Indonesia’s publishing industry gained incredible momentum as a result of the country’s successful rendition as Guest of Honor Country at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2015. The mindset of Indonesian publishers has changed and now, instead of participating in book fairs only for the purpose of buying rights to foreign publications, Indonesian publishers are now focusing on selling the rights to the content of titles of of Indonesian origin.
To harness this momentum and to introduce Indonesian writers and literary works worldwide, in early 2016 Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture established the National Book Committee, one of whose purposes is to develop and maintain a catalogue of Indonesian titles that are deemed to be worth of publication abroad. “LibRI” is the digital catalogue of these books. With this app interested publishers and literary agents can search and find rights information on the works of selected Indonesian authors—from fiction to non-fiction and from comics to cookbooks. All titles in the catalogue have been carefully selected and appraised by the National Book Committee.