Pub Res Q (2016) 32:54–57

DOI 10.1007/s12109-016-9446-7

The Publishing Industry in Indonesia

Linda Tan Lingard1

Published online: 17 February 2016

Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016

Abstract Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world with more
than 250 million people and 17,000 islands. Indonesia was the guest-of-honor at the
2015 Frankfurt Book Fair, and as such was the first southeast nation to be repre-
sented. The publishing industry in Indonesia has an annual net revenue of USD 466
million (2013) and is dominated by a few large players. Almost 40,000 new titles
are published annually. About half of all books published are translations. Ebooks
currently contribute only 2 % of total turnover.

Keywords Indonesia
Publishing industry
Demographics
Ebooks
Print

books
Bookselling
Gramedia
Translation grants
Frankfurt Book Fair

Indonesia—the name conjures up images of gorgeous islands, exotic dancers and

myths. It is not difficult to see why; Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000
islands and has a population of more than 250 million—the fourth largest in the
world after China, India and the United States. It also has the largest Muslim
population. With this cultural diversity it is not surprising that the country has lots of
stories to tell.
It is worth pointing out here that 60 % of the population live on the island of Java
and capital city Jakarta has a population of 30 million.

Demographics

Figure 1 shows the age structure of the population in Indonesia.

& Linda Tan Lingard

Lindalingard2@gmail.com
1
Yusof Gajah Lingard Literary Agency, 24-2 Medan Setia, Plaza Damansara, Damansara
Heights, 50490 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Fig. 1 Age structure. Source: CIA World Fact Book

More than 40 % of the population is 24 years old or younger with a median age
of 29 years. This rather young population points to demand for books for children,
teenagers and young adults.

Publishing Industry

The publishing industry in Indonesia has an annual net revenue of Euro 415 million
(2013) or USD 466 million. Almost 40,000 new titles or new re-editions are
published annually which comes to 119 titles per million inhabitants (2014). See
Fig. 2.
The Indonesian Book Publishers Association (IKAPI) has 1314 members but it is
estimated that there are 1500 publishers. However, the publishing industry is
dominated by a few large players including Gramedia, Mizam, Agromedia,
Erlangga and Penebar.
Gramedia also owns the largest bookstore chain with more than 100 outlets
across the country. Average book retail price varies from Euro 2–14 for children’s
books to Euro 4–6 for novels.
Typical print runs are from 4000 to 5000 copies with around 10–20 % of titles
selling between 10,000 and 100,000 copies. A book that has sold more than 5
million copies is Laskar Pelangi (Rainbow Troops) by Andrea Hirata which has also
been translated into 30 languages in 100 countries.
Apart from bookstores, books are sold through peer recommendations and
through the internet. Indonesia’s relatively young population is highly active on
social media, forming the third largest facebook and twitter community worldwide
with 63 million social media users (2013).
Children’s books and school curriculum books make up more than 30 % of book
sales. This is followed by 12.6 % for fiction and literature and 39 % for other

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0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

United Kingdom 2875
Taiwan 1831
Slovenia 1831
Spain 1626
Georgia 1547
Czech Republic 1509
Norway 1275
Australia 1176
Germany 1156
France 1008
Italy 1002
United States 959
Hungary 920
Korea 795
Finland 793
Austria 757
Russia 699
Malaysia 639
Argenna 614
Japan 613
Turkey 561
New Zealand 479
Poland 353
China 325
Vietnam 273
Colombia 229
Thailand 215
Mexico 200
Indonesia 119
Brazil 104
South Africa 68
Pakistan 19

Fig. 2 New titles per million inhabitants. Source: International Publishers Association Global Report,
2014

categories such as business, self-help, cooking, agriculture and computing

(Gramedia Bookstores 2013).

Copyright, Rights and Licences

Indonesia is signatory of the Bern Convention and WIPO Copyright Treaty but it
remains on the IPA’s priority watch list.
About 40–50 % of all published titles are translations (mostly from English,
Arabic, Chinese, Korean or Japanese). These include novels, children’s books
(including manga and Korean ‘wave’ books); management, self-help and social
science. Indonesia is the largest rights buyers of translations in Southeast Asia.
Malaysia is an active buyer of Indonesian translation rights. While both countries
use the root Malay language the two languages are different enough to require

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translation for mass appeal. Despite these differences, it is possible for a Malaysian
publisher to evaluate an Indonesian book without requiring an English edition.
More than 280 titles are translated from Indonesian to English within the country
with the Lontar Foundation playing a key role.
There is now available a translation funding programme established by the
Government in conjunction with Indonesia’s role as Guest of Honour at Frankfurt
Book Fair. More information is available: http://islandsofimagination.id/article/
read/5.

Digital Publishing

Ebook sales are still small and comprise only 2 % of total publishing turnover but
this is likely to grow with the wide use of mobiles and mandatory e-learning. The
government requires that all textbooks be available in ebook format although this is
hampered by the lack of infrastructure. And as previously mentioned, the young
population in Indonesia is internet savvy.

Book Fairs

For a country with a dispersed population, such as Indonesia, in addition to a poor

distribution network, selling books through fairs continues to be an important
channel. Book fairs are held in Jakarta and other major cities such as Surabaya,
Yogyakarta, Bandung and Semarang.
In Jakarta alone, there are five key book fairs—The Pesta Buku Jakarta;
Indonesian Book Fair; Islamic Book Fair; Academic Book Fair; Library and
Academic Book Fair. Other special book fairs are organised by publishers including
the Gramedia Book Fair and Mizan Book Fair.

Conclusion

Indonesia deserves our attention because it has a lot of stories to tell, stories that
have been hidden for too long. It is a country bursting at its seams and trying to
grow quickly. Finding the right partners in Indonesia is important to guide one
through the maze of bureaucracy and cultural differences.

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