This post is also available in: العربية
The publishing industry either from prints audios or books recently witnessed a productive discussion for the book fair conferring with the topic related to the knowledge exchange between the east and the west stations of the globe on 13 March 2019, The Buzz Theatre, London Book Fair.
The giants of the publishing industry like Mr. Sebastian Bond (Kitab Sawti), Elizabeth Briggs (Saqi Books), Ali Al Shaali (Alhudhud Publishing) and much more -honored this conference with their knowledge and experience of the industry right away from London.
Knowledge and solutions on the author’s dilemma in dealing with publishers, best practices of dealing with authors, their rights, literary, procedure and much more were revealed fabulously by the giants.
The world has been leaning towards technology since decades, and so does the publishing industry. Readers have traveled and witnessed right from written poems up to the audiobook through technology.
Mr. Sebastian Bond explained how the practices and procedure related to the publishing industry differ from Europe to the mid-east. Besides, there is also a massive gap between publishers of the west and the publishers of the east in terms of quality.
On the other hand, Elizabeth Briggs, an international participant of book fairs -praised the speed of middle east. However, some publishers also mentioned that the speed might be the outcome of skipping the editing stage by the publishers of the middle east publishers. She also reveals the best practice of obtaining rights. The books from the west may include some pieces of content that are published earlier, and it is a best practice to contact the right holder who might be an individual or a publishing house. She also mentioned her ongoing workarounds, and we can expect some new short stories sooner or later.
Some challenges in the publishing industry include the quality of the publish and the reader’s perception. Good content also depends on the mindset of readers in terms of language. For instance, European published literature might be truly qualified and European readers would understand it but, what about others? This also justifies the uneven nature of all the markets in the publishing industry. Sebastian added about the difficulties in concluding a publish when working around with the Arabic publishing market in terms of audiobooks.
Some authors also clarified about the mindset of a publisher when an author approaches with his work. The straightforward answer was the market trends being the main drivers of a publish. A publisher might prefer Novel rather than poetry based on the readers demand and market analysis! However, in any circumstance, it is the best practice for an author to approach the right publisher.
Some suggestions such as adaptations of inefficient communication channels, apprenticeship and agreement programs were thoroughly discussed by being inspired from the UAE publishing market since the UAE association of publishers have 138 publishing companies and good relations with British authors.
Audiobooks are trending, and hence Sebastian and other publishers also agree with the fact of it being marketed through the social media channels. The copyrights and piracy might be uncontrollable initially, but the industry is confident on the support of technology.
