Books and Publishing in Pakistan: a study

book piracy...contd

2006-06-11T01:36:00.000-07:00

While working oh this project i came accross several people with varying shades of opinion on the issue of book piracy. Almost 90% students agreed that book piracy is indeed a blessing for them where text books are concerned.

According to one Med school student, she wouldnt have been able to take admission if she had to buy all the originals. "Only a handful of people actually go out and buy the originals"

"But don't you think that denies the authors their rights?"

"I guess yes....but what difference does it make to those millionaire authors if just a few Pakistani students don't buy their originals which are stupidly over priced?"

"The government should be helping in this matter, maybe perhaps they can arrange for low price editions of expensive titles or maybe they can import second hand books or maybe they can buy the books in bulk and provide them at subsidized rates"

but that ofcourse is just wishful thinking....what is it that we can do??

"We can avoid buying pirated versions even if we have to pay slightly a bit more amount..."

But then again....not everyone can afford that 'slightly a bit more' amount even. on an average an original med book would cost 3000+ rupees, and the pirated version will cost of a measley 500 rupees...is it a bad bargain then??

Something needs to be done seriously in this regard.

Piracy- part II

2006-06-09T01:35:00.000-07:00

Here goes the research I did on book piracy in Pakistan:

Book Piracy and Copyright Laws in Pakistan

Copy-right Laws

The Copyright Ordinance of 1962 came into force in 1967 in Pakistan and has been in effect since then. A number of conditions are given in the ordinance which determines when a work is in violation of copyright.

Pakistan is also a member of Berne Convention on copyright as well as the Universal Copyright Convention.

The boom in the education industry created a vast market for text books, both for primary and professional levels. Where the primary sector is largely catered to by the local text book boards, there is a serious dearth for books on professional subjects like medical, engineering or business. Thus increased the demand for foreign books. Due to import limitations the prices of these books were totally out of reach of an average Pakistani student. The National Book Foundation was set up to reprint and translate foreign titles with the permission of the original publisher. This was to make the prices affordable and within reach. But even this effort was not as successful as hoped because most of the reprinted titles were either obsolete or were very old editions.

The grave vacuum in the industry was sensed by the pirates and so began a very successful industry of pirated books. Almost all major tiles were reprinted illegally and were sold at a fraction of the original price. Not only were text books pirated but the recent years have seen a number of local and international fiction works being pirated even before the release of original tiles in paper back.

The release of the Harry Potter books can be taken as a classic example of this case. The book was all set to be released on 12^th of August and there was a huge hype surrounding its release. Almost all major book stores throughout the world had millions of books booked prior to the release. Even in Pakistan, a couple of leading bookstores were providing the facility of pre-ordering the book and getting a nominal discount. The price of the book was 1450 Pak rupees. But what do the pirates offer? The pirated version was in market the very next morning on a shameful price of 300 Pak rupees! A huge difference of 1150 rupees between the prices! Of course people didn’t consider it to be a bad bargain.

The trend of illegally reproducing books is not limited to international bestsellers. Usually one doesn’t find the pirated version of books by Pakistani authors so easily but there is a market for such books as well. Tehmina Durrani’s My Feudal Lord, Bapsi Sidhwa’s An American Brat, are only but two examples.

When asked about the situation, Bapsi Sidhwa, a leading Pakistani English prose writer, says “Piracy is a problem because of the steep prices. However some pirates are developing a conscience and assigning my previously pirated books to publishers. They have made a packet off me, but so long as books are read, I don't mind as much as I should. If we have more publishers and a larger reading public, the prices could be better controlled.”

There have been numerous raids in the past and recently too at Urdu Bazaar for selling pirated books but all that is merely just a show and nothing has yet been done to seriously think of a solution. The piracy industry is deeply rooted and cannot be curbed with a few raids on shops which don’t even print those books

Piracy- part I

2006-06-09T01:23:00.000-07:00

A trip to the local book stores is always a much awaited one every summer, so i went on one yesterday.
Apart from many other thing, I was surprised to note that the number of pirated titles has actually declined. But on the same hand, it was yet another surprise to find pirated versions of many Pakistani authors. Previously only reference books or international best sellers could be found in 'local print and Pakistani authors' books continued to sell at exhorbitant rates of 400+.
But now we can easily get a Tehmina Durrani, Kamila Shamsie or Bapsi Sidhwa work for within a hundred rupee!

On a positive note, I refrained from buying any pirated books althought the prices of the originals limited the number of my purchases. whatever the reasons be, i bought the original titles.
yay to fight against piracy!

OUTline

2006-06-04T04:36:00.000-07:00

So here's the outline i have for the article:

Chapter title: Books

1- Introduction

2- A short history of books in Pakistan

i) Pre-partition era:

a: First book in Urdu

b: Poetry as a popular form of writing

c: Famous Urdu prose writers and their impact on the Muslim community

d: Efforts by various authors to raise awareness in Muslims through their books

e: Sindhi books

f: Change in the industry after the First and the Second World War

ii) Post-partition era:

a: Revolutionary writers in Urdu and other regional languages.

b: Criticisms and banned books

c: Post-partition authors and poets

d: Translations from English to Urdu

iii) Printing industry in its early days

References: Zafar Mansoor, Publishing Industry in Pakistan

3- Urdu Books

i) The beginning

[reference; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdu_literature]

ii) Fiction

a: Popular Urdu prose writers

b: Popularity of low cost ‘thriller’ books

c: Formula writers in Urdu

d: Translations from English to Urdu

iii) Non-fiction

a: Travelogues e.g. Mustansar Hussain Tarar

b: Biographies

c: Religious books

d: Current affairs books

e: Translations of great works in English into Urdu

f: Adaptations of TV shows e.g. Dr. Shahid Masood

iv) Poetry

a: Poetry as a significant part of Urdu literature

b: Famous poets and their contribution to the society

c: Translations of English poetry into Urdu and vice versa.

v) Children’s Literature

a: Folk tales in Urdu

b: Books on religion for children

c: Popular story books

d: Character building books

e: Books on Child related issues by NGOs like ROZAN.

vi) Readership

a: change in readership over time

b: Shift towards English

c: Dearth of good writers in Urdu

4- Regional Books

i) Sindhi

a: Rich Sindhi Literature in Pakistan : First Sindhi novel, Zeenat

b: Poetry

c: Translations into Sindhi and from Sindhi

f: Famous Sindhi writers; Mirza Qalich Beg, Hyder Bux Jatoi etc

[Ref;

ii) Punjabi

a: Pioneers of Punjabi literature: Waris Shah and Bulleh Shah

b: Current situation

c: Readership

[Ref; http://www.apnaorg.com/]

iii) Pashto

References: http://www.khyber.org/articles/2003/PashtoLiterature-AQuestforIden.shtml,

http://www.geocities.com/scn_pk/ahmadjan.html,

http://lrrc3.sas.upenn.edu/heston/literature/classical.html]

5- English Books

i)Fiction

a: The first cohesive modern English novel- The Murder of Aziz Khan by Zulfikar Ghose

b: Award winning English language fiction writers e.g. Nadeem Aslam, Adam Zameenzad, Hanif Kureishi, and Bapsi Sidhwa

c: The younger lot e.g. Kamila Shmasie and Bina Shah

d: The subject matter of Englsih novels

e: Popularity

f: Debate- Why is it that almost all English language writers of Pakistani authors write from abroad?

[Ref; http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/001935.html, http://www.the-south-asian.com/Nov2004/Pakistani_literature_short_story_1.htm, www.threemonkeys.com]

ii) Non-fiction

a: Politics and Current affairs e.g. Tariq Ali

b: Books on culture and History e.g. Dawn groups ‘Karachi: Past and Present’ series

c: Social issues

d: Religious books e.g. Darussalam Publications

e: Translated works

f: Biographies

iii) Children’s Literature

a: Lack of quality books

b: Mo’s Star by Mehnaz Malik

[Ref; An Anthology Of Pakistani Writings in English by Muniza Naqvi[

6- Major Publishing Houses in Pakistan

i) Sang-e-Meel

ii) Paramount

iii) Al-Hamra

iv) Oxford

v) Ferozesons

7- Emerging Trends

i) the emergence of e-books

a: cheap

b: easy to access

ii) reading clubs in schools and universities

e.g. book club in Karachi University

[Ref; Sir Fahim of the International relations dept]

iii) book fairs

a: the first International Book Fair in Karachi

b: regular book fairs in schools, universities

c: popularity of places like Frere Hall and Koocha-e-Saqafat

iv) mobile bookshops

a: first mobile bookshop- Welcome book port

b: the Oxford Mobile Bookshop

v) Online book stores like Liberty Books

a: door step delivery

b: discount on online purchase

vi) low price editions of expensive books

vii) online book clubs

[Ref; Pak Book Bloggers Club initiated by Tooba Mehboob, Orkut Book Club moderated by Sabaa Ali]

8- Issues

i) Book Piracy and Copyright laws in Pakistan

a: Book piracy as a grave issue

b: Books being sold at a quarter of the original price

c: Majority of reference books being copied and sold openly

d: Raids at Urdu bazaar

e: A possible solution

ii) Incentives for writers

a: there is no encouragement whatsoever by the government

iii) Plagiarism

a: A lot of people simply reproduce what others wrote

b: Authors hire writers who reproduce from the internet

c: lack of original thought

iv) Decline in reading habits

a: Television as the book’s enemy

b: no place for a book in the fast paced digital life

v) Lack of libraries in the country

a: public libraries are in a deplorable state

b: the neighborhood libraries have vanished

c: most libraries only have reference books

vi) Censorship of books in Pakistan

[Ref; Mirza, Copyright and Book Piracy- A country report on Pakistan, various issues of Dawn, Books and Authors]

Pakastani Authors......

2006-05-25T03:32:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to find out more about english language authors of Pakistani origin I tried to dig out a list of names. Quite surprisingly the result was very impressive. We have a considerable number of writers for fiction and non-fiction both as well as for poetry. Many political comentaries, religious works, travelogues, poetry collections and novels and short story collections have been published. What was quite disappointing was the fact that a significant number of these authors are based out side Pakistan and publish their works from their host countries. One such name is that of Adam Zameenzad, who although of Pakistani origin, has no links whatsoever with his parent country. So much so that hardly anyone save for those in the literary scene know of this talented writer. This is what I found on his official website.

Adam Zameenzad was born in Pakistan and spent his early childhood in Nairobi. He went to university in Lahore, Pakistan, becoming a lecturer there. He then took two years off to travel around Europe and the Americas before coming to live and work in the UK.

He has had five novels published: The Thirteenth House (winner of the David Higham Prize); My Friend Matt and Hena the Whore; Love, Bones and Water; Cyrus Cyrus; Gorgeous White Female. His latest work is Pepsi and Maria, a novel about the lives of street children.

His novels have been translated into many languages. In his writings he tends to portray the lives of social outcasts, loners, losers, the deprived and the dispossessed. He aims to give voice to the voiceless, reshape and re-form those distorted by time and circumstance, embrace the rejects of this world, dignify 'trash' - white, tinted or tainted - and make visible the invisible.

He has also had many short stories published in many anthologies, and poems in certain magazines

To get to know this author better, I emailed him to ask more about his latest work and whether any of his writings have been inspired from Pakistan. This is what he said:

PEPSI and MARIA, my last book, is about street children in Latrin America in
general, though mostly inspired by Mexico in particular.

Unfortunately my books are not generally available. I am one of those
writers who, for better or worse, get good critical acclaim, but do not sell
in great quantity. Most likely because I write about the troubled and
unfortunates of the world, not very popular in the current celebrity
obsessed consumerist culture of the west. Neither do Pakistanis or Indians
find me entirely acceptable as I often, though not always, write about the
sufferings of all kinds of people, all over the world, regardless of colour
or ethinicity. Some find it a betrayal of my homeland. That is not my
intention or disposition. It is just that human suffering, poverty and
oppression anywhere and everywhere concern me rather passionately.

As to whether writers from the old Indian sub-continent receive any
recognition, it chiefly depends on whether they make money or not. That
applies to native western writers as well. Everything these days is 'market
orientated', which means how it sells. That might seem a bit cynical, but is
a fact recognised by most concerned. It is getting more and more difficult
even to get publoished unless publishers can smell money. No longer is it
the decision of an editor as to the literary qualities of a manuscript. The
decision is taken by a board of directors, the final say being with
accountants.

Interview with Bapsi Sidhwa

2006-05-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

Bapsi Sidhwa is the author of four internationally acclaimed novels. She lives in Houston, Texas, but was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and raised in Lahore. She graduated from Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore, and began writing in her twenties after the birth of two children.

In 1978, at a time when publishing in English was practically non-existent in Pakistan, Sidhwa self-published her novel The Crow Eaters. Since then, The Crow Eaters has been published and translated in numerous Eurapean and Asian countries. While The Bride was the first novel Sidhwa wrote, it was the second to be published. Cracking India, Sidhwa's third novel, was declared a New York Times Notable Book for1991, received the LiBerature Prize in Germany and was nominated by the American Library Association as a Notable Book the same year. An American Brat, was published in 1993.

Following is an excerpt from a short interview of Mis. Sidhwa taken by myself:

First of all, your first novel was published when there was hardly any concept of english authors from Pakistan and despite that you got international appreciation. What was the response at home? And being a Parsi and a Pakistani, what problems did you face in early years as a writer? Was there an issue of acceptability?

When I self-published Crow Eaters in Lahore, I had to peddle the book from shop to shop and the rare reviews were dismal. Most writers though loved it, specially Faiz, Ashfaq, Bano Qudsia. Once the book was published by Cape in UK, the slew of positive reviews changed the perception in Pak. and I was suddenly commented on favorably and interviewed as a celebrity. There is a slight problem being Parsi. Some reviewers harp on it to discredit me, saying things like 'Can you be a true Pakistani as a Parsee? etc.' It is v. hurtful, but fortunately there are not too many such people. There is a warmer feeling for Muslim writers in general. But I shouldn't quibble because on the whole I have been embraced and lionized.

Pirated book stalls are like a haven for avid readers because they are at a quarter of a fraction of the real cost. It obviously affects sales. What can authors do to prevent this from happening? Moreover, why aren’t prices kept to suit the pocket of an average Pakistani?

Piracy is a problem because of the steep prices. However some pirates are developing a conscience and assigning my previously pirated books to publishers. They have made a packet off me, but so long as books are read, I don't mind as much as I should. If we have more publishers and a larger reading public, the prices could be better controlled.

Finally, do you think much is being done to promote english language authors in Pakistan?

The small increase in publishers encourages writers and the media is kind and encouraging for the most part. Schools and Colleges should be teaching/assigning the books on a regular basis. The professors are scared of teaching my novels because of censorship fears. We are too squeamish about even mild sexual content.

Introduction

2006-05-05T04:25:00.000-07:00

This blog will basically be a collection of findings on the Books and Publishing industry of Pakistan. A rich literary background but a dying taste for books is what characterizes this industry.
What was and what is it now? Where do we stand? Who were the pioneers of the industry?
Nothing profound, but this will be a humble attempt to join the dots and draw the picture.