Long ago, Dr. Taha Hussein wrote a letter to the ancient “Dar Al-Ma’arif,” which was founded in Egypt by one of the “Shwam” intellectuals in the last century, in which he thanked the management of the house for its interest in publishing his works, and requested a “financial advance” from the house, so that he could fulfill his needs. With the expenses of his annual trip to France.
In the series “Zeinab and the Throne,” based on the novel by “Fathi Ghanem,” the publisher’s relationship with the writer appeared, and it was a sophisticated relationship. The publisher is holding a copy of a “publishing contract,” and the journalist is sitting in a self-esteem session, and the rivalry is clear in the relationship between the two parties, but all of this is over.
A time has come for authors, making them “poor” people begging for publication in the two governmental bodies subject to the Egyptian Ministry of Culture: “The General Authority for Books and the General Authority for Cultural Palaces.” Because publishing in them means obtaining a sum of money, with which the poor author – and the majority of creatives and authors are poor – can meet the demands of daily life: food, drink, and clothing.
“Corruption” has become controlling the chains issued by the two bodies. If a poet or novelist has a relationship with the “chairman of the body,” who is a “doctor” who is approved by the “cultural authority,” his collection, novel, or book will find its way to publication easily, and vice versa. correct.
Ugly covers
Signs of corruption in publishing in these two bodies are evident in the display “windows” found in their bookstore outlets, in the form of ugly covers, poorly designed and printed, and trivial titles that do not add anything new to the reader.
In most cases, they are “university theses” by academics from the “cultural security services” who obtained academic degrees through twisted methods, based on flattery, interests, and gifts. Publishing these messages in books represents for them “prestige” and prestige that increases their social and administrative weight within the walls of the universities in which they work.
The Culture Palaces Authority was originally a body whose mission was to present culture to the masses, and publishing was not one of the tasks assigned to it. It bore the name “Public Culture” and its idea was imported by “Dr. Tharwat Okasha” – a cavalry officer – from the state of “Yugoslavia” in the time of “Nasser.” And Tito,” and his assumption of the position of Minister of Culture coincided with the time of mobilization of “the masses” and their mobilization on the side of the ruling regime in the 1950s and 1960s of the last century.
The fold of intellectuals
Farouk Hosni came and sat on the seat of the Minister of Culture, and made the “Culture Palaces Authority” publish thousands of books annually, which is the role played by the “General Book Authority.” The book publishing budget swallowed up what was allocated for theatre, plastic arts, and other activities, so the process of “book publishing” became profitable for the creative people working in the “Culture Palaces Authority,” and the authority itself turned into a device for absorbing the “unemployed army” of creatives and semi-creatives who are not good at making or crafting. A craft from which they make a living.
The time was a time of “armed terrorism” confronting the ruling Mubarakist regime, and “Farouk Hosni” was playing the game: “Feed the mouth and the eye will be ashamed.” The game succeeded in creating a stream of “scribes and educated people” who praised the ruling “civilian” regime, and it was not a civilian. Rather, he was an outspoken policeman.
The Minister of Culture was not satisfied with what he did, but rather said clearly in a recorded press interview: “I am the only Minister of Culture who brought intellectuals into the fold of the Ministry of Culture,” and it was, in fact, a fattening “barn” and fodder for impersonators of the status of “intellectual.”
What is surprising about these two bodies is that they employ censors of creativity, so they only publish what these censors permit. This censorship made creators who respect themselves and their creativity resort to private publishing, and here the injustice became clear and the theft appeared. The private publisher asked the creator for a “financial contribution,” which was in the 1990s. Last century, it was about “a thousand Egyptian pounds,” and these days it has reached huge numbers.
A contract of adhesion and fraud
The creator pays the financial contribution, the publisher prints the book, and signs a compliance contract with the creator or author, stipulating that he not criticize him on the Internet, and that he is not obligated to a specific date for publishing the book.
If the book wins a financial award, the publisher will have the right to receive half of its financial value. If the book – a novel, for example – was turned into a movie or series, the publisher would be entitled to a percentage of what the writer receives in terms of production.
The duration of the “contract” is not less than five years, and the creator or writer undertakes to publicize the book, benefiting from his network of relationships and acquaintances among journalists and media workers. There is no mechanism that enables the writer or creator to know the number of copies printed by the publisher, or to know who has verified it. Profits, despite the contract stipulating: “The second party will receive a certain percentage of the profits,” and the second party does not know the number of copies printed or actually sold.
If he had the audacity to ask the major publisher about the percentage of profit as stipulated in the contract, the publisher would evade and simply say: “The book was not sold and there was no copy. It is in the warehouse and I lost it.”
With the increase in the number of writers and those wishing to obtain the title of novelist and writer, the scope of injustice and theft expanded in the private publishing market, and with the advancement of the industry in China – and the emergence of printing presses of a new type, printing ten or five copies – the matter turned into “deception and fraud.” The financial contribution that… The “author” pays it to the publisher. From it, the publisher pays the cost of a number of copies that he gives to the author, and seizes the rest of the money for himself. The author returns home happy, signs copies for his family and friends, and celebrates the printing and publication of his book, of which only the set of copies he carried in his bag were printed.
Some publishers – professional thieves – place several copies of the book with a newspaper seller in central Cairo, or with two, and the author sees a copy of his book with this seller, and imagines that his book is flooding the markets and occupying the shelves of libraries in all the villages, cities, governorates, hamlets, and wastelands!
All of this is happening in the publishing market in Egypt, and the publishing wheel is still operating according to the law of “injustice and theft,” and the Nile is still flowing, and publishers are still eating the flesh of authors, and those in charge of publishing in the “Book Authority” and the “Culture Palaces Authority” are publishing trivial books. They receive money, and the rats in the warehouses of the two governmental bodies are still devouring the printed books that do not contain ideas and do not add anything to the culture, as if the two bodies were united on one goal, which is to fatten the “rats” of the country!
