Enchanted by the charming story and illustrations, I looked for more books put out by the publisher, Çitlembik. This small publishing house in Tünel prints books in Turkish and English on a wide variety of subjects. My bookshelves at home now contain many of their books, while friends and family in the US have received their books about Turkey as gifts. I met with owner Nancy Öztürk to find out more about the company.What brought you to Turkey?
Öztürk: I met my Turkish husband (Professor Aksel Öztürk ) at the University of Michigan. We married in 1972 and moved here in 1973.
Since you have lived here so long, what are the biggest changes you have seen here?
Öztürk: I first visited Turkey in 1965. At that time Alanya was a very small town with no cars, almost deserted and pristine beaches and low prices. What could be more different than the Alanya of today? For each technological wonder I greet with delight, I seem to say goodbye to a natural or charming wonder that once was. I try not to be nostalgic, and I am very optimistic that the new reforms being enacted will also change those things that I found disappointing in Turkish life.
What was the impetus behind opening a publishing company?
Öztürk: I didn’t open a publishing company, I sort of fell into it. I opened a translation company in 1992 and was happily doing mostly commercial translations when in 2000 Rhonda Vander Sluis brought me a stack of photocopies detailing the research she and Richard Hinkle had done about the buildings lining the shores of the Bosphorus. I was hooked.
What type of books do you publish?
Öztürk: Thirty percent of our books are in English and are in-depth guide books or other books related to, or about some aspect of, Turkey. Most of our Turkish books center on a multicultural or wide cultural perspective. Besides our local Turkish authors, we have also published novels written by Indians, Iranians, South Americans, etc. We publish books about feminism and gender issues, along with books on psychology and global issues. We are also concentrating on publishing good quality books for children. We see children as thinking individuals who deserve books that will entertain, enthrall and provoke thought.
Who is your target market?
Öztürk: Our English books are directed toward English speakers who are looking for more in-depth material about Turkey. We gear our Turkish books toward readers who care about this country and the direction in which it is heading and who are curious about the wider world outside Turkey’s borders.
Who are the writers? Expats, Turks? How do you find new talent?
Öztürk: Talent finds us! We get more manuscripts than we have time to read and that is often problematic. Sometimes we come up with the idea of a book (like our “Turkish Baths” book for example) and then we find contract writers and photographers to work on the project.
What is your distribution in Turkey and overseas?
Öztürk: We have developed a large distribution network in Turkey. This was no easy task as Turkey doesn’t really have the typical big-name distributors. Finding companies we could trust and work with successfully proved to be very difficult, but right now we are quite satisfied with our distribution partners. Distributing in North America was even harder. That’s why I set up a sister company (Nettleberry LLC) in South Dakota with one of my oldest and dearest friends. We formed the company to sell Çitlembik’s books on the Internet and to Amazon but the company has taken off and now we are selling the English editions of many different Turkish publishers. I am very proud of this as Nettleberry has proven to be a conduit for Turkish books and a way for Americans to more easily find books about Turkey. Çitlembik also entered into a distribution with the National Book Network, America’s largest book distributor, and they distribute our books widely throughout North America to booksellers and libraries alike. We still are soft, however, on distributing to Europe and other continents. We decided to first get the American market squared away and then try to find channels in Europe and other places.
Are there any trends you have noticed in books published in Turkey?
Öztürk: Not really. Turkey’s largest group of readers seems to drift toward popular-type books, often written by celebrities and the like. But while this is the case, there are also wonderful books being published and they are finding and broadening serious readership. Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for literature this year and my hope is that this will be Turkey’s trend.
Çitlembik PublishingAddress: Seyh Bender Sok., 18/4 Asmalımescit, Tünel
Phone: 0212-292-30-32; 0212-252-31-63
Web site: www.Çitlembik.com.tr
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