B

ook publishers are attempting to reach out to middle- and upper class executives and shoppers by holding the first ever Jakarta Book Fiesta at fX Mall, a venue in Central Jakarta popular for lunch meetings and as a place to hang out.

Targeting people with high exposure to technology, the Indonesian Publishers Association (IKAPI) had changed the format of it's annual Jakarta Book Fair, which was usually held at the Istora sports hall in Senayan, Central Jakarta.

'We are moving the event here to make it more accessible to young executives and shoppers,' Afrizal Sinaro, chairman of the IKAPI's Jakarta chapter, said on Thursday.

Afrizal expected that the event, which lasts from Tuesday to Sunday, would cater to the reading habits of young executives, although many of them were now keen on gadgets.

Afrizal was optimistic that there would be a good crowd for the event because the Greater Jakarta area comprising Jakarta and its satellite cities Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi was the biggest market for book publishers.

Based on IKAPI data, the area conquered 38 percent of the market last year.

'We hope that there will be no fewer than 5,000 people attending the event each day. This is not as many as visitors as last years' event, but this is a realistic target for an event at a mall,' he said adding that there were 350,000 visitors at the Jakarta Book Fair last year

The head of the book fair's organizing committee, Hikmat Kurnia, disclosed that 70 publishers were participating in the event, compared to the 332 publishers that took part in 2012's 10-day book fair at Istora Senayan.

Hikmat said that most publishers displayed children's and teen books, which usually contributed to 30 percent of sales during a book fair. He added that some of them also promoted management and life skill books to attract young executives.

'We want to make sure this event attracts big crowds as well as being profitable for the participating
publishers,' he said.

However, a number of participating publishers said that they were relatively disappointed with the event at the mall.

Noeri Uwi of text books and children books publishing company PT Penerbit Erlangga, said that he was worried that only a few people would visit his booth. He also said that fX Mall, which houses a large number of restaurants and coffee shops, provided far smaller booths than last year's event.

'Parking fees here are also quite expensive and fX's parking lot is far smaller than Istora Senayan's,' he said, adding that not many people knew that the fair at fX was the annual Book Fair that was regularly held at Istora Senayan.

Sugeng Riyadi, marketing manager of foreign language dictionaries publisher Kesaint Blanc, said that having the fair at the mall was not a problem because most visitors were his company's target customers. He said, however, that his company might earn less than last year.

'Last year we reaped up to Rp 100 million (US$8,849) from the book fair, but I am not sure that we can make that much this year,' he said. (koi)