VOL.74/2024.09

Korean Books Published by Haru Publisher Indonesia

2023.03.13

Twelve years ago, there were only a few translated Korean books in Indonesia. Most of them were literature books and project books (Project books are usually published with the budget from the author/institution (sometimes it's 50:50 with the publishers, depending on the agreement). It's not only textbooks/study books, but every book needed by the organization and they reach out to the publisher asking to publish their books.) from certain institutions, for example, collections of poetry or collections of literary studies. So Haru Publisher, which was founded in 2011, saw this as an opportunity, besides that the editors had a great interest in Korean culture.
Our first book, So, I Married an Antifan (Terrace Books), was published in 2012. A few months before this book was published, we started promoting it on social media. We partnered up with communities to promote this book. This romantic comedy genre book by Kim Eun Jeong was immediately greeted with enthusiasm by Korean culture enthusiasts, making it one of the pioneers of Korean pop culture novels in Indonesia. This success was followed by My Name is Kim Sam Soon and novels by writers Hyun Go Wun, Park Min Youn, and Kim Eun Jeong. All the rom-com books that we have published have been reprinted at least three times, which is a pretty big achievement for us as we are just starting.

Simple Thinking about Blood Type (Sodam Books) followed that success. This comic, which discusses human nature based on blood type, was greeted even more enthusiastically by readers. It only took a week for this book to be reprinted, and it was eventually included in one of the best-selling book lists throughout Indonesia that year and the following year.
During the covid pandemic, we were trying out a new genre, a non-fiction, especially essay collection. We agreed to publish it because we feel this book is necessary for Indonesian readers to remove the negative stigma regarding mental health. Our first Korean essay collection is: I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokpokki (HEUN). Until now (February 2023), this book has reached its 26th reprint. Then, we also published Geulbaewoo's Tired but Nothing to Like (Ganghanbyeol). This book broke our pre-order record by reaching 8,000 pre-orders in just one week. Other titles we’ve published: Who Comes to My Funeral When I Die (by Kim Sang Hyun, Feelm), and You’re Always Right (by Jung Hye Shin, Hainaim Inc.).

All of these successes cannot be separated from our promotion strategy. In one year, we publish 8-10 Korean titles. It’s not much because the books we publish are the ones we choose very carefully, whether by visiting the Seoul International Book Fair or communicating with publishers and literacy agents.
We deliberately do not publish in large quantities because we want to always ensure that the books we publish do not just appear, become one-hit wonders, and then disappear. We want to make our published books become steady sellers and have their fans. That's why our promotional period for each title is quite long, up to several months. If necessary, we also reactivate it to find new readers unfamiliar with the book. Some of our activities include book discussions with the reader community, where we discuss the theme that is carried by a book. We also frequently invite professionals who are competent in this field. We also collaborated with a lot of Korean cultural communities to review these books.
Apart from publication, during the Covid-19 pandemic, we also held a virtual book festival called the Asian Book Festival (Festival Buku Asia). This festival was created to celebrate the love of Asian books and culture, and contains discussions, talk shows, and workshops to celebrate the love of Asian books and culture. This festival is held in collaboration with the patjarmerah festival, a literacy festival that aims to equalize access to literacy. It is also a gathering place for fans of Korean culture who eventually join the book industry. In 2020 we invited Baek See Hee (I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokpokki), in 2021, Kim Sang Hyun (Who Comes to My Funeral When I Die), and in 2022 Bora Chung (Cursed Bunny (Arzak)) was one of the speakers. In 2023, the festival will be held offline for the first time in Jakarta.

We are grateful to Korean publishers and literacy agencies who trusted us to publish their books. We are not a big publisher, which sometimes cannot offer as good and as grand as other publishers, but we are committed to giving the best for the books we publish. This year, we hope to find a variety of titles entrusted to us to publish, and maybe discover new genres outside of the ones we've worked on.

Written by Lia Indra Andriana (Founder and CEO of Haru Publisher)