in more than 60 countries.
“The series going viral was surreal at first,” Nyathi said. “We had expected it to do well because it is a high value production and thought it would probably just trend in Southern Africa but it exceeded expectations.”
The screen version relocates the story from Zimbabwe to South Africa, shifts into isiZulu with subtitles and makes several changes to the characters. Nyathi, who was not involved in the production, says the adaptation still respected the story’s core.
“As a writer, there is always a degree of anxiety when your work moves into another medium because you are entrusting your characters to other people.”
YOUR BOOK IS A DOOR
For Nyathi, adaptation is not simply about seeing your characters on television. It is about understanding the creative and commercial possibilities hiding inside a manuscript.
“The importance of reading your contract and understanding your adaptation rights as an author cannot be overemphasised,” she said.
Her message was simple: authors need to think beyond publication.
“You must think of a book as a door to other opportunities.”
The success of The Polygamist has also pushed the story beyond entertainment. Nyathi said Amnesty International has used the book to raise awareness around narcissistic relationships, while UNAIDS used the series in HIV-prevention campaigning.
THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WRITER
Nyathi’s own route to authorship was unconventional. She spent almost two decades in finance before leaving corporate life at 40 to write full time.
She wrote The Polygamist after work, turning a childhood dream into a second career.
Her story is a reminder that the publishing industry may decide whether a book gets a chance but it does not always get the final word.