Saturday, January 07, 2006

Turning down a great opportunity

I turned down the chance to be in the I.Y.P.I programme being organized by the British Council here in Muscat in affialiation with the London Book Fair 2006.

I had turned it down for a number of reasons. First, it needed someone to have several contacts in the publishing industry. That being said, I have barely published two books, written a few articles in theweek and run two blogs on the internet. That hardly qualifies me as a person who has several contacts in the Omani publishing industry, in my opinion.

Another reason I turned it down for is because they needed an in-depth analysis of the industry in terms of competitors, publishing agents in Oman and the kind of quality that they represent. I admit that I read a lot of Omani and sometimes - very rarely, actually - international newspapers and/or magazines. Thus, I don't think that enables to make full in-depth analysis of the industry again.

The strongest reason for me turning down the whole project was that I was told about the whole thing last Thursday (5/1/2006) and they needed the whole thing from me by today - Saturday (7/1/2006). So you can imagine the surprise that I felt and the nervousness from being reluctant to commit to such a project.

All in all, the whole project is a great challenge, and I would have loved to participate into it had I had more time to reflect upon it and more experience to share.

But like Jamal Al Moosawi from the British Council, Muscat said to me over the phone; 'Perhaps another time'..

2 comments:

suonnoch said...

Why did you turn it down? You would have known more than anyone else at the meeting. Was overseas travel involved and would all arrangements have been made for you? And as for having just two days to prepare something, I recall that that sort of time scale was customary to expect a proposal/answer/briefing from an expatriate in Oman.

Sleepless In Muscat said...

suonnoch:

it's true that there would have been overbroad travel involved plus everything would be taken care of..

but fact of a matter is that its just something that i don't know ANYTHING about and therefore, to say to someone or in front of a party that i do have the knowledge about such an industry would be a lie to myself and to them

and by the way - I am Omani not an expatriate, since you mentioned that subject