Arab publishing is maturing into its own. In the midst of this exciting time, Ramy Habeeb of Kotobarabia outlines the ways that Arab publishing is unique and shares his vision for its future. In this speech, Habeed expresses his belief that digital formats can overcome some of the hurdles in distribution and censorship, he also cites specific examples of encouraging developments, including his own publishing house. Overall, Habeeb offers an optimistic and passionate call to consider this emerging market ripe for new investment.
Habeeb's speech also identifes some of the obstacles confronting the Arab publishing market. Specifically he sees potential barriers in the areas of distribution, censorship and preservation. These are explained by an axamination of the the cultural, economic and political differences in the systems of publishing in the Arab world vis-à-vis the West.
Ramy Habeeb graduated from McGill University with a double major in Literature and Religious Studies, after which he lived in Okinawa, Japan for three years. Returning to Egypt in 2004, Ramy saw that Egyptian Literature was not reaching an international audience due to two disadvantages the local publishing industry had yet to overcome: Distribution and Censorship. Seeking to bypass these problems, he established Kotobarabia.com in September 2004, becoming the first Arabic language e-book publishing house in the Middle East.
Through the Internet, Kotobarabia’s books can reach Arabic readers anywhere in the world at the click of a button. Furthermore, due to the lack of Internet regulations, Kotobarabia is able to publish books that have previously been banned by local governments, publishing books from all religions and political opinions side by side. To date, Kotobarabia has acquired the e-rights to over 1,300 Arab authors and has digitized over 5,000 titles. Ramy’s vision is to build a Library of Alexandria that cannot be burned down, preserving and distributing Arabic literature for people today and generations to come. In April 2007, Ramy was awarded Egyptian Young Publisher of the Year by the British Council.
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