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Indonesia to sell rights at the 2019 London Book Fair
Indonesia will offer a complete experience of its literature for visitors to the 2019 London Book Fair.
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Indonesia aims to exhibit a distinctive experience to the public and introduce the country as a whole. (Shutterstock/File)
Indonesia is the first Southeast Asian country to be selected as the Market Focus at the 2019 London Book Fair.
Indonesia will focus on selling rights at the March 12 to 14 event at Olympia in the United Kingdom.
Hilmar Farid, the Education and Culture Ministry’s culture director general, told The Jakarta Post that writers would be featured at the event. “Publishers there known to offer contracts if they like certain stories – even before the authors start writing,” Hilmar said at the Indonesia as Market Focus Country media reception in Senayan, South Jakarta, on Sept. 12.
He said several Indonesian authors were in the UK on residential programs, among them Ratih Kumala (author of Cigarette Girl) and Reda Gaudiamo (author of Na Willa), and hoped more Indonesian writers could join such programs to get ideas that local publishers may find appealing.
Hilmar said an exhibition offering a complete Indonesian experience would be held at the London Book Fair, such as books, music and films and at the same time Indonesia would be introduced as an entity, rather than focusing on selling titles only.
Hilmar perceived it to be necessary as Indonesian literature was not well-known in the UK. “We lack writers who write in English. Almost all of them have to be translated,” he said.
A similar problem is faced by Jacks Thomas, director of the London Book Fair, who said people were thirsty for Indonesian literature. “The single biggest barrier to actually getting your books is we can’t read the language,” Thomas said. “Publishers look for tiny samples in English or, if they’re German, in German.”
Read also: Indonesia to be market focus country in London Book Fair 2019
Meanwhile, Siti Gretiani, the coordinator of promotion and literacy of the National Book Committee (KBN), said English translators in Indonesia were improving. “This is because nowadays the young generation are able to speak English well and they’re interested [in translating], but I haven’t found the best one yet,” Siti said.
She further explained that literature was more challenging to translate than nonfiction as a translator needed to understand the context and translate it without changing the original writer’s sense of language. Siti also said that a lack of exposure and the right literary agent were other problems faced by Indonesian literature in the international publishing sphere.
When it comes to genre that Indonesia should bring to the London Book Fair next year, Thomas mentioned fiction, children’s books, Islamic books and graphic novels. “There’s this huge movement around graphic novels. They’re universally popular,” Thomas said. “We’re looking to having some of them.”
Siti agreed with Thomas regarding genre. “Literature and Islamic books – because there is a large Muslim community there,” Siti said. (mut)
