From Creative Writing Workshops to the Legal Status of Publishing Agents during Book Week
Maryam Jadali, chairperson of the board of directors of the Women’s Cultural and Artistic Publishers Association, in an interview with the correspondent of the Iran Book News Agency (IBNA), referred to the association’s programs for Book Week, stating: ‘We will begin this year’s Book Week with a strategic vision and a coherent roadmap to repair and strengthen the links in the chain of publishing and reading in the country, because we believe that the cultural health of a society is directly dependent on the strength of this cycle.’
Referring to the main axes of this roadmap, she explained: ‘Book Week is a stage where all activists and enthusiasts in the field of books can synergize with each other. For example, this week offers an opportunity for publishers and booksellers to establish direct contact with their primary buyers.’
Jadali named the session ‘The Lost Reading Cycle’ as the association’s first program during Book Week, adding: ‘This program focuses on the most important missing link, namely the ‘active reader,’ and its goal is to move beyond passive book consumption and transform the reader into an active element in the process of understanding and producing meaning.’
Stating that ‘The Legal Status of Publishing Agents’ is the association’s second program during Book Week, she continued: ‘In this program, publishing legal regulations, including author-publisher contracts, will be taught by Seyed Abbas Hosseininik. Copyright and publishing ownership rights, as well as the relationship between author and publisher—which is the cornerstone of content production—and the legal and financial ambiguities of contracts that severely weaken the motivation of authors and publishers, are among the topics of this program.’
According to Jadali, the session ‘The Editor’s Place in Publishing’ has also been planned by the association regarding the principles of optimal editing. Since content quality is directly dependent on editing quality, the importance of technical, content-based, and linguistic editing in preserving the credibility of a work, and the necessity of standardizing editing, will be discussed in this session.
She said: ‘We also planned the session ‘Reviewing the Book’s Appearance’ for this week, with the aim of identifying factors influencing the book’s appearance, because we believe that the appearance of a book, as a cultural product, should be able to visually attract the audience while being consistent with its content.’
Jadali, by raising the issue that economic challenges of production and distribution will also be examined in the session ‘The Unequal Book Economy’, said: ‘Additionally, to familiarize participants with successful publishing veterans and how to coordinate the educational needs of the new generation with publishers and veterans of the publishing industry, we will hold the session ‘Generational Gap and Education.’
She also mentioned the session ‘The Role of Women Publishers in the Future Success of Publishing’ as another program of this association during Book Week, reminding: ‘This session is held with the aim of compiling the ‘Document of the Current State of Books to the Desired State’ and includes a summary of the structural and official demands of the Women’s Cultural and Artistic Publishers Association in the field of research and management.’
