Book Publishing Market Snapshots: Serbia and Malaysia ... - Blog Novel Malaysia

Book Publishing Market Snapshots: Serbia and Malaysia ...
Average Angeline: [HAUL] What I've brought with 1 Malaysia book
Novel analysis helped narrow Malaysian jet search | CTV News

Book Publishing Market Snapshots: Serbia and Malaysia ...

Posted: 06 May 2014 12:00 AM PDT

In the continuation of our regular series, global rights platform IPR License looks at what's happening in Serbia and Malaysia.

By Tom Chalmers, Managing Director at IPR License

IPR License First up this month we're focusing on a country which has experienced its fair share of upheaval and political instability in recent years but one which remains a nation of book lovers. Serbia might not necessarily be the first territory that springs to an author/publisher's mind but, as outlined in the article below, it remains a diverse market, with high quality literary fiction and commercial women's fiction currently dominating. Although interestingly a lack of quality in terms of translations amongst some Serbian publishers appears to be an ongoing issue.

The Malaysian book market is an engaging one, especially when it comes to rights. On an annual basis Kuala Lumpur plays host to Southeast Asia's largest rights fair and this illustrates just how important a part licensing plays in the thinking of this growing marketplace. It remains early days for digital publishing in Malaysia and current development is driven by a few key players and government initiatives especially in the education area. As in other countries, Malaysian publishers are faced with a number of challenges in the digital world including copyright issues and the role of traditional publishing. But it appears that some smaller publishing houses are making a real impact.

There's a small taster but let's hear some more in-depth analysis on these fascinating territories.

Serbia

London-based literary Scout Lucy Abrahams looks at the eclectic Serbian marketplace and the quality gaps between publishers and translations.

Lucy Abrahams

Serbia has a population of fewer than seven million people, around fourteen percent of whom are illiterate. With the country in a state of more or less perpetual crisis since the breakup of the former communist Yugoslavia in the 1990s, there has been a streak of political and economic crises, with the global recession only the latest of many. Economically speaking, 2013 has been perhaps the worst year yet for the country, and 2014 will see tough new economic measures implemented (including increased VAT on books). The average monthly income in Serbia is a paltry £300-350, whilst prices, books included, are pretty much on par with Western Europe. Serbia is consequently a paperback market, with advances for the most promising titles rarely breaking the £1,000 barrier. Despite the grim economic situation, people in Serbia love to read and they do buy books. Although a normal first print run is only about 1,500 copies, the bestselling titles can potentially sell around 50,000-60,000 copies (although this is a rare occurrence). The all-time bestselling title, Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, sold in excess of 100,000 copies, a figure unheard of for any other writer.

The Serbian market is an eclectic one, with high quality literary fiction and commercial women's fiction dominating the market (the bestseller lists feature Jose Saramago and Khaled Hosseini alongside E.L. James, Paolo Coelho and Samantha Young). However, the number of copies sold amongst the bestsellers can vary greatly and there is no unified, third party bestseller list like the Sunday Times or the New York Times; the three major bookselling chains each have their own lists. While traditionally the market has been dominated by translated literature, in recent years domestic authors are increasingly gaining in both critical and commercial dominance, tipping the scales from an 80/20 percent spilt in 2009 to an almost even 50/50 in 2013. In general, thrillers do not sell well in Serbia and rarely bother the bestseller lists; however, Scandinavian thrillers are gaining in prominence and in the wake of the international phenomenon that is Gone Girl, "relationship thrillers" are selling well.

In terms of non-fiction, the bestselling title of 2013 was, predictably, Novak Djokovic's Serve to Win. Memoirs don't sell at all, while popular science and psychology are… well, popular. It can be difficult to find good translators from across all languages into Serbian, and many films do not find distribution there, so publishers cannot rely on a boost from a film or TV tie-in. Novels with magical realism or fantastical elements tend to be looked down upon or seen as childish at best and the YA market is in a slump. Although there are over 400 publishers in Serbia, many of them release poor translations without proofreading them, and it is consequently important to place authors with the most reputable publishers who take pride in their editorial departments. Piracy is an issue for the as-yet non-existent ebook market, and a platform is being developed that would mitigate the problem somewhat so that efforts to get things moving can begin in earnest.

Laguna Bookstore Serbia There is a clear dominance in Serbia by several of the leading publishers who operate their own bookstore chains, the biggest of which, Laguna, grew from a start-up to the behemoth of the industry within fifteen years. The Belgrade Book Fair is the most visited cultural event in Serbia and the most prestigious literary award, given every January, is the NIN Prize for the best newly published novel in the Serbian language.

Malaysia

Amir Muhammad, founder of Fixi (Photo: The Star)

Amir Muhammad, owner of Buku Fixi explains the impact of government subsidized vouchers on the Malaysian book industry and the dominance of Malay-language romance novels.

For the third year in a row, the Malaysian book industry received a boost in the form of book vouchers given out to university students. The 1Malaysia Book Vouchers are worth RM250 (about $76) which can typically pay for 10 local paperbacks. As they were given out to 1.3 million students and may be used even for non-educational books, the boost to bookshops is noticeable. The voucher is just one of a slew of feel-good subsidy measures from a government which had lost its traditional 2/3 majority in parliament in the last two general elections.

Nowhere is the retail boost more apparent than in the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair. Now in its 33rd year, it is the biggest consumer book fair in Southeast Asia. It regularly attracts over 1.5 million visitors during the course of 10 days; this year's edition was extended by one day.

A parallel event held at the same venue is the 3-day Kuala Lumpur Trade & Copyright Centre. Held since 2009, it is the most popular of its kind in Southeast Asia and attracts publishers and rights holders mainly from the region.

The Malaysian fiction market is dominated by Malay-language romance novels, none aimed at the overseas market. A bestseller would be anything above 50,000 units. As in India, the Philippines and Singapore, the Malaysian middle-class is also conversant in English, which means that even the biggest-selling imported English books would normally not get a Malay translation.

As the Indonesian language comes from the same root as Malay, it is not uncommon to have Indonesian books in the Malaysian market after some slight linguistic adjustment. A game changer was the Indonesian Habiburrahman El-Shirazy's The Verses of Love (2004), set in Egypt and centred on a dishy but pious Indonesian student, which was a hit here and inspired a whole slew of 'Islamic love stories.'

Although set up only in 2010, the market leader for commercial Malay fiction is Karyseni, whose romance novels are frequently adapted into evening TV serials. This company, which grew out of a free website for new serial novels, controls at least a quarter of the local fiction market.

More adventurous would be smaller companies like Sang Freud Press (SFP), which in 2013 translated an Israeli book by Etgar Keret — something which took chutzpah in a country of officially sanctioned anti-Semitism. SFP and its sister company Selut Press has also mined a genre no one ever thought would be popular: poetry by young women. There aren't many developing countries where a contemporary poetry book can sell more than 10,000 units, but they've done it.

The latest SFP title, which launched at the book fair, is by the popular singer-songwriter Ana Raffali. Thus blurring the line between what is 'mainstream' and 'alternative' — but in a nation of only 28 million, such petty distinctions aren't helpful. And, sure enough, most of the thousands who purchased her book at the launch did so with the 1Malaysia Book Voucher.

Amir Muhammad is the owner of Malaysia's Buku Fixi which won The Bookseller International Adult Trade Award at the 2014 London Book Fair.

Average Angeline: [HAUL] What I've brought with 1 Malaysia book

Posted: 05 Jul 2014 01:33 PM PDT

While identity is an issue in both Singaporean and Malaysian literature it appears in different forms within each. In Malaysian literature the emphasis that the Malaysian government has placed on ethnic difference is obvious. Individuals are aware of their status as Malay and "non-Malay." (see 'Malayness' and Being Malay/non-Malay). Despite the government's claims that they are taking strategic steps towards constructing a unified national identity, adoption of a national language (Malay) and similar Malay-dominant legislation has accomplished the opposite.

The actions of the Malaysian government have deepened racial divides as displayed by the cultural conflict and division in Lim's Joss and Gold (Jeyathurai, 2009). While Singaporean literature addresses the issue of national identity, it is not so much an issue of creating unity within (which tends to be the Malaysian theme); Singaporean writers are concerned with creating a voice and space for Singaporean literature.

Hybridity
In "Singapore, Literature and Identity" (1998), Peter Wicks writes that "Singaporean authors have taken more reflective and evaluative approaches to the vexed question of Singaporean identity" (Wicks, 2). Wicks writes that Singaporean identity is one that is "both dynamic and inclusive" (Wicks, 3) or at least more inclusive than that of Malaysia. While Malaysian writers like Lim, Teo, and Maniam strive to help Malaysia embrace hybridity, Wicks writes that "Singapore's identity is essentially hybrid" (Wicks, 3). Wicks evaluates Gopal Baratham's novel Sayang in which an Indian-Tamil man is married to a Chinese wife and does not travel much "having all that I need on the island" (Wicks, 4).

The novel, according to Wicks, is founded on underlying themes such as hybridity of religion, culture, and people. The statement "having all that I need on the island" and the main character's pride in Singapore shows that he is comfortable with hybridity, unlike the characters in Lim's novel who are preoccupied with the idea of Malay versus "non-Malay." Or, as Lim's character Abdullah explains: the social climate in Malaysia is such that the people of Malaysia are like "oil and water" and "cannot mix," in fact Abdullah believes it is best to keep "like with like" (Jeyathurai, 2009).

Singapore, on the other hand, is likened to tea by Simon Tay in the short story "A History of Tea". Tay writes "I lift the lid and they are all in the pot: Grandfather Chang, Beverly's Grandfather Jones, Grandmother Tee…the Tees and Tehs…the Rajendrans, Beverly's English-Jewish boyfriend I have never met…" (Wicks, 4) Singaporean poet Edwin Thumboo, who is regarded by The Straits Times (Singapore) as the man who "spearhead[ed] the creation of a Singaporean literature in English," also embraces Singapore's inclusive multicultural society. His publication Third Map (1993) is said by Sharon Teng to have "established his reputation as a national poet committed to articulating a cultural vision for a multicultural Singapore."

Literature and Legitimacy

Language (Voice)
It is interesting to note that this multicultural Singapore includes English while, in the past, Malaysia's government has made efforts to differentiate between Malaysian culture and foreign-ness. That which is acceptable (i.e. the Malay language) is categorized as Malaysian while English and other "non-Malay" languages and customs (despite their influence and history in Malaysia) are considered foreign.

Malaysia's separation of the foreign or anything "non-Malay" is again made evident in Lim's character Abdullah, who refers to English as a "bastard language." Lim's choice of the word bastard—a word used to describe an illegitimate birth—problematizes the ethnic divides in Malaysia. Here Lim demonstrates how the divide between so-called indigenous and non-indigenous peoples is actually a differentiation between legitimate peoples (citizens) and illegitimate peoples (aliens), with the latter not enjoying the full privileges of citizenship and ultimately becoming alienated.

Although it is possible to experience alienation as a result of migration, as with Hsu-Ming Teo's main character in Love and Vertigo (who returns to her mother's native country of Singapore after living in Australia all her life), Joss and Gold illustrates the lives of individuals who have lived in a country their entire life—whose families have lived there for generations—and yet they experience "alienation" (Jeythurai, 2009). Jeyathurai points out that while Li An's passion for English literature could lead to the assumption that Li An is being "overtaken by the colonizer's language, Lim highlights that it is Li An who is in possession of the language" (Jeyathurai, 74).

This is both a peculiar and yet logical reading, considering the fact that the Malaysian government hoards citizenship by making it exclusive to Malays. English is accessible to Li An, the fact that the Malaysian government frowns upon her use of it makes her possession of it an act of defiance. Li An's character mirrors Malaysian writers like Lim who choose to write in English. The use of the English language is therefore one of the signs of "dissatisfaction among Malaysian ethnic minorities who have become far less willing to tolerate a government and national identity that denies them the full privileges of their citizenship" (Jeyathurai, 65).

Cultural Spaces
Aside from the use of the English language there is another trend among Malaysian novels, specifically Lim's Joss and Gold and K.S. Maniam's The Return (1981). In Joss and Gold the Chinese are accused of living among themselves separate from other communities; meanwhile, in The Return, Maniam intentionally carves out a space for the Bedong Indians in Malaysia. According to Jeyathurai, "There is a need to outline a space for themselves in the face of a government that has pushed out non-Malays in the creation of the national identity" (Jeyathurai, 70).

This trend also occurs in a more recent novel, Preeta Samarasan's debut novel Evening is the Whole Day (2008). Set in 1980s Malaysia, Samarasan's novel transports the reader to a Tamil Indian community outside the town of Ipoh. Chinese and Malay characters are introduced here and there, but Samarasan makes the reader aware that she is providing a private tour of the Indian community on Kingfisher Lane. In a country where non-Malay inhabitants are not granted full citizenship, groups like the Tamil Indians and the Chinese create cultural spaces based on their traditions, beliefs, values, and politics. This is not an unfamiliar phenomenon, race politics and division in the United States prompted African Americans to create their own cultural spaces in areas like Chicago and Harlem.

"Can the Subaltern Speak?"
Although Singaporean literature celebrates its multicultural identity, and Malaysian literature attempts to express the discontent of certain alienated groups, Tamara S. Wagner suggests that their writers do so at a significant cost. Wagner critiques the methods of Singaporean and Malaysian writers in her article "Emulative Versus Revisionist Occidentalism: Monetary and Other Values in Recent Singaporean Fiction" (2004).

Wagner writes that "the vast genre of diasporic fiction that conflates authors' ''exotic'' origins rather indiscriminately, contributes to globally marketed literature from Singapore or Malaysia [that is] primarily about subaltern women struggling to find true love in a patriarchal society." Wagner accuses Hsu-Ming Teo's Love and Vertigo and Shirley Geok-Lin Lim's Joss & Gold of having "further contributed to the region's only recently developed role in the internationally marketed postcolonial exotic" (Wagner, 80).

Singaporean author Hwee Hwee Tan is also accused of endorsing the exotic: from her suggestive title of her 1997 novel Foreign Bodies, to its "exotic" cursive lettering, and its use of the familiar relationship between an Asian woman and a white male. Wagner accuses such authors of marketing the exotic in order to promote themselves, while simultaneously victimizing themselves (Wagner, 2006).

Another critique Wagner makes (which is the reason for Wagner's concern) is that writers like Lim and Ming, "third-world" intellectuals who choose to live in the "first world" function, are considered to be 'natives' ("Within that space") and "not only 'natives' but spokespersons for 'natives' in the third world […] serving as providers of knowledge about their nations and cultures. The way these intellectuals function is therefore inseparable from their status as cultural workers/brokers in Diaspora […]" (excerpt, Chow, 1993) (Pillai, 2010).

National Imagination
While Wagner's critique concerning the postcolonial exotic is valid, Wagner's second critique points out the complexity of national identity and the notion of belonging. The idea of "Our country/No Country" (excerpt, Joss and Gold) is prevalent in the writing of Singaporean and Malaysian writers. Like Lim, Malaysian writer Lloyd Fernando explores the concept of national identity.

In M.Y. Chiu's article Imagining a Nation: Lloyd Fernando's Scorpion Orchid and National Identity (2003), Chiu discusses scholar Ien Ang's concept of a "'national symbolic field'—the intertwining of history to create a symbolic field of feelings and experiences that can be called national imagination." Chiu writes, "This national symbolic field appears in Lloyd Fernando's Scorpion Orchid (1976) as a vision of a comprehensive national identity." However, Wagner questions the extensiveness of such an identity arguing that she is not sure she can credit writers like Hsu-Ming Teo as Malaysian writers since, despite Malaysia being her place of birth, Teo has spent most of her time in Australia.

Translation
It is ironic that Wagner places such weight on Teo's time spent abroad because this question of nationality, or the possession of it that is (who can and cannot call themselves a national), is present in Teo's novel Love and Vertigo. In the novel Teo's main character appears to have no place of belonging; she is ethnically Chinese and her nation of origin is Malaysia, but she grew up in Australia. Wagner's observation is true, these writers (like all writers) are translating places and experiences for those who may never be heard.

In Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction (2003) Robert J.C. Young writes that "No act of translation takes place in an entirely neutral space of absolute equality. Someone is translating something or someone. Someone or something is being translated, transformed from a subject to an object…" (Young, 140). Young also discusses how migrants (like Teo) are physically translated from one place to another. "Having [been] translated…migrants then encounter there other translated men and women, other restless marginals, and translate their experiences to each other to form new languages of desire and affirmation" (Young, 142). That is, Ming's experience as a translated person (ethnically Chinese, Malaysian by birth, Australian by her locale) enables her to provide another interpretation of what it means to be Malaysian. It enables her to speak for Malaysians like her, the other translated men and women.

'Hospitality'
Wagner's questioning of writers like Lim and Teo (translated writers) as Malaysian writers relates to the concept of home/nation/belonging versus foreign-ness, a practice that Deborah L. Masden refers to as hospitality. In "'No Place Like Home': The Ambivalent Rhetoric of Hospitality in the Work of Simone Lazaroo, Arlene Chai, and Hsu-Ming Teo" (2006) Masden defines hospitality as "…culture itself and not simply one ethic among others. Insofar as it has to do with the ethos, that is, the residence, one's home, the familiar place of dwelling, inasmuch as it is a manner of being there, the manner in which we relate to ourselves and to others, to others as our own or as foreigners, ethics is hospitality; ethics is so thoroughly coextensive with the experience of hospitality" (117).

However, Ang believes this practice of hospitality (inclusion/exclusion) has been disguised in an effort to resolve race issues. In "The Curse of the Smile: Ambivalence and the 'Asian' Woman in Australian Multiculturalism" Ang writes "racially and ethnically marked people are no longer othered today through simple mechanisms of rejection and exclusion, but through an ambivalent and apparently contradictory process of inclusion by virtue of othering" (118). In the article Ang makes it clear that Asians in Australia are more tolerated than accepted, a process Ang identifies as an act of 'hospitality.' Acts of hospitality appear in Malaysian and Singaporean literature in two forms respectively: tolerance and multiculturalism.

Acts of Hospitality

Tolerance
The problem with tolerance, according to Ang, is that it does not do away with the imbalance of power because "the dominant majority is structurally placed in a position of power" (Ang, 40). That is, the majority possesses the ability to choose whom/what to tolerate while the minority "can only be at the receiving end of tolerance, or, if they are for some reason (e.g. having the 'wrong' religion) considered beyond the realm of the tolerable [they are] deemed unworthy of being tolerated" (Ang, 40).

In Joss and Gold, this imbalance of power is evident within the racial politics of Malaysia when Abdullah discusses the consequences of Malays like himself being pushed too far. Abdullah's opinion is Lim's way of demonstrating that the Chinese and Indians are at the receiving end of tolerance. Tolerance is an example of a contradictory practice of inclusion because it creates marginalized groups/"Others" in Malaysia. This marginalization is the source of dissenting voices in Malaysian literature.

Multiculturalism
Both tolerance and multiculturalism, despite their best intentions, are problematic according to Ang. "…the ideal of 'living with difference' has been put forward as a way beyond homogenizing definitions of identity politics" (Ang, 38). Ang explains that " the historical tensions [caused by] race relations are not solved by multiculturalism, but, on the contrary, made more complex and complicated" (Ang, 38).

This means that while Singaporean writers work to create a literary voice and space that celebrates Singapore's multicultural society, Singaporean literature (like any other literature) is not without its flaws. And, moreover, its writers should be wary of oversimplifying a complex issue by assuming that they are capable of speaking for all Singaporeans. However, because Singapore embraces multiculturalism and hybridity, Singapore's national identity, according to Wicks, is "evolving" with its literature. Malaysian writers, on the other hand, continue to challenge a national identity that excludes them from the national narrative of Malaysia.

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Novel analysis helped narrow Malaysian jet search | CTV News

Posted: 25 Mar 2014 05:32 AM PDT

The Associated Press
Published Tuesday, March 25, 2014 8:32AM EDT
Last Updated Tuesday, March 25, 2014 9:04AM EDT

Investigators are closer to solving an international aviation mystery thanks to a British communications satellite and classroom physics.

A masterful analysis of a handful of faint signals sent from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 to an Inmarsat satellite led officials to conclude that the Boeing 777 crashed in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean. More precise information about the plane's position when it sent the last signals is helping authorities refine the search being undertaken by planes and ships in seas 2,500 kilometers southwest of Perth, Australia. Investigators had precious little information to examine otherwise because the transponder, identifying the jet to air traffic controllers, was deactivated about the same time the jet veered off course from its original destination, Beijing, early March 8.

THE PINGS

Even with other communications shut down, the plane sent an automatic signal - a "ping" or a "handshake" - every hour to an Inmarsat satellite. The pings did not show the jet's location, speed or heading, but an initial analysis showed the last ping came from a position along one of two vast arcs north and south from the Malaysian Peninsula.

For its more detailed analysis, Inmarsat studied the pings sent from Flight 370 on the ground at Kuala Lumpur airport and early in its flight. It considered aircraft performance, satellite location and other known factors to calculate the possible positions, direction of travel and speed of the plane. It then compared its predictions to six other Boeing 777 aircraft that flew the same day, and found good agreement, according to Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. Inmarsat did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press.

DOPPLER EFFECT

Think of a horn being honked in a passing car. To an observer, the sound is high pitched as the car approaches and is lower after the car passes. That's because on approach, each successive sound wave is sent from a slightly closer position to the observer. The sound waves get compressed, resulting in a higher frequency. The opposite happens as the car moves away. It's called the Doppler effect for Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who first put forward the theory in 1842.

The same effect applies to "pings" from the plane to the satellite orbiting in a fixed position, which would arrive at a higher frequency if the plane was moving toward the satellite and decrease in frequency when moving away.

"By analyzing that you can determine speed and direction," said Joseph Bermudez Jr., chief analytics officer and co-founder of AllSource Analysis, a commercial satellite intelligence firm. And by determining the area from which the last signal was sent, then estimating fuel left, it "could give you an approximate area of where the aircraft impacted."

MORE ANALYSIS

Inmarsat sent its data to investigators days after the plane went missing. But it continued to run its own analysis to see if it could wring out any more clues.

The company's engineers were dealing with a "totally new area," Inmarsat's McLaughlin told the BBC. "This really was a bit of a shot in the dark." However, the latest information could only go so far in pinpointing the jet's location.

"We can't help you with any closer data," he said.

Satellite specialists were impressed by Inmarsat's analysis.

"They exploited a digital trail that was never intended for that use. It was just a shadow that somebody spotted and made use of," said David Cyganski, dean of engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Gregory D. Durgin, a professor who teaches satellite communications at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said that because Inmarsat was using a different kind of satellite in a novel way, he expects it would locate the last ping from the Malaysia Airlines plane within "around 100 miles of precision." (160 km)

THE COMPANY

Inmarsat Plc started out in 1979 as an intergovernmental organization with the aim of helping ships communicate while at sea. It became a private company in 1999 and listed its shares in London in 2005. Customers now include governments, airlines, broadcast media, oil and gas companies, aid agencies as well as merchant shipping. They use handheld satellite phones, laptop size Internet devices and antennas linked to the company's 10 satellites to communicate.

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