Domestic publishing enjoys boom period

The evidence can be seen, he says, in the abolishment of Myanmar’s censorship law, the revival of literary life, the public’s thirst for news and a higher literacy rate — all of which have been driving the domestic publishing industry’s growth since 2011, he says. 

“Now you can publish any kind of book. But the growth is limited to Myanmar-language books only, which is a big sector. The sector is growing slowly, but not drastically, thanks to the reform process,” says Thant, during an exclusive interview with Myanmar Eleven during the Irrawaddy Literary Festival, which was held last weekend at the Mandalay Hill Resort Hotel.

Potboilers remain the No 1 money-spinner. The growing newspaper-publishing sector is still 90 per cent dominated by state-owned periodicals, which are more affordable (about Ks 15 each) and accessible in remote areas, due to better distribution.

“It’s hard for privately-run newspapers to compete with government-owned papers because they don’t spend much on distribution,” he says, adding: “New titles (books) keep coming out everyday, some of high quality, some less so. [Authors] can write about what they like. But the readership is quite low. You cannot compare our readership with that of our neighbouring countries,” says Thant.

The English-language publishing scene remains sluggish, despite a remarkable outpouring of foreign investment. Thant blames it on limited readership.

“We have foreign investors coming here, but the expat community is not big enough to sustain the growth of English-language publishing. The market for English-language books is not that big here, like Thailand and Singapore. Our country still relies on tourism and the expat community for English books.”

Freedom of expression comes with responsibility, he says. Even without state censorship, authors can be critical of anyone in their books but they do so at their own peril, he warns.

“While your work is not to be censored by the state, you could be in trouble with any falsified information. If something goes wrong, the government will take action and sue you because they might say the information is wrong,” he said.