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ePublishing, the Arab World and What's Next...

What's This?
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When talking about the Arabic Publishing Industy...
New technologies have yet to be adopted...
ePublishing is space age there...

So let's get a little overview of the industry as a whole
 Taha Hussien Once Said

Egyptians write, Lebanese publish, Iraqis read. 

25 countries and over 325 million Arabic speakers.
Each country has its own publishing industry that is very much isolated to its own borders.
Estimated 60,000 new titles published each year throughout the Arab world – however accurate statistics are hard to come by.
In Egypt, roughly 55% ISBN usage.  The rest of the titles either don’t have an identification number or use local IDs only. 
High illiteracy

Hardly any subsidiary rights trading takes place either between Arab publishers and Western publishers or other Arab publishers. Few exceptions do exist – IE: AUC press, Sharouk, etc.,…
Distribution is weak – generally only titles published in that Arab country are available.
Censorship is difficult to navigate.  Different countries have different censorship laws and regulations. 

In a Nutshell - 
we are the first arabic epublishers

we have digitized over 8,000 titles

represent over 1,300 authors

Digitized over 11 million pages 
Censorship?
On Purpose
Accidental (Self)
B to C
B to B
and
Online subscriptions
Skipped a Step
Information 
vs 
Networking
What can we do about it?
Dialogue
Introduce New Technologies
More Events
Take a Chance
Use Culture to Your Advantage.