Meeting House: Emma House speaks to inspiring bookwomen from around the world.
Gvantsa Jobava is a member of the PublisHer network and at the age of 33 already has an impressive career in publishing. Gvantsa holds 3 major offices; Editor/International Relations Manager, Intelekti Publishing/ Artanuji Publishing, Chairperson, Georgian Publishers and Booksellers Association and Executive Committee member, International Publishers Association. She has managed a wealth of projects to promote the Georgian publishing and literary industry including the publishing program of the Guest of Honour at Frankfurt Book Fair (2018) and is one of the managers of Tbilisi – UNESCO World Book Capital (2021). She has participated in book fairs and fellowships programmes around the world and is a champion of women in publishing.
1. What attracted you to the publishing industry and how did you first get started?
I was born to a Georgian philologist father and English language teacher mother and lived in a house full of books. When I was young, I used to play with books, and very soon started reading them. At an early age I started writing poems and loved to create my own handmade books, so books played a major role in my life from early on. While choosing my future profession, I had two alternatives, journalism or literature and book publishing, I chose the latter. As soon as I graduated, I started my first job at a children’s books publishing house and knew immediately that this was going to be my profession forever.
2. What is the principle aims of your role at Intelekti / Artanjui Pubishing?
I started working at Intelekti Publishing and Artanuji Publishing in 2010 and have been there 9 years. These two publishing houses belong to one family and have different profiles. Intelekti is 25 years old and one of the first Georgian private publishing houses founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union, specialising in Georgian literature, classics or contemporary. We also publish translations of world classics and modern bestsellers, textbooks and non-fiction. Artanuji, is mainly focused on non-fiction books, Georgian and translated but does publish some important fiction books. Across both publishing houses we publish nearly 250 titles per year.
I started working in both of publishing houses as a rights manager and am now the International relations manager and an editor. In Georgian publishing it’s normal to double up job functions. I’m involved in creating new publishing series for the publishing house and editing books, but also involved in event management, promotional campaigns, presenting at book launches and through the media. Finally, I am a literary agent for many Georgian authors, selling their copyrights to foreign publishing houses, attending international book fairs to both buy and sell rights. Networking with our foreign colleagues is one of my favourite parts of my job, as well as managing visits of our foreign authors to Georgia. My favourite experience was hosting the 2015 Nobel Prize Winner Belarus writer Svetlana Alexievich in Georgia.
3. What challenges have you encountered in your career and how have you overcome them?
In 2013 I was elected as a deputy chairperson of the Georgian Publishers and Booksellers Association (GPBA) at the age of 27 and after two years, at the age of 29 I became the chairperson. The challenge was that unlike previous chairpersons, I was not the founder or director, but the employee of the publishing house. Whilst gender was not an issue, my age was a problem, especially in a country which is still dealing with Soviet traces in ideology, opinions, views; a country full of contrasts and differences in different generations. To gain the respect and trust among members and among partners and in governmental organizations was hard, tiring, stressful.
When I started at the Publishers Association, we faced many complications including difficult relationships among members, financial problems and no recognized authority. The staff and board members had to make changes and unpopular decisions for a better future for our industry. All of us (board members, staff and association member organizations) had to overcome that difficult period.
4. Who has inspired you in the world of global publishing?
It was Carmen Balcells Segala, the famous literary agent of Spanish and Latin American authors, and one of the most powerful and influential women in Spanish publishing. Her story and character, as one of the driving forces behind the 1960s boom of Latin American literature was really inspiring for me, considering that in Georgia we really don’t have literary agents. At the the beginning of my career, when we met foreign publishers in different international book fairs, they were not interested in Georgian literature. Many of them even didn’t have information about our country, language or our authors. Her story influenced my future development and I was lucky to have personal correspondence with her and managed to gain the agreement to be the option publisher of Marquez.
5. What has been the highlight of your career so far?
2018, when Georgia was the guest of honor at Frankfurt Book Fair and I worked on the project as head of the publishing program. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Georgia has essentially risen from the dead, and only 25 years later, we became the Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair. We Georgians used to say that this opportunity was a miracle. We didn’t have any experience doing such a huge international project, it was a big challenge and unbelievably hard, but the results were worth it.
We wanted to declare loudly that we believe that even under current circumstances, with 20% of Georgia occupied by Russia, it is essential for our country, for the people living with democratic values to become a full member of the EU. I can’t say whether we managed to achieve our full aims or not, but in October 2019 Juergen Boos – president of the Frankfurt Book Fair declared that Georgia was one of the most successful “Guest of Honour” in the history of the book fair. We were very happy and proud to hear this.
In the terms of the highlights of my career; at the International Publishers Association general assembly during Frankfurt Book Fair 2018, I was elected as an executive committee member. It is the first time Georgia is on the IPA board and is a huge responsibility.
6. What is the situation like for women in publishing in Georgia? (what is the % of women in the workforce and how many occupy senior positions?)
I’m happy to say that the situation for women in publishing in Georgia is very optimistic. According to the Georgian Publishers and Booksellers Association’s statistics, the percentage of men and women directors of the organizations is 50/50, it is like a paradise of gender equality. In the association board we have 6 women and 1 man, in the association staff – only women. In the last 10 years, GPBA chairpersons were 90% women and 10% men. In the Georgian publishing and literary field women are really dominating. Even 90% of the Frankfurt Book Fair Guest of Honor team were women.
7. As chairperson of the Georgian PA, what are your aims and objectives? Do you have any programmes within the PA to help women?
When I became the chairperson of the Georgian Publishers and Booksellers Association, we had to work hard to make our association a stronger organization not only locally but internationally as well. Today we are a strong institution to talk to and lobby the Georgian government for the publishing industry, but we still need to work hard to increase our influence.
The political situation inside the country is not easy, and we need a more educated society and better educational system. Together with our partner organizations, we have ensured that education, book reading, and literature, combined with social and political issues are very much supported by the Georgian media. We try to use this situation positively and struggle against the stereotypes which are still strong in parts of our society, like gender equality, violence, freedom of expression, bullying, topics of sexual minorities and many other challenges of the modern world. We know that still there is a gap in the book reading in our country, so reading promotion campaigns and projects are a priority for us.
As for women in publishing, we have many interesting female publishing characters, who are leaders and public persons who are already influencing society positively and giving examples of struggles for success and how to gain the appropriate position in the society. Many people in Georgia are speaking about women power in the Georgian publishing and literary industry. We are very proud of this achievement and we’ll go on supporting especially newcomer females.
8. What do you hope to contribute in your position as Executive Committee Member of the IPA?
Being an IPA Executive member is a huge responsibility for me and I want to be useful and active. The first year of being a member of ExCom was challenging as I had a lot to learn. In April 2019 I took part in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s committee on ‘copyright and neighbouring rights’ in Geneva and we will host the next IPA Educational Publishers Forum meeting in Tbilisi in February 2020. GBPA has many other plans to be an active member of the IPA Executive Committee and I hope we’ll fulfill them. As for the topics I would like to contribute, I’ll underline freedom of expression, human rights, freedom of publishing, accessibility in education – as the issues which are important to my everyday life in Georgia.
9. What are your views of the PublisHer network and how do you think it can help women in publishing?
I think PublisHer network is a brilliant idea. When I attended the first PublisHer networking dinner in London 2019, I met many wonderful female publishing professionals from all around the world sharing their stories and experiences. I realized that it was a start of an amazing movement which will achieve success. I follow the activities of this network and I’m sure this movement will be inspiring for women who are struggling for their rights. A network where you can meet the most successful female publishing professionals is a chance to learn from them and a possibility to be involved in the common projects in the future. I’m happy that the PublisHer network continues to develop I will always be happy to contribute.
Emma’s always looking for more Meeting House interviewees. To take part please get in touch via Twitter, Facebook or info@womeninpublishing.org.
