Publishers in the Arab world don’t often bring editorial skills to the table, and the editor pool is thin
The Arab world’s literary industry has made major strides in the last five years, particularly as the United Arab Emirates has revved up its status as the region’s cultural hub. Sharjah, the powerhouse publishing emirate ruled by the author Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi and his publisher-daughter the Sheikha Bodour bint Al Qasimi, is a player not only on the executive council of the International Publishers Association but also in its literacy programs.
But at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, which closed on May 1, many in the area’s publishing industry spoke to us about a weak link in the region’s work: book editing. The tradition in the region is for authors to pay publishers to produce very small runs—often between 100 and 300 copies—of their books. Editorial services aren’t part of the package and are largely unavailable.
“Many publishers in this part of the world are little more than printers,” we were told by Flora Rees, the education and publishing head at the Emirates Literature Foundation. With a background at Hachette and BBC Books in her native UK, Rees helps produce literacy-promoting events annually staged by the foundation. What’s developing is a double bind: traditions in the Middle East also don’t include literary agents, the professionals who would be most likely to (a) work on an author’s manuscripts and (b) advocate for professional editing services as part of an author’s contract. The lack of agents has to do with the very low rates paid to authors.
There’s also a question of how much editing the authors in the region are prepared to accept. Rees says that during a panel discussion at the Abu Dhabi fair, “it was also suggested that many authors would refuse in-depth editing, although personally I’ve had a number of conversations with published Arabic authors who see its immense value and would love to have the editorial relationship they’ve seen fellow writers experience elsewhere. My impression is that many publishers would appreciate greater editorial input in their lists, but the available editor pool isn’t yet big enough.”
Bottom line: There’s a distinct trade deficit for Arabic literature relative to the rest of the world. Last November, UAE publisher Rewayat was releasing first Arabic translations of Capote’s In Cold Blood, Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending, and more. While the International Prize for Arabic Fiction each year honors an author with US$50,000, it then has to search for a publisher willing to translate the winning book into English and publish it. There’s an opportunity for publishing pros who’d like to work in Arabic and are interested in a booming region of the world. The best-selling authors in Arabic may be the ones who find a way to cultivate, along with their publishers, a new standard of editorial quality.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
