Elif Nur Şafak. Image: Kalem Agency
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
See also:
In Türkiye: Wattpad’s Disruption: ‘No Explanation’
In the States: Open Road Integrated Media Offers Geo-Targeting to Open Banned Books
In Canada: Censorship and Library-Patron Interest in Books
In Norway: WEXFO on Democracy and the Freedom to Read
In Brazil: Publishers Call Out Perceived Censorship
Wattpad ‘Has Positively Affected the Reading Culture’
Following our August 1 article on perceived disruptions of Wattpad‘s service in Türkiye, an agent who specializes in children’s books at Nermin Mollaoğlu‘s Kalem Agency in Istanbul sent a note to colleagues.
Agent Elif Nur Şafak wrote that while her email newsletters on children’s literature are usually “bright and breezy,” that was not the case this month because “my beautiful country has [become] one of the states where authorities [have] implemented a block on Instagram.” What normally is a collection of colleagues’ Instagram posts were, for this reason, she wrote, made impossible to send out the anticipated content.
As you’ll recall, the Wattpad administration in Toronto, as described to us by a person familiar with the situation inside the company, has been frustrated with customer complaints it can’t answer from users in Türkiye because the Canadian company hasn’t been able to reach contacts in the government to determine whether the reported disruptions are, in fact, state suppression, technical glitches, or something else.
Şafak, in her email to colleagues, makes the case for aspiring writers who have found Wattpad a stepping stone into a publishing-related career. You’ll note that she and others in Türkiye speak of this and other disruptions as bannings, but, as Wattpad’s administration has found, it can be hard to determine the veracity of that perception. (Many national governments prefer evasion to head-on admission of unpopular actions, of course.) For this reason, we speak of disruptions, while you’ll notice that Şafak talks of bannings.
“If one way is blocked, we find another way to reach audiences. It’s a survival method we’ve developed over the years.”Elif Nur Şafak, Kalem Agency
“Just very recently,” she writes, Wattpad, “which supported my dreams of becoming a writer at a young age, which helped me gain friends when I didn’t have many at high school, which provided a platform where I could express myself when I felt self-conscious, “also banned by authorities. When Wattpad was banned, some people supported this and shared their joy on Instagram.
“Now Instagram is banned, the same people are angry.”
Regional news reports have spoken of government blocks on various social-media outlets and platforms in the past, but Western confirmation remains hard to come by. Nevertheless, it’s clear that many in Türkiye believe they’re experiencing government suppression of various platforms, and are anything but happy about it.
‘A Key Platform for Teenagers’
In an exchange we’re glad to have had with Şafak, she tells us that the Kalem Agency itself has worked with writers who began their authorial careers in the serial-writing channels of Wattpad—and some whose work has in fact been spotted outside the country that way.
Related article: Wattpad’s Disruption in Türkiye: ‘No Explanation.’ Image – Getty Aivita
“Authors who initially gained popularity on Wattpad and then published their work in physical form,” she says, “have seen a rise in their book sales, thanks to their online presence. And actually, there are instances in which a foreign publisher sees a Turkish book on social media and sends us screenshots to acquire the translation rights.
“Furthermore,” Şafak says, “Kalem has been actively working for the platform to gain wider recognition and respect.”
Since 2009, she points out, Kalem has organized the ITEF-Istanbul International Literary Festival, an event familiar to our readers, during which international writers and literary professionals get together with Turkish readers.
“Each year a theme is selected,” she says, “and in 2016 it was ‘City and Voices.’ That festival included an event called Audible Voices of Youth in which young writers with large reader communities shared their writing experiences and got together with their readers.”
When Publishing Perspectives spoke to a source at Wattpad for the report earlier this month, we were told that the company in Toronto no longer speaks to the size of a given market’s following among what the company says is now a total 90 million monthly users.
But it’s clear from her work in Istanbul, Şafak says, that “Wattpad is considered a key platform for teenagers in Türkiye, as it provides them a place to try out their abilities and build communities. It’s way easier to test yourself and receive instant feedback from real-life readers than submitting directly and bluntly to editors,” she says, “with whom the chances of recognition are slim.
“There was a boom toward this trend about 10 years ago,” she says, “but this doesn’t mean the hype is over. It has positively affected the reading culture, especially among young people, and revived writer-reader meetings. Actually, many Wattpad writers were among the first bookstagrammers in Türkiye, as they already had a community that loved talking about books. It’s ironic now that they can’t post on Instagram anymore.”
‘The Value of Freedom of Speech’
Şafak says that the current level of disruptions follows a time between 2017 and 2020 when she recalls Wikipedia being inaccessible in Türkiye, “and I believe that was the peak of such suppressions lately,” she says.
Related article: At Norway’s WEXFO: Democracy and the Freedom to Read. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson
And of course, one of the things we ask Şafak is what kind of impact such presumed suppressions of platforms may have on creative people, writers included. The pressure on the “trinity of freedoms” in so many cultures today—as will be examined both at Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 16 to 20) and at the International Publishers Association‘s (IPA) International Publishers Congress (December 3 to 6)—can carry an alarming impulse for creative people to censor themselves. The freedom to write, to read, and to otherwise express yourself, can easily be second-guessed by those living in fear of intimidation tactics of the kind of suppression being described here.
As it turns out, she sees in this a testament to the kind of dogged fortitude she and her people have become accustomed to manifesting.
“I believe it depends on the author,” Şafak says, “as to how a writer may experience the disruptions of the kind Türkiye is reporting.
“Of course, the protest is always valid,” she says, “but if one way is blocked, we find another way to reach audiences. It’s a survival method we’ve developed over the years. So, although these disruptions create discomfort, they also remind us the value of freedom of speech.”
Update, August 13: Following our publication of this report, the Kalem Agency has let us know that Instagram appears to be becoming accessible in Türkiye. The status of Wattpad there remains unclear.
See also:
Rights Edition: Frankfurt’s 2024 ‘Centre for Words’ in Hall 4.1
Rights Edition: Paola Passarelli on Italian Rights, Translation, and Stereotypes
Rights Roundup: Last Break Before the Autumn Season
More from Publishing Perspectives on digital publishing is here, more on the Turkish market is here, more on Wattpad is here, and more on the “trinity of freedoms”—to publish, to read, and to free expression—is here.
Publishing Perspectives is the International Publishers Association’s world media partner.