You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
The United Arab Emirates is punching above its weight in terms of the development of its book publishing industry within the Middle East, though there remains a frustration that the market is dominated by overseas imports rather than indigenous Arabic publishing.
Speaking at the opening of the Professional Programme that precedes this week’s Sharjah International Book Fair, consultant Ruediger Wischenbart said that publishing in the UAE was a "young industry", but with potential "to develop into a sector of strategic relevance domestically and a hub in the Gulf region's development into a knowledge-driven society".
According to a report commissioned by the Emirates Publishing Association, the overall publishing market in the UAE is worth about $260m, with about 65% of those sales coming from English language publications and the remaining 35% from Arabic language books. This was compared with the Egyptian publishing market, estimated to be worth $130m. The strong representation of the UAE was put down to the very low levels of illiteracy, with 7.5% of the population unable to read compared to 75% four decades ago.
The market has become an important one for overseas publishers, with combined imports from the UK, US, and France worth about $108m in 2011, or $170m at consumer book prices. The UK alone is the biggest importer of books, worth about $60m in 2011, with growth of 125%; however US exports are now growing at a faster rate than those from the UK.
Domestic production in the UAE still accounts for a limited share of the market, with just 340 Arabic titles produced by domestic publishers. The Emirates Publishers Association has 70 members. According to Wischenbart a number of publishing companies, most of which are newly formed, have now set out to produce publications based on local content and aimed at regional audiences.
Kalimat was launched in 2007 and has published more than 100 titles in the past five years, focusing on Arabic language books for children. This has been followed by Kuttab, founded in 2010, now publishing 20 new titles annually. TwoFour has also been established in Abu Dhabi, aiming to develop locally produced entertainment content, either from licensing books such as Driver Dan into Arabic, or by growing and supporting regional expertise.
The potential of domestic Arabic publishing ran through the morning sessions at the event. Narain Jashanmal, general manager, Books & Magazines at regional chain, Jashanmal, said he has seen a decline more recently in the volume of domestic titles sold, compared with the increase in imports, though he admitted that this could be skewed by the recent success of books such as Fifty Shades.
But when questioned from the floor, he denied giving undue weight to foreign titles, saying that in some areas such as Sharjah their book stores sold as much as 40% of titles in Arabic, and this was reflected in the size of the display space. He said he would give more space to those titles if the demand existed.
Wischenbart pointed to the growth in the regional book fairs in Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, as well as support for the book sector from Sharjah's ruler Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al-Qasimi, which, he said, had given the local publishing industry "a great deal of positive momentum". However, he agreed that this potential "must be leveraged forcefully . . . to develop publishing the book trade locally".