The Arab publishing industry is an emerging market full of unique chances. Business is on the rise, start-ups and numerous new projects that promote books and reading are launched all the time and book fairs are popular with the general public.

Beirut celebrates being World Book Capital 2009, in the Gulf states the initiatives Kalima and Tarjem announce about 500 translations into Arabic per year and a rights subsidy programme at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair has had impressive initial success in encouraging international trade. Two prestigious literary prizes have been established since 2007: the Sheikh Zayed Book Award and the International Prize for Arab Fiction. This year saw the first Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature, while the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair proved to be the fastest growing in the region, establishing Abu Dhabi as another publishing hub of the Arab world next to Egypt and Lebanon.

In spite of this encouraging atmosphere, publishers from all Arab countries are confronted with structural hindrances that slow down or prevent business development.

With about 300 million Arabic language speakers around the world the average print run of books in Arabic seems minute – it is rarely over 2000 copies, and usually much less. Apart from illiteracy and the low income of some potential readers, the reasons for this lie in the lack of distribution networks and a reliable ISBN system, the absence of statistics on the market, censorship and piracy. All this prevents Arab publishers from leaving the beaten track; it even makes the entrepreneurial risk sometimes too big to start business with and within the Arab world.

It is obvious that Arab book publishing has not yet been able to develop its full potential. This is the starting point for the publishers training sessions we are offering, which aim to be an important stepping stone for new developments and improvement.

For further information, please click here.