Publishing Trends in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran

Pakistan

Pakistan remains the focal point of the region's political turmoil. Over the year, instability adversely affected the Pakistan publishing industry. The number of titles, number of copies printed, and breadth of subjects published continues its sharp decline. Publishers struggle as they try to hedge off inflation while working to attract authors who will produce higher quality books. Authors counter that quality research and literature does not bring in sufficient revenue. They argue that they cannot afford to live without selling their books so are forced to turn to popular trade publishing.

Publishing in Pakistan mirrors the country's socio-political situation. This is reflected by the increasing number of titles adhering to a particular sanctioned Islam. Such titles reflect a perceived danger of encroaching Western civilization, especially the media, and seek to balance this perceived danger with religion. This reaction is not limited to publishing, other media including Pakistan television channels are bending to the increased demand for Islamic themes. Two years ago, there were no television channels devoted solely to Islamic programming; today there are at least ten channels televising nothing but Islamic religion programs.

Since 2002, the percentage of popular Islamic titles has grown both in number and type. According to the National Library and other publishing and book selling sources, the percentage of books on Islam has soared to 60% to 70% of the market in past year. This surge in popular religious publishing can be traced, in part, to the low prices of religious titles. Publishers successfully keep the prices of religious books low by relying on reprints and making use of substandard printing and paper quality.

Fiction continues to grow in popularity with fiction publishing taking second place in publishing output. Much of the fiction can be considered "popular" written by new authors attempting to gain a foothold in the market. Many of these new writers publish their own works or use vanity publishers that pay little or no money to the authors. In all cases, there is little regard to printing quality, editing, or context.

Afghanistan

The Library of Congress, Islamabad office continues to actively acquire a comprehensive collection of Afghanistan publications in all formats. Unfortunately the decline in the commercial production combined with decreased access to the publishing output, reduced the number of titles acquired. These same factors helped to drive up the cost of books as much as fifteen percent over last year.

Unlike commercial publishing, government publishing flourishes in the Kabul vicinity. Various ministries, with Western NGOs' financial help, have published well-produced titles on Afghanistan history, social issues as well as important governmental statistics. Although serial publishing remains, for the most part, highly erratic, there are a few good journals that are regularly published -- notably those from the Justice Department and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Deteriorating security conditions in Afghanistan, increasing insecure and unstable political conditions not only negatively affect publishing but also limit LC's ability to travel to Kabul. It is increasingly difficult to obtain the required permission to travel to Kabul. This has taken its toll on our ability to discover new resources. We maintain regular contact with important sources and increasingly rely on our dealer to ensure the timely delivery of new books and journals.

With the Taliban's resurgence few dare publish anything about them. Censorship is on the rise. The rise of Taliban combined with increased security threats leave the publishing situation in a highly precarious state. None the less, The Library of Congress continues to acquire a number of unique and important titles for that shed light on the current political, economic, and social conditions.

Iran

Publishing in Iran serves as a good indication of the political trends and conditions of the country. Unlike the publishing under President Ali Khatami's administration, the new conservative regime severely restricts reformist scholars and writers' ability to publish. Heavy government controls over many aspects of cultural life combined with censorship restricts most areas of publishing. Even the expression of religious ideas is restricted. Reprints, not new ideas, dominate the publishing market -- of the total of 13,056 religious publications, only 5547 were first editions of new titles.

Excluding textbooks and general trade titles, the most sought after books are literary, i.e. novels, short stories and poetry. Persian language and literature remains a strong publishing tradition. During the year 4,909 new literary and literary criticism titles were published. History titles, especially Pahlavi dynasty titles, came in as the second most popular titles published. One wonders at the cause of the thriving Pahlavi dynasty publishing market.

In view of the recent political confrontations with the U.S. and Europe on atomic energy, it is not surprising that books on technology and applied science gained more interest. 4,062 new titles were published in area of science and technology.