Jordanian writer Sana Shaalan says that her experience with publishers, and its lack of balance, ambiguity and unfairness, is no different from most Arab creative experiences, as opposed to what it is in the West, where the creator is the first beneficiary of his creativity.
In a special testimony, writer Sana Shaalan narrates her stories with publishers, not all of them bitterly, acknowledging that her dealings have been positive with some government agencies in Jordan and Qatar. The text of the certificate is as follows:
My experience with publishers is no different from most creative experiences in the Arab world, except from the womb of my Lord, unlike the relationship between publishers and creators in the West, where the creator is the first and natural beneficiary of the proceeds of his creativity.
But in our country is almost the creator is the only one who does not benefit from his creativity, because of several parties deprived of his right, led by publishers who enrich the proceeds of the creative creativity, while the creator is watching this as an organization that does not derive from his creativity - most of the time - only moral fame A lot of heartbreak.
I have dealt with dozens of publishers in Jordan and in the Arab world, and with the role of Arab publishing outside the Arab world, because I have about 54 published works between criticism, novel, story, theater, children's literature and academic studies, and my experience with them is mostly negative only a few rare cases, The level of publishers you have contracted with in person, be it verbal or written.
In both cases, the publishers violated the terms of the contract. I never received a complete copy of their work, according to our contract. They did not share my work in foreign and international exhibitions as agreed. They did not give me the percentage of sales we agreed upon. That he has printed more copies of my creative than the number of copies agreed to be published in the agreed edition.
Ignorance or elimination
I also discovered that one of the publishers had added a monopoly clause to one of my creative works other than what we had agreed orally, and signed the contract with confidence, and did not notice that he added that item to the paper contract, which we did not agree with orally.
| Sana Shaalan: My experience with publishers is often negative except from a few rare cases (Al Jazeera) |
I have often received no copies of the work published by the publishing house for my work, and I have encountered a lack of credibility in my commitment to publishing houses, as well as not promoting my business according to the agreed upon, and participating in exhibitions,
And not to pay any percentage of the sales proceeds as agreed in the contracts signed with publishers in paper, or agreed with them orally.
In either case, I had two options. Either I filed a legal complaint against each of them, or I ignored it for its impact on my time and for further financial and moral losses.
Unfortunately, I would have opted for the second option to opt for my creative project, and not to engage in arguments with publishers may not get me to take anything from my right, as happened with most of the creators who followed the publishers legally.
Positive experience
My only positive experience with publishers is the experience of publishing with the awards departments or the official cultural institutions that dealt with them, or published my works according to Fawzi's awards; they fully complied with their agreements with me and worked actively in favor of the cultural project that they adopted, Material that most publishers are chasing behind.
Therefore, my experiences with these publishers were very positive and satisfactory to me, and they were honest with me in every agreed part. From the time I printed the book until I promoted it and participated in it in the exhibitions, and ended up enabling me to copy my work according to the agreed upon, , Al-Jasra Cultural and Social Club in Qatar, the Sharjah Award, the Hazaa Al Nahyan Children's Literature Award and the Jordanian Ministry of Culture.