The Khaleejesque team continually ponders with the barrage of research, commercial trends, and click bait articles that have called ‘time of death’ on our respective field of publishing. With our collected knowledge, network, and experience in what is seemingly a “dying field,” we set to formulate our own research more focused on the MENA publishing scene on a global scale—namely, niche and independent publishing platforms, whether print or online, founded and staffed by young Arabs and Muslims from around the world.
As a platform that strives to amplify the voices of creatives and activists alike, we are dedicated to sharing our findings on a burgeoning field amongst creatives of the MENA region and beyond. As traditional publishing houses increasingly diminish, these independent platforms are paving the way for a new movement—heralding a cultural paradigm shift towards an egalitarian voice in publishing far from the constraints of traditional print and online media.
As a result, we’ve published a MENA Indie Zines and Platforms feature which can be accessed here.
In addition we’ve reached out to individual Zines who have shared with us their intricate workings and their missions and visions for their platform.
On behalf of Sail Magazine, Iman Ben Chaibah (Founder) has answered below.
- About the Platform:
Sail really aims to instigate conversations about things that matter to all communities, and also bring said communities together by shedding light on matters that might not be commonly discussed even when and if they are points of concern to a greater majority. Through our magazine and books we touched many hearts and souls, whether through our mental health focus, parenting issues, youth life matters, poetry books, kids books, and so on. We love receiving emails and comments about how what we published have touched them and helped them in some of their toughest times. And knowing that we created a community of contributors who support each other to the best is one of the things we take pride in with Sail. We aim to continue to inspire, connect, and touch lives through Sail.
- Content: what is your publication concerned with and what kind of content does it feature?
We're a general interest magazine covering op-ed pieces on different aspects in community and culture from work life, student life, mental health, business, parenting, health and so on. In terms of books we now publish kids books, adult books in fiction, poetry, non fiction, and self help. We publish our books digitally and in print.
- The team behind the platform:
We run a mixed culture team thanks to the different projects under Sail. We mainly work with contributors, and some freelancers on special projects especially in the case of books and on commissioned projects, and we also have interns occasionally.
Our team are sometimes scouted and hand picked from writers and designers on social media platforms, and many times we get approached by longtime readers who want to become part of the team.
- Work Space:
All the team works remotely. We do have our whatsapp groups to connect each team together and discuss projects and also emails and shared folders.
sailemagazine.com
twitter.com/sailpublishing
instagram.com/sailpublishing
Images courtesy of Sail Magazine & Sail Publishing.
