Meeting House: Emma House speaks to inspiring bookwomen from around the world.

Sonia Draga is a true Publishing Entrepreneur – the Founder and Owner of Sonia Draga Publishing Group which she established in 2000. It quickly became one of the biggest publishing houses in Poland, specializing in contemporary fiction, biographies, reportage and popular science, publishing around 200 new titles per year. The Group owns 4 bookstores, 3 of which have cafes hosting literary events. The Group also has 4 imprints – a Children’s publishing house called Debit and a graphic novels imprint – NonStop Comics, a YA fiction brand Mlody Books and a non-fiction brand Post Factum.

As well as running the Publishing Group, Sonia is an author, translator, TV hostess and works tirelessly on behalf of the industry where she is President of the Literary Fiction Section of the Polish Book Chamber. She is involved in many activities promoting Reading for Pleasure. She is also a member of the board at the Book Fair Ltd. – the company that organizes major book fairs in Warsaw, Gdynia, Szczecin and Katowice.

1) How did you get into publishing and what attracted to you the industry?

I was born and brought up in Silesia and graduated from the University of Economy in Katowice.
My path to the publishing sector was rather unusual, before starting in the publishing industry I was distributing car audio equipment and the first book I published (and actually translated and did the DTP myself) was CAR STEREO COOKBOOK, a handbook I treat as an essential one to boost the sales of the car audio equipment I was distributing. It was very exhausting as I had to work on the translation during the night (literally!) whilst my days were spent managing the publishing house. I was also looking after my son who was 7 years old at the time. When I saw the result – a physical book – I was so happy that I recalled my everlasting love for books and decided to try with a fiction book. The industry was very difficult as a field for business opportunities, but I was passionate about the books and persistent. It took 2 years before I finally saw positive results.

2) Your publishing house has grown significantly over the last 20 years. What plans do you have for the future?

I have invested a lot in recent years – in the new imprints and in the bookstores – so I am fully focused on these projects, to “nurture” them, so that they become profitable. As soon as it is possible, we plan to organise lots events in our bookstores with a range interesting people.

I have also been asked to do lectures on publishing at the local university, so I may put some focus on academic activities.

But to be honest, it is so difficult now to talk about future plans. For the moment, my concerns are more about immediate future. I hope we will have an opportunity to talk again after the contagion is over and the world goes back to normal life – then my mind should think more properly about future…

3) What are your proudest moments of your career?

I have 2 that really stand out. In 2012 Sonia Draga Publishing was chosen the Best Publisher of the year 2012. In 2015 I was awarded the National Order of Merit by the President of France for distinguished achievements in promotion of French literature.

4) What challenges have you encountered in your career so far?

I think I face challenges almost every year in running my business – when I had to change my distribution partners, move the warehouses – but one was definitely 17 years ago when I was preparing the Polish edition of the book written by the author not much known until March 30th2003, when his latest book at that moment “Da Vinci Code”, became a world phenomenon.
The next challenge was publishing the books by EL James – the “Fifty Shades of Grey” series. We sold over 5 million copies of different editions of the books written by just these two authors, so it was a huge operational challenge.

5) As well as running your publishing group, you have a career as an author, translator, tv hostess, photographer and interpreter – tell us more about this activity?

I am especially keen on foreign languages and apart from Polish speak English, French, Italian, Spanish and Swedish. I have translated several books from English including: “Car Stereo Cookbook” by Mark Rumreich, “Good in Bed” by Jennifer Weiner, “The Polar Express” by Chris van Allsburg, “Mozart Finds Melody” by Stephen Constanza, and my most recent one is “In the time of contagion” by Paolo Giordano.
I love travelling and photography as well and have authored several books travel books illustrated with my own photographs: “Mexico – a country of contrasts”, “South Africa – a country of surprises” and an album with own photographs “World in My Camera”. I am also a regular contributor of articles to a Polish literary magazine. In the past I have been a hostess for the TV programme on books “Silesia reads”.

6) Which books are you most proud of publishing?

There are so many books I am proud of! I need to start with “Angels and Demons” by Dan Brown (that was the first book of his that we published). I bought that book together with “Da Vince Code” six months before the premiere of the second one, based on my own intuition. As such, I was named one of the “early believers”, what obviously makes me proud. Then I must mention “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides, one of the best literary books we’ve published and that we need to keep reprinting.

The “My Brilliant Friend” tetralogy by Elena Ferrante, a real jewel in the publishing world. The books by Jussi Adler-Olse which took me 2 years to negotiate with the agent and the previous Polish publisher, who is of academic profile and thus was not very successful with Jussi’s thrillers. I fell in love with them and decided not to give up in those complicated negotiations.

There are more stories like that – also with some of our children books, and graphic novels, and non-fiction titles, but I am trying to be concise…

7) Who do you admire in the publishing industry? Who are your role models?

Bodour Al Qasimi is one of such persons – she is at the head of not only publishing company, but many international initiatives, coming from the country where men have better opportunities to reign.

8) What is the situation for women in publishing in Poland?

The situation for women in publishing is improving, however very slowly. At least it is no longer surprising to see a woman at the head of a bigger company, but men still dominate the top positions. But I must admit that 20 years when I started in this industry, I had to fight hard to show my competence – it was like that for the next 12-15 years. Only in the last few years have we seen men pay respect to the women at the positions in our industry. The biggest bookstore chain has been run successfully by a lady since 2015, so that has been proof that women like her can manage this kind of venture. Actually, she is another person in the industry I admire.

9) You are active within the Polish Book Chamber – do they have any programmes that support and promote women in publishing?

No, unfortunately there are no such programs available.

10) What are your views on the Global PublisHer network and how do you think it can help and support women in publishing?

I think this is a great initiative and I do hope it could be of help to women in publishing around the world. I don’t know yet what could work – but any conferences, any possibilities to exchange ideas will be always helpful. The world is still run by men, so we, women, have to connect and support ourselves!

Emma’s always looking for more Meeting House interviewees. To take part please get in touch via Twitter, Facebook or info@womeninpublishing.org.