Publishing
Gateway to a varied world
URVASHI BUTALIA
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Exciting new writers, State subsidies, rights exchanges — the Arab world presents one of the potentially most exciting markets in the world for publishing and the Abu Dhabi Book Fair is the place to be in if one wants to have a presence there.
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The business of books in the Arab world has been quietly growing — encouraged by rulers and governments…
Vital exposure: Saudi Arabian author Rajaa Alsanea (left) at the Abu Dhabi fair.
The penultimate evening of the week-long Abu Dhabi book fair saw young Saudi author Rajaa Alsanea (of Girls of Riyadh fame) speaking to a crowd of some 100 people who nodded and smiled and clapped for this attractive, young, 27-yea
r-old writer. Dressed in an ornately embroidered gold braided black hijab, a soft scarf around her head, Alsanea spoke with grace and charm, responding to questions now asked by Yemeni women covered from head to toe, now by the odd Englishman dressed in jeans and tee shirt, and now by older Arab men who were full of appreciation of her daring in writing a book about the secret lives of young women in Saudi Arabia.
Now in its third year, the Abu Dhabi book fair has been growing by leaps and bounds and now presents, for the interested publisher, a window to the world of books and reading in Arab countries. It kicks off with the presentation of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award — also known as the Arab Booker. This year, the glittering ceremony, held in the legendary Palace Hotel, saw the Arab elite in all their glory and variety. Long abayas and hijabs jostled with svelte gowns and tuxedos, alcohol was remarkable by its absence and the ceremony was short, speech-free and painless as each of the seven writers was presented to an audience largely familiar with them.
Crucial exposure
The business of books in the Arab world has been quietly growing — encouraged by rulers and governments who, while anxious to build up a reading culture, also keep an eagle eye on what is being written and for writers, censorship is a real concern. Nonetheless, book fairs like the Abu Dhabi fair become important venues for writers to make appearances, meet with potential readers and get media exposure. “It’s because the distribution system is not so good in the Arab world,” said one, “that being at book fairs becomes important to us. It’s here that our books get exposure.” This year writers such as Yasmina Kadra, Gamal el Ghitany, Assia Djebar and others rubbed shoulders with Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, M.J. Akbar and Mushirul Hasan.
As literature makes its slow but sure way into the Arab book market, there are other areas of publishing in the Arab world that are thriving. The biggest space in the market is occupied by religious books and if you wish to pick up a beautifully crafted, leather bound, gold stamped edition of the Koran, this is the place to be. And then there is the growing market for children’s books: A publisher of children’s books from Iran, Kanoon, finds the possibilities of translation from Pharsi to Arabic and vice versa an exciting new opportunity.
Recognising the potential of this kind of exchange, the book fair organisers, Kitab, a subsidiary of the Frankfurt Book Fair, this time took the unique step of offering a translation subsidy for books to be translated into Arabic or out of it. Within the short space of a week, more than 150 books were registered for this subsidy. Each will receive a $1000 subsidy as licence fee — a unique way to encourage translation, and a model the Indian government or the National Book Trust would do well to think of emulating, for, in a country with such a rich multi-lingual tradition, translation is the way to reach different literatures into different regions.
Cashing in
The wealth of the Arab sheikhdom this year also attracted a small group of antiquarian booksellers, from America, the Netherlands and Austria, who came with their maps and prints and old books. The biggest attraction was a book on falconry, said to have sold for $160,000. As one might expect, spending money is not in short supply. On virtually every day of the fair, hordes of schoolchildren come in organised trips, each holding a 30 dirham coupon, provided by the State, to purchase books. They run around, crowding mostly the children’s book stalls, and pick up anything they fancy, a book, a chart, a game — all this aimed at encouraging them to read. The more canny among them present a coupon for a purchase of, say, 10 dirhams, asking to get the rest back in cash, which they then spend on the nearest ice cream or chocolates!
If children are attracted thus, overseas publishers too are offered something: as a participating publisher, you are guaranteed a sale of two copies of each title published in a nearly year long period previous to the fair, to the National Library — a move that serves two purposes; one to encourage publishers to come and two, to enhance the collection of the National Library. Put together, this package of literary events, translation subsidies, book purchases, rights exchanges, can act as a strong pull for publishers to participate.
Never slow to sense when a market is ready to open up, many Western publishers are already making a place for themselves in the Arab world. It’s rumoured that Penguin is soon scheduled to launch a Penguin Arabia — on the model of and perhaps inspired by Penguin India — Bloomsbury already has an overseas office in Qatar, Mills and Boon are big in the Arab world, and others are standing at the sidelines and waiting.
Indian presence
Nor have Indians been slow to sense a growing market. DeeCee publishers of Kerala have a large setup in Dubai that caters to the considerable Malayali population in the Gulf. Young Indian entrepreneurs have set up distribution agencies that cater to universities and schools, Jamia Milia Islamia in Delhi has put in place a translation programme whereby 25 titles from India will be translated into Arabic and five vice versa — and this is only a beginning — and Panther, a publisher of high quality medical DVDs is listed as one of their star attractions by one of the leading Gulf distributors, Kasha, who are based in Jordan.
Clearly, things are changing in the world of Arab writing and publishing. Like India, Arab countries provide one of the potentially most exciting markets of the world, and perhaps the day is not far off when Arab writers will start crowding the numbers of Booker prize winners in the way that Indians have begun to do.
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