Fast advances in technology might allow people to get information that they want easily, but it would never undermine the existence of books themselves, said Setia Dharma Madjid, chair of the Indonesian Publishers Association (IKAPI)

“I think books are still irreplaceable. We don’t see people in Japan opening their laptops, downloading e-books and read those on train. Thankfully that doesn’t happen in Indonesia either,” he told youthspeak on March 6.

“Those who really love reading definitely prefer books because they’re more accessible. The high-speed information access the Internet provides? That will only be used to search for some particular information.”

“Besides, not everyone here has access to computers or the Internet.”

With Internet access getting easier and more affordable every year, Setia did say the book industry still faces challenges from increased production costs which are leading to higher book prices.

With prices high, the industry is experiencing slower growth. People tend to wait for the right time to buy books and Indonesians generally have yet to place book-buying among their first priorities.

“The high price of paper is setting off the increase in book prices. This is going to be a real challenge for us publishers. We need to think about how to keep publishing and selling books without losing our readers at the same time,” he said.

He said publishers were anticipating the problem by publishing books in series in the hope people would keep buying books, but avoid paying a big amount all at once.

“Except for textbooks. Families still have to buy those, like it or not, and those sales can reach millions every year.”

As textbooks also get more expensive year by year, the National Education Ministry last year bought the copyrights to 287 textbooks for elementary through senior high school courses and made them available for free download from the Internet.

The regulation specifies anyone can print, copy, distribute and sell these books as long as the price does not exceed the maximum retail price set by the government.

Setia said this policy has been unfair for the industry.

“We can’t sell our books at schools because of the government’s e-book program, even though our books have been certified. This hurts our business,” he said.

In addition to high production costs, high distribution costs also have made books affordable for fewer people, especially readers in more remote parts of the country. Another industry leader has said he expects good things to come from a new mobile bookstore program.

Chair of the Alliance of Indonesian Bookstores Firdaus Umar said he thought this program could enhance people’s access to quality, affordable books in all regions. The program launches 1000 mobile bookstores and is implemented by the government in cooperation with industry players.

The government set up the program to combat the high distribution costs in the regions. The program focuses on providing affordable textbooks as well as general books throughout the regions. “This is a good effort to instill and improve reading habits from a young age.” Firdaus said.

Talking about teenage readers, Setia said they represent a potential market; once they started reading and understand the importance of books, they would buy regularly and would likely pass their reading habits on to their own children in the future.

He also noted that many youngsters nowadays are not only actively reading but have also started to write their own books and publish them on their own.

“It is not that hard to publish your own writing, if you want. Just print it from a computer, design your own cover and take it to a printing company. You can offer it for sale on your own or try to cooperate with bookstores,” he said, adding that a marketing strategy would help.

With reading, textbook access and even self-publishing thriving, the IKAPI chair still expressed concern about the protracted book piracy in the country.

Though it hurt publishers, Setia said, piracy would always exist. Most pirated books were the current bestsellers.

“All in all, our industry is developing well although many challenges come into play. Many new talented authors, including youngsters, are making their publishing debut and many book fairs are successfully getting those works out to their readers,” Firdaus said.

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