Editorial
State of Book Publishing in the Arab World and the Impetus for Kotobarabia
Written by:
Ramy Habeeb, Director and Co-Founder of Kotobarabia
Tel: +20226364665
Fax: +20226446308
Mob: +20102760079
Email:
Address: 13 Shaheed Helmy Kamal, Heliopolis, Cairo
Written for:
North American Librarians
Written on:
October 2008
Please distribute freely
Dear Librarians,
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ramy Habeeb and I am the director of Kotobarabia – the first Middle East e-Content provider. We opened in 2004 with the mission to create a single source website of Arabic content, literature and wisdom, and to make that content equally available to all Arabic speakers and enthusiasts the world over. Our vision is the building of a library of Alexandria that cannot be burned down.
We initially set out to build an Amazon.com type site, selling content to individuals – one eBook at a time. Although we got a lot of traffic to our site and were praised in many Arabic publications, the results were not as encouraging. We could not support such an endeavor on individual sales. We needed to revise our plans.
It was around this time that I was accidently introduced to Ann Okerson through an Egyptian publication that had interviewed us both at separate times. It was through her encouragement and positive outlook to our content and mission, that we sought out East View to represent us in the US and European Middle East Library market.
Since that introduction, we have marketed, demonstrated and sold Kotobarabia to several North American institutions. During this time, numerous questions and comments have arisen from current and prospective customers not only about the product, but about publishing in the Arab world. It is the purpose of this letter to address some of these questions and comments.
The Arab Publishing World and How it Differs from the West
In Egypt, publishing doesn’t quite work the same way it does in the West. Most publishing, by US standards, would be done by what is considered Vanity Presses in the West. But to compare it equally would be unfair. Whereas it is common for authors to pay for the publication of their first few titles – this does not mean that their book will be accepted by any publishing house, provided the price is right. It is quite opposite, actually. An author will shop around his or her book to several publishing houses. The title will be read carefully with the publisher asking themselves whether or not this book is a title that they could be proud of publishing. If the answer is, ‘No,’ then the book is rejected. If the answer is, ‘Yes,’ then the book begins its publishing tour. Firstly, the author and publisher negotiate what kind of print run there is and how the author will get compensated. A typical publishing deal will look like this: 5000 copies published in the first run. Author will get 2000 copies to do with as he or she pleases (sell on their own, promote, give away). Publisher will retain 3000 copies to distribute amongst their channels. Should all 3000 copies sell, then discussion of a second print run is on the table.
Please note that it is rare for the publishing house to retain exclusive rights and, until very recently, eRights were never part of the contract.
The result of this process is that an author may work with several publishing houses at once. That several versions of the book is published back to back and could very well be issued separate ISBNs or other identification numbers (the local number issued by the Egyptian Government is the Date Published, followed by a book ID).
Please Note: The process I described above is not always the case. There are a handful of publishers in Egypt that have a more ‘typical’ system of publishing. Amongst them are the more famous publishing houses like: Dar Al-Sharouk (private), Matbouly (private), Haiyat Al-Kitab (government), Dar Al-Kotob (government), Elias Publishing (children). However many of their titles first run was in the system described above.
Distribution, ISBNs, ePublishing and Citations
It is unfortunate, but the reality of our system of publishing is quite chaotic. Cross border publication is almost unheard of and the concept of subsidiary rights trading is almost non-existent, practiced by only a handful of publishers on a very limited title basis.
In late 2005, we did a little experiment that I presented to the Ministry of Communications, Information and Technology (MCIT). At this point we had signed with over 500 authors and wanted to see where their books could be bought (other than our site). We hired a troop of Cairo University students (from the “Paper and Pen” writing club that we used to sponsor). Their mission was to find where certain authors existed in a physical form. One hundred authors were chosen – from the Crème de la Crème to the obscure and extremely niche. The results were staggering:
10% were available anywhere on conventional distribution routes (we have a few large scale distributors).
10% were nowhere to be found except the rare copy that the author or publisher retained.
The remaining 80% were only available within a 5km radius of the physical publishing house.
In other words – these titles were only available where the publishers could physically carry the books. That meant that great titles by powerful authors such as Mai Khaled, Naim Subri, Mohmoud Al-Wardani were available only in the downtown core of the city… forget Alexandria, forget other Arab countries, forget the rest of the world.
Please note: This is a tragedy, because authors like Mai Khaled (for example) are studied in contemporary Arabic literature classes held by the American University of Cairo (typically regarded as our best institute of higher education). If she is unavailable anywhere else, one can imagine that authors of less repute are lost in the fray.
The reasons for the above distribution problems are many. The poor economic situation in the region probably takes the lead. But there are other reasons why we have such a limited distribution for books in the Arab world, whereas Coca-Cola can be found in the smallest and most obscure villages of the Egyptian Delta.
The reasons are a topic of great debate, but one central problem is the lack of ISBNs or other book IDs that can be measured and tracked. ISBNs were introduced into Egypt in 1979 and, due to the failure to adopt the system, reintroduced in 1981. Yet, despite it being law that every publication has to have an ISBN, less than 55% of titles actually have one. Without this lynchpin of the publishing industry, it is impossible to track the history of a title.
This affects all areas of publishing. When we started our publishing house, we went to the National Book Authority and asked to have ISBNs issued to our eTitles. They refused us, citing that ePublishing was not real publishing and thus did not warrant an ISBN. As a result, our own titles do not have ISBNs.
Furthermore, due to the lack of recognition of ePublishing, very few publishing houses sign for eRights. This forced us to sign directly with authors. Kotobarabia has over 1200 authors and a library dedicated to storing those contracts. It would have been easier for us to sign with 300 or so publishing houses than directly with an army of authors, but unfortunately, this would not have been legal.
This causes difficulties for researchers to cite page numbers and original, first publishers of a certain title. Although we gained the right to publish the author’s words, we rarely had the rights to publish the actual original formatting and page numbering. We were forced to retype the publication – creating an army of typists in our ‘data factory’, a space that constantly echoes of clatter of keyboards being rapidly and repeatedly struck.
Therefore, legally, we are the publisher of the title and any citations should be in reference to our publication, date and page number (which is the page number displayed on the PDF file).
Please note: Since discovering this issue of citation, we have asked authors to get permission from the publishers to scan the titles. New content that will be added in the future will have original (to the degree of the version given to us) formatting, although legally we still cannot cite the original publisher.
The Value of this Collection
To quote Aladdin (the Disney version), our collection is a diamond in the rough. We have amazing authors that do not have much recognition because of the unfortunate publishing situation. To value this collection in economic terms would be a disservice as we are offering content that has only been seen on shelves in Cairo. That said, I would like to point out that if one were to buy each title at market price of around 12 LE per book – the value of purchasing the entire collection would be 54,000 LE or 10,189 USD plus shipping.
But more than the price point of this collection, there is something more valuable to consider. This collection is the gathering of contemporary authors’ thoughts and words. This is a reflection of modern Egyptian thought. This is the mirror in which an Arab views the world… Novels, political treatises, historical evaluations, popular culture, and poetry – this collection paints a picture of how we, in the Middle East, view the world.
There is one title that I have a particular attachment to. It is a transcript of a nedwa (round table discussion) Kotobarabia threw after riots erupted between Muslims and Coptics in Alexandria. The panel had two members – Milad Hanna (a 85 year old Coptic dignitary that wrote a ground breaking work called ‘The Seven Pillars of Egyptian Identity) and Gamal Al Banna (a 86 year old progressive Muslim scholar that happens to be the brother of Hassan Al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood… they may have been from the same womb, but they were not of the same ilk). These two great thinkers sat side by side and spoke of Muslim/Coptic relationships. They called for unity. They spoke about the place of religion. It was one of the prouder moments of my career to be the enabler for such a forum.
Why Early Adopters are Needed and Kotobarabia’s Plans for the Future
Since creating this platform, I have taken a crash course on Library protocol and dare I say it, etiquette. I have learned about MARC records, transliteration (the LC system and only the LC system), citation methods, network communications, record holdings, etc. Members of my staff have been trained on and I have conducted endless board meetings with my business partners on the importance of it all.
And despite all that, I have not even scratched the surface. I am still an infant in this field, but I am learning. Some updates that you will see to the platform are the adoption of LC transliteration and citation advice. But there is a limit to what I can do for this collection without your support. We are alone in this endeavor. Our organization is self-financed, with several failed proposals submitted to Dar Al-Kotob, MCIT, Ford Foundation, Shiekh Zayad Foundation, King Rashad Foundation, USAID, CIDA, FP7, etc.,… Without the support of early adopters we will not be able to sustain ourselves and grow into an entity that will supply the Western World with Arabic eBook collections that meet all the requirements.
That said – we are doing our best. We are working on a collection of rare books donated to us by a private collector. We are also developing a database of Arabic publication. This collection will have basic MARC records of around 40 fields (including book covers). To date we have collected over 500,000 titles and growing. Anyone interested in a sample of the records, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly or East View.
We also have our eye on creating a cartographic collection of rare maps (from Alexander the Great to Napoleon to Nassar). We are negotiating with Dar Al-Kotob for the rights to distribute rare book collections nationalized by Nassar in the 60’s. We are negotiating with Cairo University to create two collections – one of the metadata of Master’s and PHD theses as well as digitizing the actual pages.
And that’s just for Egypt.
Our eye is next on Syria – they have some of the most amazing tour’ath (rare) books on Shia and Sunni sects of Islam. Then Jordan, perhaps Tunis - two countries where we are already working with the author’s associations.
We are looking into creating collections of more academic value. Ibn Khaldun, Ibna Sena, etc.,… Islamic law books, documents from the National Archives.
But none of this will be possible unless we are able to create something sustainable from this era of our work. Otherwise it will collapse and there will be no progression in the Arabic Publishing Industry.
What Can We Do to Support Each Other
And finally, we reach the crux of this long letter. How can we help each other? What Kotobarabia needs is your help and patience. Help in the sense that we need your advice and candor… do not spare us your criticisms and comments. Help us grow into a professional organization that will meet your needs and the needs of your organizations. Tell us that books are improperly categorized and that the LC transliteration for this title or that could be better. Inform us when there are issues that irk you, but more importantly , advise us on what we can do in the future to improve. I promise to listen.
But that said – we also need your patience. Your comments will be heard, but implementation may take some time. As we grow as an organization, we can hire employees dedicated to some of your concerns. We can hire experts to look at aspects of the collection and meet your needs.
In an effort to show you how serious I am on this point – I would like to invite you to communicate directly with me. My email address is and my mobile number is +20102760079 (please take into account the time difference… J). Alternatively, I can call you at any time. If you’d like to discuss something with me, just give me a time and a number, and I will be happy to give you a call. My door is always open.
Also, I have a great relationship with many of our authors. If there is anyone in particular you would like to speak to, please do not hesitate to ask. I do not promise that I will be able to make the connection, but I do promise to try. In my experience, Kotobarabia’s authors relish the opportunity to speak about their work.
I apologize for the length of this letter. I had meant it to be only a page or two. As you can see, I missed my mark. But once I started speaking about our efforts, I felt that I needed to paint a full picture. That the only way for this to work is 100% transparency. And that is what I have tried to do here. I hope that my words are appreciated and look forward to hearing your comments in the future.
On a side note, I would like to thank some people before concluding this already long letter. Kotobarabia allies – people who without them, we would never have figured any of this out. Ann Okerson, Elizabeth Beaudin, William Kopyski, Omar Khalidi, Michael Neubert, and the amazing team of East View… without their support, we would still be stuck in Egypt.
Thank you all.
All the best,
Ramy Habeeb Director and Co-Founder