About Reinhild Niebuhr
Reinhild Niebuhr is the author of two self-published books, namely "Young Africa - Policy Blueprint For A Continent Of Youth" (2002) and the very different "Is that a Franchise in your Pocket?" (2009).
In addition, Reinhild is the editor and original publisher of two books by an African thoughtleader, Dr. Mandivamba Rukuni, an accomplished, yet practically oriented and highly entertaining academic from Masvingo, Zimbabwe, who plays an active role in terms of influencing policy, especially policy related to land reform, at African Union level. Both books were signed up by Penguin Books as part of their African authors range. These books are:
"Being Afrikan" - 2011 and
"Leading Afrika" - 2012.
Both are available on Amazon.
Young Africa - Policy Blueprint For A Continent Of Youth (2002)
The "Young Africa" book became a non-fiction best-seller in South Africa within three months of it first arriving in the main bookshop chain in that country. In fact, Reinhild's phone didn't stop ringing with invitations for radio shows for youth and speaking engagements and requests for collaborations.. She was working as a strategic communications consultant during this period and had no time to deal with all the readers who wished to collaborate with her, and no systems to manage all the enquiries...
"I realised that when God hands you a calling to do something - in this case share strategies and programmes to help 200 million youth across Africa to fulfill their God-given potential - you can't just write a book and hope other people will be inspired to do this work - you have to be ready to do this work yourself," Reinhild recalls. "After the first edition was sold out in all bookshops within three months, I decided to withhold all other copies available, while I had to get ready to deal with the impact..."
This process ended up as a 24-year long 'preparatory' period - which in itself is worth a couple of books! It included Reinhild personally leading a pilot youth leadership and entrepreneurship development programme in a deeply remote and rural area in South Africa, which was funded through a grant, that made it possible to give away about three thousand books to schoolchildren and unemployed youth during the period from 2006 to 2008.
The interesting thing is that a sequel to this book, but with a global vision, started taking shape in Reinhild's mind in a most supernatural manner from 2009 onwards - but circumstances prevented her from completing and publishing this new book. In fact, Reinhild's life took a number of astonishing turns, as she worked faithfully to pursue the "Young Africa VISION". But this story is too long to tell here...
Suffice it to say, that it is only now that Reinhild is ready to publish new books again... This time with AI systems ready to manage any interest from prospective readers... and a team waiting in the wings to help, as soon as the books generate the necessary income to cover their fees.
"I'm planning to put the "Young Africa" book on the market again," says Reinhild. "I'm planning to do so in 2027 - a quarter of a century after the first edition was published. But it is now possibly even more relevant than then. And now I am ready for the book to hit the market again..."
Publishing other African author's books
Taking a break from publishing after the experience with the "Young Africa" book in 2002-2003, in order to better prepare for the roll-out of the "Young Africa" strategy, Reinhild moved to a deep rural region to embark on 'hands on' community and youth development work in South Africa. During this time she worked closely with African thoughtleader, Dr Mandivamba Rukuni, from Zimbabwe and in 2007 she approached him to assist in editing and publishing books related to the very interesting African cultural knowledge she had learnt from him. Her publishing company, "Mandala Publishers", had been established with the aim to publish books by other African authors, not only her own books and so Reinhild was looking forward to launching a series by other African authors, by starting with Dr Mandivamba Rukuni.
His first book, "Being Afrikan - Rediscovering the Ten Traditional Pathways of Being Human', was published in 2007. It was an immediate success, gaining widespread acclaim through word-of-mouth in the first few months of it having been published by Reinhild. Interestingly enough, it was this book that kickstarted Reinhild's journey which is culminating in another own book, which has been in the 'pipeline' for a while, namely a book titled "The Hebrew Connection". Such an astonishing story!
This book led to the second book, titled "Leading Africa", also by Dr Mandivamba Rukuni, which was published in 2009 - in the wake of the global economic downturn... which affected both Dr Rukuni and Reinhild's activities in an unexpected manner, forcing both to focus on other priorities. In 2010 Penguin Books approached Dr Rukuni to re-publish both books and they were published again, in 2011 and 2012, respectively. This was ample vindication for Reinhild that - while she had to agree to release the books for publishing by another publishing house - she had accurately identified a 'winning author'.
It was in this period that digital publishing and ebooks became a 'thing'. And Reinhild's own consulting company had been exploring the new digital economy. She had identified the immense opportunity that this new digital economy was bringing to humankind - and decided to write a book, highlighting her strategic insights in this regard.
That book is titled "Is That A Franchise In Your Pocket?" - Why Everyone Can Be A Billionaire. (2009)
Is That A Franchise In Your Pocket?
Reinhild published this book through her publishing company, Mandala Publishers, and placed it on Amazon as a digital Kindle book, as well as offering a print-on-demand physical version, also through Amazon.
The result? In the absence of Reinhild's knowledge and ability at the time to effectively market this book to an online audience that was not yet 'switched on' to ebooks, the book has remained quietly on Amazon - waiting for its time to come!
That time is NOW!
"Is That A Franchise In Your Pocket?" is a book that every would-be entrepreneur or existing business owner should read - it will spark new ideas, with Reinhild's innovative projected opportunities, all explained in this small book. While a lot has happened - technologially speaking - since 2009, the potential of the new economy as highlighted in this book, is as relevant as 15 years ago!
Writing vs Publishing vs Selling
The experience of publishing a first 'non-fiction bestseller' book taught Reinhild a key insight:
"Being a successful author is not actually about who writes the best books - it is also about who has the best systems in place to engage with the readers who invest their money to buy these books and then invest their valuable time to read them," explains Reinhild.
"My books are intended to inspire others to jump into action, so it really is dangerous to publish them, without the necessary 'backoffice' setup to handle the massive energy that can be released by each book!" she says.
Preferring to self-publish her books, (because of the sometimes rather explosive content!), Reinhild chose not to submit her manuscripts to a large publishing house which has the necessary 'backoffice' in place. This meant having to work quietly in the background until her own publishing company could handle the marketing, sales and reader engagement. "It's been a while in the making, but - praise God! - AI is making it possible for me to do so now - I believe in God's perfect time!", reflects the author.
8 New Books In The Publishing Pipeline
During these past 24 years, Reinhild has quietly started to work on another (initial) 8 upcoming titles, which are in the publishing pipeline of her publishing company. As mentioned before, originally this company was called "Mandala Publishers", but it has now been renamed to "Christian Business Publishers" (CBP).
These 8 New Books Are"
- The End of The Party - The Beginning of Bible-Based Governance"
- FAITH & Lipstick - A Biblical Strategy For Global Renewal In The 21st Century"
- SI - Spiritual Intelligence - Understanding The Spiritual Realm"
- Young World VISION - Let's Transform Society In 5 Years"
- Hello Health - Caring For Your Temple In A Holistic Way"
- Spirit of The Witch - Understanding Human Psychology and Spiritual Intelligence According To African Traditional Thinking and Biblical Knowledge
- The HEBREW Connection - A Mindblowing Revelation With The Potential To Radically Transform How The World Works" and
- 5:8:1 - Five Jars, Eight Enterprises and One Day of Rest - The Biblical Way Of Growing Wealth"
Watch this space.
What Reinhild Niebuhr writes about:
Her first two books already point to the questions that Reinhild has dedicated her life to seek answers for, namely:
1) How can we work together to help millions of people living in poverty to transform their situation towards living life ABUNDANTLY - in OUR generation?
2) How can we help millions of people to understand how the new economy is changing the rule of the game of growing wealth - NOW?
Reinhild doesn't write 'for fun' - although she has a lot of fun writing! And hopes that you will enjoy the sequence of Holy Spirit-guided thoughts that flows from her pen... or rather, her keyboard...
Her aim is to clarify, encourage and inspire her readers to understand that we humans are not helpless victims of our circumstances: each one of us is a 'powerhouse of transformation' - IF we understand the source of all true power!
Reinhild has three decades of exploring and developing approaches to socio-economic development... and has come to the understanding that the key to human transformation is spiritual transformation - which in turn shifts the way we see the world and how we think and feel. Once this happens, there's NO LOOKING BACK: Hope for the future of humankind - which also translates into a restorative relationship with nature - begins to OVERFLOW!
This is what her books are about: having a better understanding of:
- WHY things are the way they are?
- WHAT can we do to change the way the world works?
- HOW can we start taking the necessary steps to make this happen in our own personal life.
- WHEN will things change? and
- WHO must bring about this transformation?
As a result, her books are ENLIGHTENING, ENCOURAGING and EMPOWERING - an EXPLOSIVE combination!
No more "Mr Hopeless" guy or "Ms Hopeless" girl...
A mind transformed. A life transformed. A community transformed. A world transformed.
About Reinhild Niebuhr
In addition to writing, Reinhild enjoys spending time speaking and listening to God, recording praise songs which she receives in the spirit on an ongoing basis, maintaining a large network of family, friends and other connections globally, travelling to pursue her "8 x business" interests and learning from others who have knowledge and understanding on a range of topics, which she hasn't as yet mastered.
She also has learnt to simply REST and enjoy the sun in the gorgeous garden left in her care by her mother when she transitioned into Eternity, and after many years of eating 'on the run' - preparing food from scratch and eating it MINDFULLY.
Reinhild believes that we humans have been given 120 years to live and learning and sharing knowledge on how to help our body and soul (mind, will and emotion) to be strong, healthy and effective, so that our spirit may remain comfortable in its "earthly vessel" until this timeframe hase been fulfilled.
You can sign up to get updates about their writing here.