According to the BBC, Zimbabwean author Sue Nyathi said the success of her novel The Polygamist was the result of years of work, not an overnight breakthrough. She said publishers initially saw no market for the book, so she arranged her own editor, typesetter and artist and self-published 500 copies in 2012.

The book has since been adapted for Netflix and is in the platform's top 10 most streamed series in more than 60 countries, reaching No. 2 in the United States. Nyathi said she spent nearly two decades working in finance, including as an investment analyst, before leaving corporate life at 40 to write full time. She said the experience taught her to treat writing as both a craft and a business, and that she wrote the novel in the evenings after work.