The Necessity of Water of Life in Iran's Publishing Area
The Necessity of Water of Life in Iran's Publishing Area
The fifth gathering of Nations Culture Era meetings on "Digital Publishing; Upcoming Future in Iran and World" was held by Alhoda Institute in Iran's House of Artists, Amirkhani Hall, on January 19, 2015. It was attended by Amin Naderi (Sureh Mehr Electronic Department representative), Majid Qasemi (Director of Fidibo) and Hussein Sheikh ul-Eslami (representative of Chekkeh Publishing Co.).
Naderi, as the first speaker, explained about his own idea about generalities of electronic publishing. He announced 1966 as the year when electronic publishing emerged in the United States and described the late decades of the 20th century as the years in which this type of publication was developed. For him electronic publishing includes any digital file available and useable for people such as the software and mobile phone applications, etc.
He also added, "According to statistics published by U.S. Publishers Association the total share of electronic publishing in the global market of books has increased from 0.6% in 2008 to 6.2% in 2010." He seriously rejected the notion that someday the conventional publishing will be replaced by electronic publishing because they are complement to each other.
For him the security of current bedrock of the electronic publishing, either for authors or for publishers and readers, is weak. On the other hand, he said that authors in the world can provide their works directly for readers without any publisher involvement; however, it is understated in Iran.
Another speaker of the gathering was Majid Qasemi, the Director of FIDIBO system, who referred to the necessity of the electronic publishing for the modern society of Iran. He started with some explanations about his own specialty and FIDIBO store and said, "Indeed, FIDIBO is the system of production, distribution, maintenance and sell of e-books which will not be restricted to Persian Language and Iran." According to his remarks, this system intends to achieve the position of the biggest producer and publisher of content across the Middle East in the 5 coming years. He also added, "Wiley Publishing's books will be available on FIDIBO for purchase very soon and readers will not need to refer to Amazon anymore."
He described futile comparison of e-publishing with paper-based publishing and said, "They has their own different space and audiences; however, extension and development of e-publishing has resulted in increased financial transactions for its paper-based counterpart." Qasemi referred to a training workshop to be held in the coming spring in which international publishers will be attended.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Qasemi said, "There is a proper content in the country, so using a proper marketing based on international rules publishers can experience an active presence in the international publishing area."
As he explained, the problems of distribution and inaccessibility to books in most cities of the country are the reasons for why the per capita book reading is low in Iran. He added, "E-books at lease provide at least a condition in which all book fans across the country can access their beloved books."
On his perception of e-publishing, Hussein Sheikh ul-Eslami, content expert of Chekkeh Publishing Co. and researcher of children and young adults books, said, "The history of e-publishing, as a mean to transfer books through electronic route, dates back to almost 20 years ago and book-reading devices such as kindles which emerged in 1998 are older than tablets which are now available for everybody. What is important today is smart publishing issue. FIDIBO can be referred as the pioneer institute in e-publishing in Iran. Following the exact process promoted about 20 years ago for the e-publishing, this website compensates the lack of Amazon for a country where suffers from sanctions."
"The smart publishing has been welcomed by public since early 21st century and even in a country like Iran which suffers from sanctions, users use it 40 million hours/day. Users are learning how to alter their thinking, behavioral and moral habits in terms of this new publishing platform, because it is impossible to include only the former reading procedure to measure the per capita book reading. For example, a book for us is a collection of words and terms which have been exactly created by the author; while in smart publishing we have games, motions, music and multi-media which have been sketched by an author and it is children/audiences who create their own story and enjoy its excitements. In fact, a smart book involves a mutual influence and the designer needs to manage it."
Elsewhere in his remarks, Sheikh ul-Eslami added, "As a children books critic and a book fan, I need to confess here that the problem from which our cultural economy suffers in the smart-publishing is very deeper that what we had experienced so far, because we are able to communicate people of other countries, to use international products and to change the reading behavior through smart publishing without any intermediate. Today, we have the necessary infrastructures for the e-publishing river so we just need to direct the water of life to this river. However, it only restricts to mentality of policy makers and producers and publishers who are responsible to open new and successful ways for the e-publishing."
"E-books market is very broad and successful. Publishers can transfer its products or share them with another market. This mind changing on the global markets is the point must be regarded," he said.
As a member of Children and Young Adult Writers Association, he answered a question about the philosophical effect of the digital publishing, "Interactions among contents and readers is a very ancient agenda in the history of philosophy and "reading" has always been a sacred thing and it has experienced several ranges. Today, text has become a flowing current which can be seen everywhere. Newspapers, for examples, are the product of daily facts; however, after digitalization the text's route has changed completely. At the same time, texts have words but it is audience who plays a key role in formation of texts. In fact, the e-texts have converted books from a property that completely belonged to its creator to a puzzle whose writer is only a part of it and the puzzle is completed during reading."
The fifth gathering of Nations Culture Era meetings on "Digital Publishing; Upcoming Future in Iran and World" was attended by a group of writers, poets, publishers and some members of Children and Young Adults Writers Association.
