While demand for e-books seems to have waned in most parts of the world in favor of the print counterpart, the trend seems to remain in effect in the middle-east, the website Zawya reported. As Arab publishers at the 12th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) Publishers Conference have revealed, the digital format of the books, be it in audio or print format continues to witness strong growth. The publishers said the advent of digital printing technology is making it easier for them to tap the younger generation with e-book and audiobook formats of popular titles.
As Ali Abdelmoneim Mohamed Ahmed, Digital Publishing Consultant with Liberty Education UK, Egypt, UAE, said, sales of digital copies of classic titles increased by 14 percent last year in Egypt, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. According to Ali, online publications too have increased by 50 percent.
“More publishers are offering platforms online with their books having digital versions. Partnering with audio-ready platforms like Storytel and Audible are also helping publishers find new audiences,” Ali further added.
Publishers have also attributed the high growth rate to them entering the digital publishing segment comparatively later than say the United States. This has led to the scenario where there is a huge demand for digital content while publishers still haven’t scaled up their operations to be able to meet the demand.
“We publish less than one million book titles annually for 450 million people. We produced 8,000 audiobooks last year while the US markets had 75,000 audio titles. Despite a large interest from readers, only 10 percent of Arabic books are currently digitized. The e-book market is steadily increasing in demand and we need to tap into its potential,” Ali added.
Another reason publishers aren’t yet able to meet the rising demand is online piracy, and the rather lax regulations to deal with the issue in the Arabic world aren’t helping things either. Publishers fear their digital content might get copied by unfair means leading to losses for the publishers. A few means that might prove effective in dealing with unscrupulous duplication of digital content were also discussed. Those include using visual and non-visual watermarks, allowing e-books and audiobooks to be deciphered only by subscribers, using content management systems and so on.
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