(With the Cairo International Book Fair approaching, scheduled to begin January 28, Egypt Today has pulled the following article from its archives to touch upon the topic of books and publishing in the Arab world. The article was originally published in July 2007.)
As the AUC Press approaches its fiftieth anniversary, the Arab world’s top foreign-language publishing house places a new emphasis on non-fiction
By Noha Mohammed
Striding over to a stack of books piled on a table by his desk, Mark Linz, director of the AUC Press, picks up a massive tome and enthusiastically flips through the first few pages of Hans Kung’s Islam: Past, Present & Future.
“Look, read this,” he says. “It’s very important. It’s one of the most important AUC Press books this season.”
My eyes follow his long fingers as they run lovingly across the lines of the book’s epitaph: “No peace among the nations without peace among the religions. No peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions. No dialogue between the religions without investigation of the foundations of the religions.”
“Opening up dialogue with the West: That’s the root of what we’re doing,” Linz says. “Of course, it’s the university’s role into which it has been growing now for almost 100 years. Bridge building has always been part of international universities, and at AUC Press, we defined from the beginning that we are reflecting and supporting AUC’s mission in education, research and cultural exchange. And we very much stick to that. We don’t do it the other way around — we don’t publish foreign literature for the Arabic world. That’s what others are doing, and there’s plenty of that. [What we’re doing] is much more important in our view. It’s our unique contribution that we can make, be- ing here, to explain the Arab world to the rest of the world.”
Just three years shy of its fiftieth anniversary, the AUC Press has transformed itself from a tiny concern in 1960 into one of the leading players in the dialogue between East and West. In the process, it has produced a canon of Arabic literature in translation unmatched in depth or quality by any publishing house in the world. As it inches closer to its goal of 100 books a year, the institution is looking to take on more non-fiction or, as the avuncular Linz puts it, “scholarly” projects like Kung’s, which aim to present, explain and analyze Arab social, religious, cultural and political idiosyncrasies to the Western world.
“Certainly dialogue is a growing concern. It’s now more important than ever, and it’s amazing how little we know about our neighbors,” he says. “You know, the American experience has not always been very international. But now, of course, their role is more global — and they’d better know what they’re talking about,” he adds, his low but decisive chuckle vibrating through the small Tahrir office.
“Our feeling has always been that cultures, nations and villages best explain themselves to others. Outsiders look and say, ‘OK this is how they do it.’ Ever since we reviewed, organized and redirected the press in 1984, when I was here as a consultant, there’s been a surprising interest in the region. [It’s not just in] the last couple of years, the post-9/11 years. After that, of course, the interest in- creased — perhaps for all the wrong reasons. I think AUC Press has made a difference [in presenting the Arab world]. There’s definitely more interest.”
But with a staggering million or so books published every year around the world, by Linz’s estimate, and less than one percent of those Arabic works in translation, who decides which books best represent the Arab and Middle Eastern world and therefore get to be part of that privileged one percent?
“I’ve been in the field of publishing for a very long time, and there’s always a mix of what you think the world should read and what the world or the market tells you it wants to read. This is a very wide-ranging and diversified industry. A million books is hard to believe,” exclaims Linz. “It shows the spirit is alive and well, and those who think we’ve lost everything to the electronic media are only half right. Books and more books are published in larger quantities every year worldwide. It differs from country to country.
“We have to be practical; obviously we don’t want to just produce books. I always say a book isn’t published until it is sold. We want the ideas to be out there. Among our plans [is] a library of Arabic thought in translation. History and philosophy, current affairs; I think it will be a very important contribution to make.”
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
Getting published has never been easy, and in the specialized field of Arabic in translation that AUC Press has chosen to lead, it’s a particularly tough feat. Rejection letters are not uncommon, and Linz intimates the sheer volume of manuscripts that land at the Press’ door is far too big to quantify.
“We don’t look. The answer is too many,” Linz offers with a charming smile. Then, taking on a more serious tone, he continues, “And of course it’s difficult. All publishers want to continue to publish successful authors they or others have published. Secondly, once you’ve decided to become a book publisher in a certain field, you don’t want to just publish the most popular works; you want to also have some leading-edge books to expand the field. And when you do that, it’s a pioneering effort that’s certainly not always possible and not particularly profit- able.”
That invariably means that authors, particularly those who have never been translated, are constantly clamoring to have their names taken on by AUC.
“We are recognized as an important publisher in a particular country,” Linz maintains. “In the areas in which we specialize, authors like to be published by the AUC Press. It’s a prestige thing. And that’s the way it is not only here but also internationally. Nothing wrong with people, other scholars, wanting to be published by Oxford — obviously that has its prestige. We may sell as many copies as Oxford in the end, which is an- other important consideration. We go about selecting the books we publish by renewing [a previous edition of] what comes to us and then going out and proactively soliciting any manuscripts authors might be preparing. For scholarly books, we attend international conferences, [and] we follow journals in which subjects are first explored.”
Still, even this industry veteran says there’s no way anyone in the book business can predict if a book will be met with success on the market unless it was written “by a Nobel winner or an international bestseller.”
“Now some books have their own reader- ship, their own markets,” Linz continues. “For example, a scholarly book published within a scholarly community that tends to know one another, you don’t depend on the book being in every bookstore. On the other end of the spectrum, you want to reach the widest-possible audience for a popular novel. This cannot be forced. A new product, a new author who is translated into several other languages is new on the market and the competition is fierce.”
Moreover, notes Linz, sales and success in publishing are relative matters. “We’ve had the experience now of books being bestsellers and technical or scholarly books which we did not expect to sell in large quantities, but which perhaps have sold more than we expected. To sell 1,000 copies of a scholarly book, that’s a bestseller in a way. And if you sell 10,000 copies of a popular novel, that’s certainly not a bestseller.
“All these experiences, that’s typical of the industry, so there have been lots of successes, lots of failures — there’s a lot of light, a lot of dark. Publishing a selection of books is ultimately not a scientific thing. We make mistakes we sometimes regret: We’ve turned books down and they’ve ended up being published elsewhere, perhaps very success- fully. Not being a commercial publishing house, we are not driven by strictly profit motives. Our aim is to break even on what we do.”
AUC Press may not have set out to be profit-driven, but as the most important American university press outside of the United States, the publishing house has certainly proved to be a very successful business model.
“We said from the beginning we want to play this by international publishing rules. So in the world markets, yes, we have com- petition. In Egypt and the Middle East, less so. There are few publishing houses publishing books in the English language on the scale that we do,” Linz announces proudly. “The markets here are also much smaller for English-language books — growing but still not comparable to Arabic readers. Internationally, though, there are competitors we should be afraid of, considering the books we publish. The international marketplace — it’s just huge. In the end, there’s only so much money to go around.”
NOTABLE NAMES
The feather in AUC Press’ cap was undoubtedly the deal it struck in 1985 with the biggest name in modern Arabic literature: Naguib Mahfouz.
“We’ve done 31 of Mahfouz’s books so far, and there was always talk about doing 40. We actually have six in active translation including Karnak Café and Morning and Evening Talk. Mahfouz always said he didn’t need to have his entire repertoire translated, but that’s not what we think. We’re doing three books at the same time this fall — three on Naguib Mahfouz. Among them we have translations of the two works that just came out by Gamal El-Ghitany and Mohammed Salmawy.”
And what after Mahfouz?
“There’s a plan for the entire Arabic literature program, which we started in 1985 when we signed up Naguib Mahfouz and which was to build up a canon of modern Arabic literature,” explains Linz. “There are the classic writers including Yusuf Idris and Latifa El-Zayyat, but also those most important current authors — many of them are in Egypt, but we also have Moroccan writers, Algerian and several Iraqi writers, now Saudi Arabian and some novels from the Gulf. It’s difficult to anticipate what becomes hugely popular. Alaa El-Aswany’s book [The Yacoubian Building] is an example. There are others we know who have very high literary quality and have an acceptance in the English-speak- ing world, but who are more modest in sales. This is true for all writing, whether it’s French or German, English or Arabic.
“There are 70 or 80 other authors whom we publish. This season we have an Iraqi writer on Basra, a Saudi writer — that’s a spectacular a novel,” he says. “Then there’s another Iraqi writer, the book by Sahar Khalifeh, this is the book that won the Naguib Mahfouz award that’s just out ... we’ve got about a dozen new books out. In the fall, there is again a very substantial list of Arabic literature including Idris Ali, Salwa Bakr, Ibrahim Nasrallah, a new paperback edition of Ahlam Mosteghanemi’s Chaos of the Senses. Also a big, big edition of Fuad Al-Takarli, the Iraqi writer, and there’s a second Sahar Khalifeh coming end of spring.”
No longer primarily drawing its biggest players from the local pool, AUC Press is adding a growing fleet of writers from the Arab world and the Middle East to its repertoire. The undertaking is not to be treated lightly.
“One particular role we have taken on since 1985 is to also license and promote these books in other languages, so we actually take on the responsibility to publish in English and to license all foreign languages, except Arabic, of course,” explains Linz. “And that has been very, very important. In Mahfouz’s case, it resulted in 40 languages [and] 500 foreign-language editions. All other authors are offered this service. It is very difficult, but the fact that people get the works in English allows many more publishers to decide whether or not they might be interested in eventually publishing a translation. So this is a major effort to promote Arabic literature worldwide in English and other foreign languages. We’ve done it. We keep doing it, and we want to continue our leading role in this area.”
Walk into any specialty foreign-language bookstore in Europe or North America, and visitors are likely to find AUC Press books taking pride of place. “I’ve had both experiences,” Linz notes. “I walk in and say, ‘God, where are all our books?’ and ‘Oh my heavens, there are all our books here.’”
For maximum exposure, AUC Press also partners with reputable publishers to produce volumes with specific themes it sees relevant to its repertoire. “For obvious reasons we end up being the choice for Egyptology, archaeology [and] Ancient Egypt, whether we publish the books ourselves or in cooperation with other publishers,” Linz explains. “Books about Ancient Egypt are published all over the world and they’re significant. So people connect with us, and we might cooperate in development of such books because our editorial department is close to the source. Generally, publishers share the markets — some take the European markets, others North America, we take Egypt and the Middle East. And for large, illustrated expensive books, that’s a custom that’s been going on for many decades in the international publishing world, co-editions [produced by more than one publishing house].
“Our editions have the advantage of being the least expensive. The same book that in New York costs $80 may cost here $60. We insist on making books available here at a price lower than the inter- national standards, but of course much higher than the Egyptian standard simply because we have a different approach. We do in-depth editing of books, design and production and we try to do international marketing. This is different than taking a manuscript, printing it and putting it on the market as quickly and cheaply as possible.”
In addition to co-editions, the Press also syndicates books that aren’t necessarily published by AUC. This doesn’t mean any book under the sun, Linz cautions.
“We’re very selective about it. We like to select books from other publishers which nevertheless are the kinds of books we could have published. We make them available the same way we make our own books avail- able: through catalogues, through our sales representatives. That happens in publishing. Good publishers reach different markets. We’ve made arrangements for some of our authors, Naguib Mahfouz for example, and also most recently Alaa El-Aswany, to be published by us but then later on by paperback publishers in the United States and the UK, so much wider audiences are reached.
“We are also involved in the electronic world to some extent; we’re doing it now with other book editors who offer our books to library markets or education markets online. That’s again customary, particularly for scholarly books. We have gone into the CD business, and some of our language books now have CDs bound in.”
Here in Egypt, AUC Press books are set to reach a wider audience once the new campus opens in fall 2008 and the current bookstore in Tahrir is opened to the public.
“The new campus is a very exciting development for AUC. Of course, we are a specialty institution and people are unlikely to just walk in off the street, but it’s important that we’re accessible to both the English speakers in Cairo and the English-speaking community, which includes a large number of Egyptians who like to read in English as well as other foreign languages which we also sometimes carry. And of course all visitors to Egypt should have access to something that they’re familiar with. So we’ll try to strike a balance between orderly security concerns and want- ing to engage openly with the public.”
Along with the expansion in focus, AUC Press is also growing its staff to accommodate the increasing volume of works being considered for publication.
“By now, of course, we have developed a group of translators we can rely on. It’s very difficult to find good translators of literary works anywhere, and we have developed contacts with publishers interested in foreign languages,” says Linz, whose 60-strong outfit boasts “an increasingly professional staff in the editorial field, in the commercial production field and in the international sales and marketing field. This has not been easy to do. One of our accomplishments is to develop talented, interested people to become professional. We need more and better people all the time. We’re very proud of the fact that we’ve developed and are doing international publishing right here in Cairo. It’s easy to find a new accountant, which we also need, but it’s not easy to find an experienced international book editor in Cairo except by chance.”
Among Linz’s newest hires is Mirette F. Mabrouk, one of the nation’s most senior English-language journalists and publishers. An AUC graduate and veteran of the independent press, Mabrouk was a top writer before being appointed managing editor and later publishing director of Egypt Today and Business Today Egypt, among other titles published by IBA Media. After more than a decade working at the glossies, she went on to become founding publisher of the Daily Star Egypt in 2005. Mabrouk joined AUC Press as an associate director in late spring.
And it’s this highly experienced staff that has helped the AUC Press avoid unpleasant friction with censorship authorities, at least here in Egypt. “Over the years we’ve had relatively few issues with the censors’ office which is still a remaining part of the customs process in Egypt. So the books that are officially reviewed for censorship are the books that we import. Every country has its own rules of importing books; you submit sample copies, information in advance and so on, and this is very cumbersome. It proves that books are still important, I guess, if people are afraid of them or people don’t think they are good for their citizens.
“We of course believe in free access to all information and we here, like any other Egyptian publisher, are free to publish. We run the risk maybe of being assassinated in the press for publishing a bad book, but that’s true everywhere in the world. You’ve got to be open to the critical assessment of your books. But you’re also subject to being hauled into court. That also happens everywhere in the world, if a book is libellous or maintains something that is not true. And we have the additional feature of being fatwa-ed and declared unwanted. This happened of course to Naguib Mahfouz, who was stabbed for publishing or wanting to publish a book that Al-Azhar may not like.
“Life is short and publishing work is important. Not everything is going to work out perfect, and publishers are very practical. We are passionate about the things we like to publish, but we’ve got to do it in a very professional way. In the end your reputation develops because the reviewers or critics or the scholars talk about your books.”
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