Emike Osumah is the founder and editorial director of Purple Inkshed®, a writing, editing and publishing brand that helps authors refine their manuscripts and prepare their work for publication. With professional experience dating back to 2007, she has spent nearly two decades working with words, first as a scriptwriter, later as a freelance editor and ghostwriter, and now as an author and publishing professional helping other writers bring their ideas to life.
Through Purple Inkshed, she provides editorial services, develops practical resources for writers and facilitates The Write Conversations, a platform that encourages aspiring authors to take practical steps towards publication. She has also published seven books of her own, spanning contemporary Christian fiction, Christian living and devotional writing.
But Emike’s relationship with writing began long before it became her profession.
At six years old, she was already telling stories through pictures because she could not yet spell many words. As her vocabulary grew, she began writing the stories that came to her. Writing became her happy place, although she did not initially consider it a career.
I find this beginning interesting because there was no publishing business in sight when she started telling stories as a child. She simply loved writing. Over the years, that interest developed into a profession, but it has also opened up other ways for her to work with stories and the people who want to tell them.
Born and raised in Edo State, Nigeria, Emike attended school and university in the same town where she grew up. Her national youth service took her away from home to Lagos, and marriage eventually made Lagos her new home. She studied English and Literary Studies at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, before going on to build her professional experience in writing.
In 2007, she began working as a scriptwriter at DM Audio Visuals in Lagos. She later spent nearly a decade working independently as a scriptwriter, editor, and ghostwriter, taking on projects that required her to develop content, refine manuscripts and communicate other people’s ideas.
Each role brought a different responsibility. As a scriptwriter, she developed content for audiovisual projects. As a ghostwriter, she worked with other people’s ideas and helped communicate their intended messages. Editing required her to look closely at written work and identify where clarity, consistency, or flow could be improved.
Looking at this progression, what stands out to me is that her experience grew beyond writing her own stories. She was learning to work with different kinds of writing and different people’s ideas. Those years of working behind the scenes would later become part of what she brought to her own business.
By 2019, she had spent years working with words in different capacities. That year, she established Purple Inkshed, bringing her experience in writing and editing into a business dedicated to helping authors strengthen their manuscripts.
She continued to develop her technical skills, earning a Diploma in Proofreading and Editing with distinction from the College of Media and Publishing in the United Kingdom in 2024.
Since establishing Purple Inkshed, she reports having worked on more than 25 writing, editing and publishing projects. Her work covers fiction and nonfiction, including proofreading, manuscript refinement and helping writers identify weaknesses in their work before publication.
There is a difference between having a story to tell and getting that story ready for readers. A writer may have a wonderful idea, but the manuscript may still need work. A character may behave inconsistently, a chapter may not move the story forward, or an important idea may not be coming across as clearly as the writer intends.
This is where an editor comes in. The work is not simply to correct grammar and punctuation or to make every writer sound the same. It is to help the writer see what needs attention while preserving the voice and intention behind the work.
Emike’s own experience as an author adds another dimension to her editorial work. She understands the process of developing and publishing her own books, while her professional training equips her to examine manuscripts from an editorial perspective. Through Purple Inkshed, she brings these experiences together to help other authors improve their work without losing their individual voices.
She has also published seven books of her own, including Love’s Winding Path, Ripples, A Ray of Hope and Stolen Waters, alongside Moms with Swords, Diary of a Shepherd’s Helpmeet and Becoming Mom: A Pregnancy Journal/Devotional.
The books span fiction, Christian living, motherhood and devotional writing. Across these different forms, relationships, family life, personal choices, and faith feature in her work. Her Christian upbringing has influenced the stories she tells and the messages she hopes to communicate. She wants readers to recognise God’s involvement in their lives and understand the possibility of a relationship with Him.
This gives her writing a clear point of connection, even across different genres. She is not writing only to tell a story or share information; her faith is also part of what she hopes readers will take away from her work. In 2022, she was nominated for the African Christian Fiction Writers Awards in the Contemporary Christian Fiction category.
But publishing her own books is only one part of what she does. Emike has also created practical resources to help other writers understand what it takes to prepare a manuscript for publication.
Through Purple Inkshed, she developed the Purple Inkshed Writers’ Toolkit, which covers manuscript preparation, character consistency, narrative continuity, and chapter effectiveness. These are practical areas that can make a difference between a manuscript that is merely complete and one that is ready for professional editing.
I think this is an important part of her work because many aspiring authors are focused on finishing their books, but may not know what comes next. Some have been carrying an idea for years; others have completed a manuscript but are unsure how to move forward. Having someone who understands the writing process and can help them identify what needs attention can make that next step less daunting.
Her work with aspiring authors also extends through The Write Conversations, a platform she created to encourage people to pursue their publishing goals. Through these efforts, her work reaches beyond the manuscripts she edits and the books she writes to support people who are trying to become authors themselves.
When I look at her journey as a whole, I see a career that has grown in more than one direction without losing its connection to writing. She has written for clients, published books of her own, established an editorial business and developed resources to help other people improve their work. Each stage has given her another way to engage with stories.
That is what makes her journey worth looking at beyond the titles she holds or the number of books she has published. Her work is not limited to what she can create on her own. She has also built a space for other writers to learn, develop their manuscripts and take their ideas closer to publication.
She started out telling stories through pictures because she could not yet spell many words. Today, Emike Osumah has published seven books, built a career around words and created a space for other writers to bring their own stories to life. But seven books do not mark the end of her story. There are still stories to write, books to publish, writers to encourage and ideas waiting to find their way onto a page.
Perhaps this is what makes a life built around stories so interesting: there is no final chapter while there is still something to say. The little girl who once told stories through pictures has come a long way, but she is not done yet. She is still writing, still building and still discovering where the next story will take her.
