How has your project developed in regard to the nature of your job and the reactions of readers?

First of all, Al-Ain specialized in “scientific culture,” which was completely new to the publishing sector. This specific type of publishing put us instantly under the spotlight and tagged us as a very special publishing house. The reason why I specialized in scientific publishing was my own academic background, as I have a Ph.D in Biochemistry. Fortunately. I was able to attract prominent figures in scientific translation, such as Dr. Ahmed Mustageer. Moreover, we received very good feedback from readers as well as critics.

Al-Ain published many remarkable books over the past few years, and many of its authors have been nominated for or won prizes.

I attribute this great success to my passion for my career and because I am very selective when choosing the authors. My authors should be talented even if they are still beginners. Second, I always take care of the details starting from the promotion of the books to the participation in different book fairs everywhere in the world.

As a female publisher in Egypt, what are the main challenges of running a publishing house for you?

Some of the challenges I have faced as a female publisher had to do with dealing with the workers in the printing houses. As a male-dominated career, workers were not used to dealing with females. Moreover, in some Arab countries, it is sometimes difficult to be taken seriously when you are a woman.

Which is a more formidable challenge in the publishing business: distribution or censorship?

The most difficult thing in my career is distribution, because in the Arab world we don’t have agencies specialized in distribution, which adds a burden to the publisher. It’s quite a challenge working in Egypt where the publisher has a big role to play in the distribution and sales of books. For the business to break even, it’s not enough just to sell in bookstores. We have to join fairs, both national and international ones, and participate in events.

As other publishers do in Egypt, now with the whole economic condition – which for us started long before the revolution – we encourage the authors to “contribute” to the publication of their titles. This contribution has nothing to do with the quality of book, even big names are asked to do so.

What is your outlook for the future of publishing?

The change that we expect is a shift in readers’ interests. We expect readers to shift to political and historical topics. We expect also more attraction to poetry, as it played a great role in the Egyptian revolution. Finally we expect more interest in religious books, especially those spreading the ideologies of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis.

You participated in the publishers’ union elections and even nominated yourself for a position. How was your experience there?

In the end, my experience in the elections was a bitter one, as I witnessed for the first time that the results were pre-determined and that some of the insiders are like mafia, and they decided even before the elections that I was not going to win just because I had a different ideology.