From the pages of Prem’s book

Journalist turned publisher Prem Dissanayaka talks about emerging business trends, the mindset of buyers and the future of literature in Sri Lanka

Pic by Ravindra Dharmathilake

For a book lover Maradana Road is a road to heaven. The number of bookshops and discount stores are fascinating and it would take more than an entire day if one is to check out all the bookstores. Among these bookshops is Surasa Bookshop which was opened recently. But compared to the other bookstores, it seems to maintain quality. However, head of Surasa as well as Fast Ads and Fast Publishing, Prem Dissanayaka said that it is not an easy task to maintain the quality of the books in the publishing industry today.

A prominent figure in the field of arts, Dissanayake is also an entrepreneur. He obtained his primary education from Thalahena Central College and entered Thurstan College, Colombo for secondary education. “I chose science subjects for Advanced Level, but I was popular at school for my drawing skills and had to help out in school events by drawing or painting banners,” he said. As a young student, he said that he had a keen interest in literature too and had started writing poems, short stories and various articles for newspapers. “Since my attention was grabbed by the political newspapers most of my contributions were also for the alternative political newspapers. Subsequently, I became a frequent contributor of Aththa newspaper,” he recalled. Aththa (truth) was a Sinhala daily newspaper, published from Colombo by the Communist Party between 1964 and 1995.

Leaving school Dissanayaka joined Aththa newspaper as a full time employee in 1967. Since then he has worked in several newspaper institutions including Lake House, Times of Ceylon, Dawasa and Veerakesari. “For some reason I couldn’t be at the same place for more than six months. Therefore in no time I was jobless,” he said. He mentioned that during this era many young people were unemployed and unemployment frustrated them. Dissanayaka was also a part of this frustrated group. To relieve his frustration he started contributing to the Kekulu newspaper which was renamed as Rathu Kakulu as the children’s newspaper of the Communist Party during the same period.

Although he was unemployed, coming from a family of businessmen, his parents were capable of supporting him. But he said that as a young man he had wanted to be independent and didn’t want to depend on his parent’s money. Making his wish come true, he was offered a job as a government science and math teacher in 1970. “It was during the Sirimavo Bandaranaike regime and I got the appointment to Ratnapura Sumana Balika Vidyalaya. But my first government job didn’t last for more than four periods in the time table,” he laughed. “It was uncomfortable to teach. I didn’t like it. So I took the bus back home,” he said adding that his parents were not happy that he left a job with a pension scheme without even trying.

Dissanayaka said that he believes that his reckless behavior as a youth was also the reason behind his success today. After leaving the government job, Dissanayake started working as an artist and this was the first step towards his position today. In 1978 with the open market free economy, the audio cassette industry became popular among people and the need to make cassettes look presentable was emerging. “Covers for the cassettes were made in Singapore. We didn’t have a method in Sri Lanka,” he mentioned. The first Sinhala music audio cassette in Sri Lanka was launched under the Tharanga label of Wijaya Ramanayake. The cover for this cassette Sanden Eha was created by Prem Dissanayake.

He iterated that it is important that a person creates a market value for his or her name in the area this person is skilled in, in order to brand themselves in the field. “Through the cassette covers I was able to brand my name. With this recognition I started receiving projects for the film industry too, to make directories, posters and banners. I became a busy man,” he reminisced. “If a person fails to brand himself, to create a market value for his skills, it won’t matter how skilled he is. He will become a failure, his skills would be crippled,” he added.

Although Dissanayake started this job to become independent, with the recognition and increasing number of projects he felt the need to start a professional business. “This is why I started an advertising agency and with the name I had built, we received a lot of opportunities,” he said. Along with the advertising agency Dissanayaka also started a cinema newspaper called Rasaduna and later another cinema newspaper named Vichithra. Rasanduna cinema paper was known to be a paper with an outstanding layout design. Vichithra newspaper holds the credits of popularizing HR Jothipala, the legendary singer. “Vichithra newspaper baptized Jothipala in the arts field as a giant cultural pillar.

With his death, Prof Sarath Amunugama writing for Vichithra, helped people realize that Jothipala was not just a pavement singer, but a hero in Sri Lankan musical history. “His article highly debatable, received attention that Prof Sarachchandra, Ajith Samaranayake, Freddie Siriwardena and Simon Nawagaththegama wrote replies,” he said. “Even the high class society understood his societal value,” said Dissanayaka. He explained how a newspaper can change the attitude of the people. “This is when Colombo high class people started to show interest in Jothipala,” he reflected.

Later he bought the Kala newspaper; another cinema-based newspaper from its founder Ariyarathna Kahawita. “Kala also became a leading cinema newspaper, but we had to give up due to the July riots. And that also marked the end of my newspaper career,” he said. After the riots he moved his office to a building behind People’s Bank in Colombo. He mentioned that moving there was a turning point of his life that he was able to help People’s Bank avoid an event which could have brought them ill fame because of its official advertising agency. “They were impressed and offered me projects in return. Following this event I received projects from National Lotteries Board and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation,” he said proudly. By 1994 Dissanayaka’s advertising agency became the official advertising agency of People’s Bank, National Lotteries Board and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation; the three main financial institutions in the country. “As a small company this was a challenging period, but we did our best,” he said.

In late 90s a complete printing press was a part of Fast ads and was named Fast Printory and following Dissanayaka’s childhood interest in literature, Fast ads became Fast ads and Fast Publishing, an advertising agency and a book publishing company. Today Fast Publishing is a competitive Book Publishing Company with the fascinating Bookshop in Maradana named Surasa. Dissanayaka is content with the quality of the books published at Fast Publishing. “In 1999 we started by launching 50 books. Today we don’t miss an award and are yet to see our nominations not reach the last round at the annual literary festivals,” he emphasized.

Dissanayake lamented that the value of the newspaper journalist has deteriorated. “Earlier a journalist was solely interested in performing their duties towards society. They spoke for the society to pinpoint injustice,” he said. “In January 8, 1965 when Dambarawe Rathanasara Thera was killed, the journalists who covered the event came back soaked in blood. They had been attacked and injured, but they didn’t fail to do their duty,” he recalled. “If it happened today, journalists being attacked would be the lead story and not the murder,” he lamented. “Journalists seem to care more about their personal benefits, which should not be the objective of their jobs. But I believe that this might be happening unconsciously since the mindset of the whole society it similar. It’s not only the journalists who are running behind financial benefits,” he lamented.

He believed that these values have deteriorated because the priority of societies has moved from knowledge to money. “People run behind meaningless things. They seem to care more about maintaining their outer appearance other than the knowledge,” he said. He further said that this change occurred after 1978. “People have become selfish and unkind. Relationships are undervalued. The relationship our generation had with our parents is not there anymore with the new generations,” Dissanayaka expressed his grief.

He further said that the situation is no different in the book publishing business. “Book publishers’ main responsibility is to choose what’s good for the society. We could see that the pioneers of book publishers grasped their responsibility well,” he said. “If you take the early Sinhala texts, like Piyadasa Sirisena’s or S Mahinda Thera’s work, they were meant to refine the society. Books nurtured peoples’ intellectual needs,” he pointed out. He also mentioned that this created a community of readers around the publisher who demanded good books. Since the societal priorities shifted, he said that the quality of the publications as well as the demands of the community of readers has deteriorated.

“People who wrote books when there were no literary festivals or awards are still among the best writers. Sarachcharandra or Martin Wickramasinghe may not have got awards for their work, but there work is eternal. These award winning books today are forgotten the next year,” he exclaimed. “Literature should be improved with all these festivals and awards, but what happens is the exact opposite,” Dissanayaka said adding that the Sri Lankan literature seems to be threatened.

He identifies the main reason for this as the irresponsibleness in the publishing industry. “Once a book is on the process of getting published, it should be edited to fit to the need of the reader. In foreign countries, copy editors should edit them without harming the writer’s ideas after the publisher accepts the copy,” he explained. “But this duty is not performed here. Anyone can write anything and it will be published unedited. Therefore finally when the reader receives the book he or she has to edit it in the mind and read maybe having to skip paragraphs or pages of writing,” he expressed his grief. He also said that editing is a tuff job in book publication since the writers object to their work being edited. “If they don’t want their work to be edited, they should be very careful with their grammar, facts, dates and well as the body,” he affirmed.

He pointed out another major shortage in the book publishing. As he said the autonomous creations are less and further decreasing. New autonomous English books are very rare. Yet, the number of translations is on the rise. “This is also a sign to say that Sri Lankan literature is in danger,” he said. In addition Dissanayaka said that translations are becoming a trend now that translators produce books rapidly. “We had translations which were better than the original books like Sara Bhumi, Sudu Veddah or Sudu Gona where justice for the original book was done. But this translation trend is destroying it,” he noted.

He also spoke about the annual International Book Exhibition. Over the years the crowd attracted to the book fair rose significantly. “Book Exhibition has become a national calendar event. It should be an event where people could buy good books, but it is unavoidable that it gains features of a commercial fair. But these features should not destroy the freedom of choosing books freely,” he opined.

However, Dissanayaka said that he is doubtful whether the readership has increased although the number of books sold has increased at the Book Fair. “It seems more like they are collecting books rather than read. If they read all what they buy it would be evident in the society,” he claimed.

He opined that this situation can’t be corrected by imposin­­g laws. “There should be self-discipline in what a person writes or publishes. Selling a book is selling intelligence. People who are engaged in the business should be accountable for what they provide the society,” he said. “The amount people spend to buy a book should not be what he spent for the cover and the papers. The reader should get justice for the amount of money paid,” he reiterated.

Dissanayake stressed that if the industry doesn’t look in to these matters, the day the readers deny low quality will not be very far away. “Look at the audio cassette industry in Sri Lanka. It was in its golden days, but the industry couldn’t maintain the standards. So the trend was killed. Then the audio CDs became a trend. Today it’s a pavement business. Similar with the Sri Lankan film industry,” he pointed out. “If the book publishers and writers don’t become self-disciplined, same thing will happen to the book industry,” he said adding that it is still not too late for the necessary actions to be taken.