Only 1 out of each 1,000 Indonesians is an avid reader, in line with UNESCO’s 2012 reading interest index. The country also ranks second to last in an inventory of the world’s most literate countries, which examined tests in addition to “literate behaviors” equivalent to the variety of libraries and newspapers and the provision of computers and years of education in a nation.
In such a difficult climate, can local Christian publishing survive?
Indonesian pastors and publishers say yes, even though it might look different from the golden years of the early 2000s. It may include collecting donations to provide away books to the impoverished, drumming up excitement over book releases with Zoom talks, or polling local seminaries and churches to find out which books they need to translate into Bahasa Indonesia.
Indonesians can even learn from one in all Indonesia’s most prolific Christian writers, Andar Ismail, whose 33-book Selamat series sold tens of 1000’s of copies within the late Nineties and 2000s.
Even as reading falls out of the zeitgeist, Christians consider it has a very important role in spiritual maturity.
“Congregations shouldn’t rely only on weekly sermons to strengthen their faith,” said Susanto, a pastor and current chairman of Gloria Foundation, which oversees two Christian publishing firms. “They have to develop their spiritual journeys themselves, equivalent to through quality books.”
An industry in crisis
The low interest in reading points to Indonesia’s strong oral culture, where stories and knowledge were traditionally passed through spoken fairly than written word. Researchers also point to underfunded libraries, expensive book costs, and an education system that doesn’t encourage reading books outside of the classroom.
Casthelia Kartika, president of Amanat Agung Theological Seminary in Jakarta, noted that previously, education was not a top priority within the country as families struggled to make ends meet. As the economy improved, especially within the cities, parents began focusing more on their children’s education, which led to an improvement in literacy. However, the recent rise of smartphone usage is pulling Indonesians toward watching videos or playing games as an alternative of reading.
“Although the attention of the importance of reading has began flourishing, teachers still have to further develop the fervour to read books amongst their students,” Kartika noted.
This is clear at her seminary, where some professors struggle to show classes where few students complete the required readings. At the identical time, the lecturers themselves often aren’t readers either, which keeps them from writing books and sharing Indonesian theology with the remainder of the world. “There are literally lots of smart theologians in Indonesia, however it is so hard to encourage them to put in writing books,” she said.
In addition, the economic slowdown brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of brick-and-mortar bookstores and a plunge in book sales. In 2010, Indonesia had about 600 bookstores across the country. Now the number has dwindled to 100, in line with Susanto.
Odessa Diaz Krisdiyanto, coordinator of Literatur Perkantas Jatim (East Java InterVarsity Literature) said that before the pandemic, the publishing house printed about 15 titles a 12 months, all of which were translated from English, and it took about six months to sell out the print runs of roughly 2,000 copies. Last 12 months, they only printed 8 titles, and selling the copies took a 12 months.
During COVID-19, sales slowed as “customers shifted their reading habits to online media and their spending priority to the health of their families,” Krisdiyanto said.
Still, Literatur Perkantas has a leg up on other Christian book publishers, as they’ve been selling books online since 2017. This 12 months, Perkantas may give you the option to publish as many titles as they did pre-pandemic, although with a smaller variety of copies in print.
Other Christian publishers will not be as lucky. Susanto said each publishing houses under Gloria, Katalis and Graffa, suffered substantially from the recent downturn. Katalis publishes discipleship books, while Graffa publishes popular Christian titles.
Started within the Eighties, Gloria initially only printed Our Daily Bread within the Indonesian language, presented in an easy format and distributed freed from charge. Several years later, the booklets were printed more professionally and sold for a slight profit. Not long afterward, Gloria also began printing foreign and native Christian books.
“During the rosy years of the early 2000s, we could print and sell as much as 150,000 copies of Our Daily Bread every month and about 100 book titles,” Susanto recalled. “Today, we will only print around 24,000 copies of the monthly edition and 10,500 of the quarterly editions.” In total, Katalis and Graffa only managed to publish 8 book titles in 2023.
The slump in sales has led Gloria to rent out a few of their office space to other firms of their Yogyakarta constructing.
Kartika, meanwhile, is mildly optimistic that Christian publishers will give you the option to survive within the years to return. “They may not perish, but they won’t flourish either,” she said. “The demand and want for books will live on, but it should not be as massive as previously.”
The rise of the Selamat series
One Christian book series that has seemingly defied the dominance of Indonesia’s oral culture is Ismail’s Selamat, published over the past 4 many years. A former pastor of the Samanhudi Indonesian Christian Church in Jakarta and a professor of theology and pedagogy at Jakarta Theological Seminary, Ismail is exclusive in that he can present difficult doctrinal topics in a down-to-earth way. This set his books aside from other Christian books on the time, which were mainly targeted to intellectuals.
In the Indonesian language, the word selamat is used for greetings or congratulations, and it could possibly also mean “protected from harm” and “salvation.” Each of the roughly 130-page books includes 33 short stories covering a wide selection of topics just like the biographies of well-known Christian figures, morals gleaned from traditional Javanese wayang puppet shows, profiles of faithful “no-name” pastors, and vignettes from Ismail’s own spiritual journey. Some stories are funny, while others are thought-provoking, inspirational, and even tear-jerking. Their common denominator is Ismail’s portrayal of the matchless love of Christ.
Ismail published the primary two books within the series, Selamat Natal (Merry Christmas) and Selamat Paskah (Happy Easter), in 1981 and 1982. After a decade-long break where he focused on studying overseas, he published his third book, Selamat Pagi Tuhan (Good Morning, Lord). From then until 2022, he published a recent book every 12 months.
For 20 years, Selamat books were bestsellers for the Christian publishing house BPK Gunung Mulia, in line with former CEO Stephen Z. Satyahadi. Selling greater than 10,000 copies of a Christian book is taken into account a rare achievement in Indonesia, and scores of Ismail’s books have sold as much as 70,000–80,000 copies through the years, with earlier editions reprinted greater than 30 times.
“Through the easy-to-understand yet deeply meaningful stories, Ismail could help nurture the spiritual understanding of readers from all levels of educational backgrounds,” said Ismail’s close friend Sunoko Nugroho Samiadji. He noted that Ismail wrote lots of the books by hand before Samiadji helped type them up on a pc.
One of Samiadji’s favorite short stories within the series is Ismail’s evaluation of Rembrandt van Rijn’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son. The pastor also wrote about Muslim figures who painted or wrote about Jesus, including journalist Goenawan Mohamad and poet Chairil Anwar, and the way their unique viewpoints draw out different facets of the Savior.
To acknowledge Ismail’s significant contribution to the Christian community, Indonesia’s Christian Art and Literature Festival awarded him the Tokoh Inspiratif (Inspirational Figure) award in August 2018.
After completing the series, Ismail went on to publish Tukang Antar Selamat (Courier of Salvation) in 2023, one other collection of 33 stories. Now 84, Ismail plans to publish one more book this 12 months.
Finding recent ways to draw readers
Yet even the sale of Ismail’s books have been affected by the recent downturn in reading. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Gunung Mulia has halved the variety of first printing copies of Ismail’s recent books to five,000. (Ismail, to this point, has kept away from selling his series as e-books, as few Indonesians read electronic books.)
As a results of the bearish climate, publishers are searching for ways to extend interest and to tailor what they publish to local demands.
Graffa has began to hold online book discussions and reviews. For instance, following the discharge earlier this 12 months of an Indonesian translation of the book When Children Come Out: A Guide for Christian Parents by Mark Yarhouse and Olya Zaporozhets, they invited Dwidjo Saputro, a neighborhood pastor and expert on child psychology, to provide several talks concerning the book over Zoom. Hundreds of individuals joined in.
Literatur Perkantas, meanwhile, has been communicating with seminaries and other Christian institutions to determine which foreign books they need translated for his or her students and members. In the past, Perkantas mainly based translation decisions on a book’s popularity overseas.
Since 2021, Perkantas has also began publishing books by local authors, equivalent to Leadership Reformed and Menghidupi Injil & Menginjili Hidup (Living the Gospel & Evangelizing Life) by Sen Sendjaya, a professor of management and leadership on the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia.
Kartika believes that churches might help spur book sales by encouraging small-group book studies. She cowrote a series of Bible study books called Life Expedition , which sold greater than 10,000 copies after small groups at several churches and high schools began using them.
Yoel M. Indrasmoro, pastor of Javanese Christian Church in Jakarta and former director of Literatur Perkantas Nasional, has a special approach to increasing reading amongst Christians.
During the pandemic, he began sharing a day by day reflection and reading materials with greater than 1,600 people through WhatsApp. As he developed closer personal ties together with his readers, he asked them for financial support to send books to those in need, including pastors in impoverished areas and prison inmates. This developed into Tangan Terbuka Media (Open Arms Media), which publishes books by foreign and native authors.
In the past two years, Indrasmoro and Open Arms Media have sent 800 packages of books to pastors, priests, and nuns in Papua; greater than 1,000 packages for pastors in East Nusa Tenggara; 650 packages for prison inmates in and around Jakarta; and almost 900 packages for teachers in Halmahera Island in North Maluku.
To distribute books to teachers, he worked with a council for Christian education within the province. Each package costs donors 164,000 rupiah ($10 USD) and consists of the books Sekolah Kristen dan Jalan Turun Yesus (Christian Schools and the Way of Jesus’ Descent) by Tyas Budi Legowo and Jujur Melangkah: 307 Renungan Kitab Amsal (Honest Steps: 307 Reflections from Proverbs) by Indrasmoro.
Indrasmoro urged other Christian publishers to construct closer relations with their communities in order that they may also raise support to distribute free books to those in need.
“So many church leaders and teachers in distant areas, and likewise prisoners, badly need books to counterpoint their lives,” he said. “But they don’t have the resources or access to get inspirational reading materials.”
