Abu Dhabi Offers $1,000 for Rights Deals

Publishers who attend the 2009 Abu Dhabi international Book Fair (ADIBF) and enter into a rights agreement – either to translate to or from Arabic – will be able to take advantage of a $1,000 subsidy. The money needs to be used to pay for rights or royalties; $250 is payable on agreement, while the remaining $750 will be withheld until a finished copy of the book is delivered to the organization.

The scheme is the latest edition to the ADBIF, which now enters its third year in partnership with the FBF. Earlier today, at a “Tea Time” presentation, director Jumaa Al Qubaisi, explained that the ADIBF was “Trying to create a circle of culture, which includes the book fair and KALIMA, the translation project, Sheik Zaid Book Awards. the distribution system is very critical and important. We’re working on a project to open libraries around the UAE and reach out to remote areas to promote culture and reading,” adding, “People will say it is very difficult to accomplish what you want to there, but we reply that we’ve done ten years of work in two years.”

Among other new initiatives at next year’s Fair is an expanded slate of author events. Among those already confirmed are Swedish mystery writer Henning Mankell and Amitav Ghosh.

Seth Russo, Middle East sales director for Scholastic, attended to the ADIBF for the first time in 2007 and came away impressed.

“It’s perhaps the most beautiful book fair you’ll ever see,””he said, making particular reference to its location in a new state-of-the-art conference center.

Statistically speaking, it makes sense for a publisher to take an interest in the region: “The population of the Middle East is 275 million and is fast growing, the birthrate is twice the average of the developed world and 63 per cent are under the age of 29. There 750 schools in the region with the concentration in the UAE, over 450K students enrolled. ministries of education”, he said.

Claudia Kaiser, general manager of KITAB, said that the biggest challenge for KITAB and the ADIBF is not so much logistic – such as helping to establish a distribution system for books, something that is sorely needed in the region, as it is cultural.

“There just isn’t a culture of reading in Middle East”, she said. “That’s what we’re working hard to change.”

Tags: ADIBF, translation

Posted in Book Fair, book industry