I studied to be an Art Director in an advertising agency and this is what I did for 5 years before joining Samir Editeur as a Senior Art Director.
I always loved books or, to be more precise, the book as an "object", whether the content or the physical aspect and I guess designing books was a way for me to get closer to it.
So before the award I worked for 5 years at Samir Editeur, a children’s and textbook publisher. As Samir Editeur was going through lots of major changes I was involved not only in designing books and trying to spot talented new illustrators, but also in setting up a production and editorial department.
I can't answer on behalf of all the candidates! I guess it was useful to most of us but each in a different way, depending on how far each one of us had gone in his publishing career.
For me it was pretty interesting because I had done lots of different workshops but it was always around the book itself and not the industry.
Discovering how multinationals operate and the job of literary agents was the highlight for me, knowing that they hardly exist in our local market.
Was I surprised when I won? Tough question! Actually I didn't know what to expect and I myself had in mind a couple of impressive candidates for the award!!
Unlike previous winners I spent it on a lot of different things, mainly focusing on developing my skills and knowledge in buying and selling rights and also on learning more about teenage fiction, a genre that hardly exists in the Arab market but which I think should become one of our priorities!
So I did internships at Bloomsbury Children's Books and Puffin, mainly in Rights and Marketing. I also took a 3-day intensive course on buying and selling rights at the Publishing Training Centre at Book House in Wandsworth. After I got back from London I joined the UK publishers delegation at the Cairo International Book Fair 2007 in preparation for the London Book Fair 2008. And last but not at all least we organised, in Beirut, a 3-day creative writing workshop focused on teenage fiction with the wonderful help of author Mal Peet (winner of the Carnegie Medal 2006 for his book Tamar) and the British Council.
The direct effect is that now people in the local industry pay more attention to what I have to say, my views and ideas on publishing etc. I am not saying that they were completely dismissive before, but let's put it this way, it got easier after the award!
The other effect is that now, almost 2 years after the award, I feel I am more equipped in know-how and contacts to start putting into action lots of different publishing ideas I always had in the back of my mind.
As I said before with all the contacts I had, and through the British Council, we were able to put together the creative writing workshop with Mal Peet. Other than that it's now mainly trying to liaise with contacts in the UK and others in Beirut whenever I feel I can help in any way and put the right people in touch when needed. Also whenever I think of contacts I think of it as ‘long-term professional friendship’, so I guess you can't measure it and you can't stop it from growing. This could be just the start!
I was there in 2006 as an IYPY candidate, in 2007 as an exhibitor and definitely will try to be there in 2008 since the Arab world is the market focus...So I guess it will still go on in one way or another...
Lots of nice things I hope ;-), furthering my studies in publishing but mainly important changes within the company I work for, new challenges that were unfortunately delayed by the political instability in Lebanon, but I am a patient person and hopefully change will happen!
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