The New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies Center for Publishing today announced that it will host a series of professional publishing seminars beginning this fall for Arab publishers. The venture will be hosted in partnership with KITAB, a joint venture of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage and the Frankfurt Book Fair, and will be conducted by NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing faculty from New York. It will hosted at NYU’s new campus in Abu Dhabi. Andrea Chambers, director of the NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing told PW the program came about after she visited the Abu Dhabi book fair in March, met with publishing executives in the region, and was struck by the opportunities--and the challenges--for publishing in the Middle East, a relatively nascent industry, Cambers notes, with still largely untapped market potential.
The first seminar will be held from November 6-11, 2010, with two more in the works for spring and fall of 2011. The initial participating faculty members will include Peter Balis (John Wiley & Sons), Philip Patrick (Random House), and Mario Pulice (Little, Brown). The first seminars will focus on the “challenges of developing a targeted publishing strategy; best practices for marketing, sales, distribution, and graphic design; and digital publishing, including social media, mobile, and the use of digital media in libraries and academia in the Arab region.”
Publishing in the Arab world has made strides in recent years, bolstered by an influx of investment in both education, and in the industry‘s infrastructure. The region hosts a number of book fairs, with three major fairs in the United Arab Emirates alone: in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah. But Arab publishing efforts have been limited by a range of professional issues.
“Enabling the region’s emerging publishing industry to compete and communicate at an international level relies on building confidence and competency,” noted Monkia Krauss general manager of KITAB, which was chartered to address these very issues. Krauss said that with some 300 million people, and with English commonly spoken, the Arab region also represents an opportunity for American publishers, and that the professional training seminars will hopefully foster a professional exchange, addressing challenges in the Arab industry while also opening the eyes of American publishers to opportunities in the region. “Creating awareness is also very important,” Krauss said. “It is small steps, but continuous steps.”
