IBNA: During this session held with the presence of Naqmeh Danesh Ashtyani poet and writer, and Seyyed Ali Kashefi Khansari (director of Eve Literary Agency), Kashefi introduced literary agencies as important institutions in print cycle that deal with marketing promotion and copyright issues.

Kashefi added: “Eve literary agency began its activities in 2009 by attending more than 10 international book fairs.”

A Survey of Kuala Lumpur Book Fair 

Referring to the young history of Malaysia, Kashefi considered its 30 rounds of book fair outstanding. “This country began its development trend about 35 years ago with the presidency of Mahathir Mohammad who founded the book fair as one of the first institutions towards reaching global convoy,” he continued.

Malaysia holds two book fairs per year, one during April/May and a Children’s Book Fair in September the first of which was held last year. Eve Literary Agency, Naqmeh Danesh, president of Mehr News Agency, Shah Abadi production assistant of IIDCY, Ganji IIDCY PR, writer Ebrahim Hassanbeigi and Alireza Karimbarian director of Alamin Agency attended this fair on behalf of Iran.

The Danesh explained: “Kuala Lumpur Book Fair is held indoors in a space much larger than Mosalla in four floors. The pavilions are bigger but facilities are the same as what found in TIBF.”

According to her, the book fair is held in two parts of Copyright and Sale. Besides Iran, there were representatives from Indonesia, Singapore, Philippine and Brunei at copyright part.

Danesh said: “One reason for serious presence of literary agencies in Malaysia is their consciousness of the country’s literary weakness, attempting to retrieve it through importing works from countries with similar cultures and religions, especially from Iran whose products have a high quality.”

Then Kashefi provided a brief report of Malaysian and Southeast Asia’s book market: “There are mainly two types of book markets. One is the most professional and serious one seen in Frankfurt, Bologna and London where we have unfortunately had less success. There is no sale guarantee in these markets as its realization entails prior MOUs, planning and consistent work.”

The second market type, according to Kashefi, is regional international book fairs found in countries like Malaysia, Turkey, Indonesia, China and India. Here there is more interest and need for Iranian works, as they usually respect Iranian children’s literature and even know Iranian illustrators by names.

Following this remark, Naqmeh Danesh asserted that these countries also stress on religious similarity and feel at ease with works produced in a Muslim society. “It is necessary for our institutes to have a more serious look at local markets of the region and especially of Iraq, instead of zooming only on Europe.”

At the end, director of Eve Literary Agency briefly mentioned his achievements at Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair. Once again Kashefi asserted that virgin markets of countries like Indonesia, Brunei and even China with considerable number of Muslims are ideal for presentation of Iranian books.

He added: “It is time for Iranian writers to experiment producing works in English so that they can present their books directly to the global market.