The lack of a book development policy is said to be reason for the under performance of the country's publishing and printing industry.
Mr Bennette Hanson Armah, a print media Consultant, said it was important all stakeholders including the book development council, government and printers came together to address the situation and inject efficiency into the industry.
He said there should be no illusions that when properly developed, the industry could bring in more foreign exchange to support the economy.
Mr Armah was presenting a paper on "promoting professionalism in the publishing industry" at the sixth Heidelberg/Publishing Studies Awards Day and entrepreneurship graduation at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on Thursday.
He underlined the need to develop and provide a wide range of training programmes at different levels to raise standards in the industry.
One hundred and sixty-nine (169) final year students of the Department of Publishing Studies and one from the Department of Sociology at KNUST received certificates having undergone entrepreneurship training programmes designed to help them become self-employed.
They were taken through subjects such as the development of entrepreneurship and small-scale and medium enterprises (SME's), financial
management and analysis for business starters, project management, total quality management, tax administration, employment law and professional
ethics.
Mr Ralph Nyadu-Addo, the Course Coordinator, said the programme, introduced six years ago by the Department, sought to bring industry close to academia.
Nana Fredua Agyemang Pambuo, Chairman of Otumfuo Charity Foundation, encouraged the students to be self-confident and be guided by integrity and honesty in all their dealings to achieve business success.