Platinum publishing inspires young Qatari, Gulf authors

Kuwait is participating in the ongoing 32nd Doha International Book Fair (DIBF) with a large pavilion featuring various publishers, and activities from several parties, including Platinum Publishing and Distribution Company.
Gulf Times interviewed engineer Jasem Mohamed Ashkanani, general manager of Platinum book publishing, who recalled that the company has been participating in the DIBF for 15 years.
"The DIBF is one of the most important Gulf and Arab exhibitions in which we participate. Platinum was the supporter of the Qatari, Gulf and Arab authors and writers right from the beginning. A large number of authors who are present in this pavilion are from Qatar.
"We have many publications. Every year Platinum is distinguished by its publications, including those that won international awards for Qatari or Gulf authors. On the third day of the book fair, we saw the turnout increasing daily, and this is something exceptional. In the coming days I think we will see more visitors.
"At Platinum we are always keen to encourage young people to write and read. If someone has some work or wants to develop his writings, we are honoured to help. We have a specialised reading committee that gives its comments so that it does not disappoint the author if, for example, we regret that his work cannot be published. We direct him to try to amend his work or increase his reading and we find solutions for him. We do not reject the author directly, but we try to encourage the person as much as possible to write and read at the same time.”
“The evaluation committee is made up of experienced authors from different nationalities. Platinum is very keen for the committee to be accurate in selecting the works, especially in the recent period. Some of them have won awards, including the Katara Award this year. Platinum is considered the first Kuwaiti publishing house, or it may be in the Gulf, to have one of its works as a publishing house and not as an author, and it also qualified for the International Booker Prize.
“Platinum was launched by a group of young men. My partner and I had a book. We wanted to publish it. We wanted to know what we have to do. So, we invested our own money and started our project, developed it and published several books and became a publishing house, we started from scratch.
"Of course, the Gulf countries support us morally, but we, as people, have built ourselves. Currently, we have reached more than a 1,000 publications. There was a year in which we issued more than 100 publications. All our publications are distributed in all the Gulf countries and rest of the world.
"The future prospects for Platinum are to elevate literary works to the highest levels. The publishing house must keep pace with the development of the e-book, but I do not see that the e-book poses a threat to the paper book at all. The paper book is increasing in sales too, but perhaps earlier the Covid-19 pandemic affected the situation, but I think that this crisis has passed.
“The first goal of Platinum is a cultural one, from the first time we were established, there was no one to help us publish a book. We learned from our mistakes in the beginning, but after that we learned how to avoid mistakes, correct them, and listen to writers and intellectuals, and we continue with our work and correct our path."
Engineer Ashkanani is an electrical engineer with a master's degree from Griffith University, Australia and a bachelor's degree from Leeds University, Britain. “My partners are Dr Ahmed al-Haider and Dr Shamayel Babahani from Kuwait,” he added.