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View Point: Books, bucks and bleeding toes
In May this year, I published Juliaâs Jihad, (Komunitas Bambu [Kobam], 2013), an anthology of columns
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n May this year, I published Julia's Jihad, (Komunitas Bambu [Kobam], 2013), an anthology of columns. After it was officially launched on June 26, I thought, okay, my job is pretty much done.
Was I ever wrong! Like any author, I want my work to be distributed widely, and I hoped my latest book would find a happy home in a chain bookstore with lots of outlets, including airports.
Julia's Jihad is a book about Indonesia (and Islam), but as a collection it's ideal for travelers ' they can cherry-pick and read one column at a time without losing the thread of the story.
So, I suggested to JJ Rizal, my publisher, that he place Julia's Jihad in a bookstore with outlets not just in Indonesian airports but also in Singapore.
Changi is a major hub, with 51 million passengers passing through in 2012 alone. If just a fraction bought my book, I'd be very happy!
Rizal's reply was disheartening, 'Teteh [older sister in Sundanese]', he said, 'that bookshop chain wants a 60 percent discount. If they get it for Julia's Jihad, they will ask the same for all our other books, and that's just too much for us', he said.
Sixty percent? That's highway robbery! How much would be left for the publisher to cover costs, let alone the poor author who gets a measly 10 percent royalties or even less?
I was torn, trapped in the writer's dilemma: The desire to reach readers vs the need to earn a living. I felt like saying to Rizal, hey, let's do it anyway, the important thing is to get the book distributed widely, right?
Personally, I would, but I understood that Kobam was trapped in the publisher's dilemma. Out of solidarity, I very reluctantly accepted Rizal's decision. For now at least.
But the reality is that most big bookstores in Indonesia demand a high discount: 40-50 percent. They have the upper hand because, in the end, they have a 'monopoly' on book distribution, and publishers are forced to buckle under if they want their books in shops.
Even then, the bookstores usually only take books on consignment, so there is no risk to them. Often bookstores also refuse to provide detailed information about the spread of their distribution or how long a book remains on the bookstore shelves.
Rizal estimates most consignment books get bumped off within three months. They are then returned to the publishers, who are stuck with marketing the books themselves or stuffing them in their bulging warehouses ' which kind of defeats the purpose of having distributors, right?
The high price of books is not just a result of the bookstore 'monopoly' but also the lack of a book-friendly policy from the government. The book industry has to deal with manifold taxes: Taxes on paper, printing, ink and the books themselves, publishing taxes, sales taxes, bookshop taxes, etc. And in the end, the weight of these taxes has to be borne by you ' the reader.
As a result of all these pecuniary constraints, publishers have to 'mark up' the production costs of their books by five to seven times. Even a book that costs Rp 50,000 (US$5)is the price of 7 kilograms of rice, 7.5 liters of petrol, or about 14 tickets on the Transjakarta busway.
For people on a budget ' and who isn't these days? ' spending priorities and opportunity costs are something that have to be carefully considered, especially in today's post-fuel hike days.
That's right ' the government treats books as if they were any other commodity, like cars, copra or candy, even though they embody our cultural and intellectual heritage and document our nation's history.
Without them we have no memory, no soul or spirit! And who loses out in the end? Yep, as usual it's the public who pay the real price.
This is why enterprising authors like Dewi 'Dee' Lestari of Supernova fame, try to buck the system. Not only does she self-publish, she also distributes her books online. Internet penetration in Indonesia ' number eight in the world ' is high. It's 23.5 percent in fact, meaning there are 61.08 million users. Many publishers already follow Dee's example and many more should.
But even that won't totally solve the problem, because 77.5 percent of the population still lacks access to the Internet ' or indeed to books for that matter, due to their priceyness.
Sadly, Indonesia ranks the lowest of all ASEAN countries when it comes to reading culture. Only one in a thousand has a serious reading habit. No wonder Indonesia ranks 69 (out of 127 countries) on the 2011 UNESCO education index, down from 65 in 2010. How do you educate a nation that doesn't read?
Nevertheless, demand for books still exists and prices are sky high. And that, of course, is a recipe for '¦ piracy! No wonder some of the old established publishers like Obor, Sinar Harapan, LP3ES and Balai Pustaka are not doing so well.
I love writing, but it's not easy. Thomas Alva Edison said, 'Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration'. Good writing requires hard work, meticulousness, discipline, dedication, commitment and many sacrifices ' equivalent to a ballet dancer's toes bleeding from hours of practice.
The way things are now, I might take a crash course in marketing so I don't go bust while booksellers collect their bucks by tramping on my 'bleeding toes'!
The writer is the author of Julia's Jihad.
