Some thoughts on the #global #book #industry from #abudhabi Dhabi
The international exchange on #publishing (and so many other industries) recently has lost quite some ground in our #mindsets, over the pandemic, and now again the all absorbing Russian invasion of Ukraine. And yet, a relevant and meaningful #bookbusiness certainly requires to look strategically beyond borders, or any national and regional instant craze. Which is why I am so grateful to attend the Abu Dhabi #BookFair right now, and had the opportunity to speak Sunday at their publishing #conference, organized by https://alc.ae/en/ , and exchanging alongside with cherished friends and colleagues where we all stand and how we all tick (and #tiktok ) in our professional (and personal lives).
The #Arab #publishingmarkets are inconveniently #exemplary in their complexity, #fragmentation and challenges from the incompatibility of a deep #transformation in #consumers' ways of absorbing #stories and information across so many channels and formats - with a book #production and #distribution that often enough sees just that one model of a gate-keeping publishing house looking out desperately for how to identify and reach a reader.
In the Arab case, that paradox is no different from Western Europe or North America - only more extreme and more endangered by today's utter sense of #insecurity. But there are plenty of good news to be found, too. For nstance Michael Tamblyn could announce that Rakuten Kobo Inc. will now include Arabic books in their catalogues. In similar perspectives, Stefanie Lamprinidi, regional content and expansion manager for Storytel, explained Swedish Storytel's entering the Arab market for audiobooks.
To understand the scope of these announcements, let me add the relevance of Kobo or Storytel as a 2 platforms for authoring (and #selfpublishing) services, #audiobook and #ebook capacities, #community and #marketing opportunities and so forth - that 1 step opens an entire #ecosystem! But not everything will - and must - follow the paths and patterns created by #Western #innovators - there must be room for different, or for adaptive models too, said Shereen Hasbini, PhD, general manager at #Asala Publishing House in #Lebanon, specializing in children's books.
I chose to point to the deep #fragmentation of the Arabic landscape, and emphasized, in quest of solutions and fixes, to focus on 3 clear and practical priorities, notably (a) to establish #informationservices to produce relevant #marketdata - overall and about real sales -, (b) expand massively efforts on #readingpromotion, and (c) lobby on behalf of respecting the value of #intellectualpropertyrights and #authorrights.