Akad Publishers Capable Of Seizing Opportunities During A Pandemic, Once Able To Sell 20,000 Books In 2 Hours

JAKARTA - The pandemic is indeed a challenge, even the heaviest blow for business people in Indonesia. This is indicated by the number of business people who are forced to close their businesses.

However, not a few of them actually seize opportunities during the pandemic. One of them, Akad publisher. Launched on January 11, 2021, this publisher that targets Gen-Z and millennials is actually able to record significant business performance.

"On average, each new book sold reaches 3,000-5,000 copies during the pre-order period. Meanwhile, for regular books, it sells around 500 to 2,000 copies every month. Even in the midst of the book publishing industry on offline channels, which sluggish, Akad managed to grow," explained Founder & CEO of Akad Publisher, Andri Agus Fabianto, in a written statement received by VOI, Thursday, November 4.

He further explained, for a novel entitled Samuel, for example, sales managed to reach 20,000 copies only for the pre-order period for 2 hours. Not only books, Akad also managed to monetize the story in Samuel's novel through merchandise products.

"The book and photobook of Samuel and Diamond Gang (the name of the motorcycle gang in Samuel's novel) sold 10,000 packages for 2 hours," Andri continued.

Andri admitted that the majority of sales came from digital channels. This is because Akad first focused on digital sales channels, which incidentally became the Indonesian people's favorite choice during the pandemic.

In addition, the digital channel is the channel that is most familiar to Gen-Z and millennials, who incidentally become the target market for books or novels published by Akad.

"Until now, books or novels published by Akad have been available on a number of online platforms such as Bumi Fiksi, Novely Young, Zahra Books, Melstore Book, and Toko TM Indo. We are also present on e-commerce platforms such as Shopee and Tokopedia. However, we are also present at offline bookstores such as Gramedia and Togamas. In the future, we will increase the number of these online and offline outlets, "said Andri.

Andri further said that the success of the contract could not be separated from the four strategies that were launched. The first strategy, Akad is always looking for potential writers on the Wattpad digital platform and Twitter application.

In addition, Akad also provides assistance to these novice writers through workshops.

"One of our benchmarks is the agency's strategy in Korea when debuting their Girlband or Boyband. In short, Akad is an incubator whose role is to incubate novice writers, from zero to hero," said Andri.

The second strategy is to maximize all social media channels such as Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Telegram as channels to build brand engagement with Gen-Z and millennial readers.

"Of course, the content that we present is adjusted to each social media platform and must be relevant to current trends," he explained.

The third strategy is to create a community of readers by holding training three times a week. Through this community program, Akad wants to increase the loyalty of its readers to Akad's books or novels.

The fourth strategy is limited product. According to him, limited products tend to trigger the curiosity of Gen-Z and millennials.

"They tend to have the character of always wanting to be the first and afraid of being left behind with the trends that are happening in their community," concluded Andri.

Not only business performance, thanks to its work in the Indonesian publishing industry which has not even been a year, Akad won the "Bumifiksi Choice Award 2021" for three categories at once, namely Favorite First Publisher, Favorite First Author, and Favorite First Book Title. The three awards were won by Akad in early November 2021.

According to Budi Ahyar Taryono, Operational Director of PT Kawah Media & PT Bumi Fiksi Ritel, the "Bumifiksi Choice Award 2021" is awarded based on the reader's choice.

"The number of digital polls that went into us was 956,781. And, Akad publishers won the most votes in the poll for three categories, namely Favorite First Publisher, Favorite First Author, and Favorite First Book Title. As organizers, we want to maintain the credibility of Kawah Media as a distributor and a networked Earth Fiction Retail Online Store," said Budi Ahyar Taryono.