Another Twist for Muslim Publishing

Salaams

I am sorry not to have posted recently.  I have been very busy all of January and February getting 4 new books/authors published!  All thanks to Allah most of this has been smooth sailing …but that is is not what I am writing about today.

I received a phone call from a sister, unknown to me. She said she was visiting my website right at the same time as talking with me and she loved the book covers for the books I have published and will be publishing in the next 2-3 months.  She said she was looking for a Muslim illustrator with creativity and expert skills to work with her on a new children’s book she had written (her 4th book).   I provided her the names and email addys of my two FAV illustrators: Sis Shirley Gavin (Ireland) and Sis Corey Habbas (USA).

Having taken care of her pressing need we began to chat. I decided not to lose the opportunity to invite her to join the professional Muslim organization, Islamic Writers Alliance and explained how members helped each other with writing, promoting, pubishing, and marketing-networking for resources, too.

And then we moved on to my most favorite subject Islamic Fiction and the challenges posed for Musim writers of Islamic Fiction.   I was appalled when she told me that the publisher of her first three books demanded she give up the copyyright to her work.  She said the publisher would not publish the three books without owning the work exclusively.  And now they are profitting from the books while she is left out in the cold. Well this is what caused her to decide to do research and see if she could publish her own work.  Mind you she is not interested in making tons of money (very few published authors do!) but she said it just seemed so unfair that she was forced into such a position.. giving up ownership of her work to get published.

I mentioned that the only positive thing that could be said was beause her work is children’s illustrated Books at the  child grade/reading level…. at least a Muslim publisher wanted to publish her work.

We went on to talk about the problems Muslim writers have with finding a Muslim publisher willing to publish fiction books for youth/teen/adult reading levels.  She told me that several Muslim publishers told her that they generally never looked at IF manuscripts submitted to them with requests for publishing.

 She said she asked them why they just ignored these manuscripts and the responses were that Muslims were not interested in reading that kind of book so why waste money on publishing books no one would buy? They told her Muslims don’t usually like to read anything but Qur’an  and only some well educated Mulims will read scholarly texts.

 Muslims don’t like to read?  Strange when the first word the Angel Gabriel said to the Prophet (pbuh) was READ!  Doesn’t this give Muslims some clue about what they need to be doing with at least some of their time?  

Well I was amazed… not at the attitude…. but that she actually got not one but several Muslim publishers to respond to this question. I have been trying for years to get publishers and retailers to state why they won’t publish/list/sell/make available IF books!

She got another call so we agreed to talk again soon.

Afterwards I pondered our conversation and the “idea” that Muslim publishers and retailers are very much aware of IF books/work being written but have no interest in IF books because they are certain Muslims won’t buy the books because Muslims don’t read much.  

I wondered then and now… is it just English speaking Muslims that don’t read much?  Reverts?  Asian Muslims?  Muslims from the Middle East? Africa? World-wide?

I have previously heard that some Muslims think fiction reading is a waste of time  and also that some Muslims want their children to concentrate on Math and Science…. I think to myself… don’t they know that to be able to read well and comprehend what you read is critically important to studying science and math?

Don’t these Muslims know that reading fiction and being able to write creatively are taught in all westernized educational systems.. that students at all age/grade levels are tested in their schools, states and nationally for reading and writing skills?  That students can’t graduate from High Schol without being able to demonstarate their reading and writing schools with a passable grade?…..Hmmm.

This begs the question.. if reading and writing are not important to Muslim parents…. then how do they expect their children to succeed and be competitive in today’s work world/society?

 What do you think?  Do Muslim parents read.. setting this  example for their children? or do they not read while failing to understand reading’s importance? Is what those publishers told my new sister-friend true or just excuses to keep publishing as they always have and not bother to look at their world and see to the reading needs of Muslims?  Are they ignorant? stubborn? apathetic?  or maybe just a bit  too concerned with their own pocketbooks … and not concerned with our kids or practicing fairness in their business relations with authors?

Lots to consider… lots to ponder.. lots to research more fully.  It isn’t enough to just say this is so… one must support suppositions and such with some data. Getting data is not such an easy task when you are struggeling just to stay afloat in this wacky world of book publishing.

What do you think?