JP\/3\/ERIC<\/p>\n
check the date marked in bold below please.<\/p>\n
Publisher Eric Oey endures in RI poor reading habits<\/p>\n
Lila Fitri Aly
\nContributor
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
Eric Oey said there was no holiday for a real businessman. Night
\nor day and weekday or weekend are just the same. Meetings are
\nheld any time and any place. An employee, on the other hand, can
\nforget his routine job once he gets home from the office.<\/p>\n
\"If a businessman can enjoy too much spare time, this means
\nhis business is not successful. So, it will be better to make
\nyour business a hobby as in this way you will never feel bored,\"
\nsaid Eric Oey (48), the owner of Java Books, a distributor of
\nimported books, which is later distributed to major book stores
\nin Indonesia like Times, QB, Kinokuniya, Aksara, Maruzen,
\nGramedia and Gunung Agung.<\/p>\n
In 1985, Eric Oey set up Java Books in Jakarta and Bali. He
\nnamed his book stores after Java Engineering, a Cirebon-based
\ncompany owned by his father's family. At that time Java Books was
\njust a limited partnership run only by some friends and family
\nmembers.<\/p>\n
Today Java Books employs 200 people and can be found in six
\nplaces: Medan, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Bali and Jakarta.<\/p>\n
At first, Eric sold travel guides published by Singapore-based
\nAPA Productions such as Guide to Bali, Guide to Java or Guide to
\nIndonesia. (He is the author and editor of Guide to Indonesia).
\nHe sold the books only to hotels as the market segment covered
\nonly expatriates in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"In those days I was still studying Indonesian literature and
\nlanguage at the University of California at Berkeley for my
\nmaster's and doctorate degrees,\" Eric said.<\/p>\n
In the 1970s he used to work at APA Productions and therefore
\nknew the owner well. At that time he was asked to write a Guide
\nto Indonesia. As there was nobody to market the book in Jakarta,
\nEric was assigned the job.<\/p>\n
It was not until 1989 that he could finish his studies. Then
\nhe moved to Singapore, where he has lived since then.<\/p>\n
Apart from Java Books, he also owns Periplus Editions, a
\npublishing company. Periplus was first set up in the United
\nStates, when he was still a student. Then he moved it to
\nSingapore as he began to live there (he began to live in
\nSingapore when, at 10-years old, his parents took him there). In
\nNovember 2002, he opened a book shop in Kemang, named after his
\npublishing company Periplus.<\/p>\n
Eric also has another publishing company, Tuttle Publishing,
\nwhich was set up by his uncle Charles E. Tuttle in Japan in 1948.
\nEric merged Periplus and Tuttle in 1996. With offices in Boston,
\nRutland, Vermont, Singapore, Tokyo and Jakarta, Tuttle has become
\nthe largest English-language book publishing and distribution
\ncompany in Asia.<\/p>\n
As a publisher, he finds Singapore a suitable place for a
\nvariety of reasons. In Indonesia the price of paper is too high.<\/p>\n
Then the banking system, the shipping practices and the
\nquality of color separation are yet to be conducive to a
\npublishing business. Besides, Singapore is also noted as a
\nprinting center.<\/p>\n
\"For the same paper quality, the price in Singapore is lower.
\nBesides, a paper mill in Singapore can allow three months for
\ncredit purchases, while in Indonesia every transaction must be
\npaid in cash,\" said Eric, who has a father from Pekalongan and a
\nmother from the United States. He himself was born in
\nChattoonooga, Tennessee.<\/p>\n
Actually, Indonesia, which is rich in cheap labor resources,
\ncan produce exportable printing products, he said.<\/p>\n
A printing company in Indonesia finds it difficult to get
\ncheap paper because of monopolistic practices. Automatically, the
\nprice of paper becomes unrealistic. Strangely, you can buy paper
\nfrom Indonesia at a lower price in Singapore. At first, the
\nIndonesian government sought to protect small paper mills to
\nallow them to develop. Later, a giant paper industry owned by
\nSinar Mas bought these small paper mills and the group now
\nmonopolizes the paper market in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"Import duties are also a problem. Unlike in Indonesia, in
\nSingapore or Thailand no duties are imposed on the import and
\nexport of paper,\" he said. If the import duties on paper were
\nzero in Indonesia, he was sure the printing business in Indonesia
\nwould develop.<\/p>\n
Such problems have stifled the printing business in Indonesia.
\nHigh paper prices can make the price of books about 25 percent
\nhigher, an extra cost that buyers will have to bear.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, to gain access to the international market, a
\npublisher must find a more efficient printing shop so that it can
\ncompete, otherwise the books will be too expensive. It is
\nexpected, though, that in the next few years all import duties
\ncan be eliminated so that a printing shop or a publishing company
\nin Indonesia can make better progress.<\/p>\n
It is still very difficult now to promote the business of
\nEnglish books in Indonesia. Compared with Singapore and Malaysia,
\nfor example, the market for such books in Indonesia is still
\nsmall.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, only the educated are in the habit of reading
\nbut they are small in number and may not have enough money to buy
\nbooks. An interest in books is highly dependent on financial
\ncapability, education and culture.<\/p>\n
\"The Indonesian market is very small. It may be comparable to
\na grain of sand on the beach,\" said Eric, who can still find time
\nto check writing proposals from all over the world. As a result,
\nEnglish books available in Indonesia are limited. Let's say there
\nare a thousand titles. Java Books must select them very carefully
\nto find those that will sell well in the Indonesian market.<\/p>\n
\"To avoid incurring losses, we must carefully consider the
\ntaste of the Indonesian community,\" he said. In Singapore, you
\nmay have a wider choice because the book market is very big. It
\nmay be up to 100 times bigger than the English book market in
\nIndonesia. Understandably, you can have more titles in Singapore.<\/p>\n
Of course, a reading interest is closely linked to the local
\nculture. The people with Confucianism as their cultural
\nbackground, such as those in Japan, Korea and China, like reading
\nvery much. In their culture, people can get rich and become
\nrespectable if they work for the government.<\/p>\n
To get a job in the government is very difficult so there is a
\nsaying that to get rich and respectable you must be educated. To
\nbe an educated person, you must read and buy books. Clearly,
\nthese people have been accustomed to reading since their
\nchildhood.<\/p>\n
Still, Eric maintains his optimism that the book business in
\nIndonesia will some day develop. In the 1980s, books on Indonesia
\nin English were very few but now there are quite a lot of them.<\/p>\n
\"Compared with the situation prior to the onset of the
\nmonetary crisis, it is true that books on Indonesia were more
\npopular and more in demand than they are now,\" he said, adding
\nthat all this depended on the image of the country. If a country
\nhas a good image, books about this country will have a selling
\npoint.<\/p>\n
There was a time when Japan was at the peak of its glory and
\nbooks on Japan were in high demand in the world. Later, this
\nsituation faced a reversal. Now, the focus is on China as it is
\ngaining popularity. Clearly, the situation of a country
\ninfluences the selling point of books about this country.<\/p>\n
In this respect, Indonesian publishers must be patient to wait
\nfor the economic and political recovery of the country.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/jp3eric-1447899208",
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