Meeting House: Emma House speaks to inspiring bookwomen from around the world.
Laura Prinsloo left her career in finance to become an entrepreneur. She left New Zealand to run Kesaint Blanc Publishing and Printing based in Jakarta, Indonesia. She has also started other businesses in the field of public transportation, logistics and food and beverages.
Laura is part of the Indonesian Chambers of Commerce and was involved in the Indonesian Publishers Association. In 2016, Laura was appointed to be the Chairperson of the Indonesian National Book Committee which was established by the Ministry of Education and Culture following Indonesia’s successful appearance as Guest of Honour Country at the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair. She was also head of the organizing committee for Indonesia as the Market Focus country at the London Book Fair 2019. Currently, under the new 17,000 Pulau Imaji (17,000 Islands of Imagination) Foundation, she is working closely with the Jakarta government on various projects.
1) You came into publishing after a career in finance, what attracted you to the publishing industry and how did your career bring you into the industry?
If I look back, I think what made me take this risky move to shift my career from finance to a completely different sector industry was because I had become too comfortable in my position for my young age, and I wanted a new challenge. Before joining the publishing scene in Indonesia, I worked for New Zealand’s biggest bank at that time. There were a handful of us in the corporate strategy department and we had the responsibility to report to the NZ Reserve Bank and the CEO himself. Work became too comfortable and I felt the more I climbed the ladder the further away I would go from my dream of starting my own business.
At the same time, in 2009, my father called asking me to return to Indonesia and take over his publishing and printing business or he would sell the business. He hadn’t been involved in it for a while and wanted to focus on other things. My father started the business in 1979 and I remember growing up around printing machines, book fairs, and editors, however, I didn’t have a specific passion for the industry. I had many good memories and admired his passion for books, which also rubbed off on me. I believed that while we were still young this could be the best time to change the direction of our life to become entrepreneurs. I liked the idea of moving to Jakarta because the city felt more vibrant than Auckland and because Indonesia is an emerging market, we saw a lot of business opportunities that we could do there. After discussing this with my husband, to my surprise he agreed, and we resigned from our jobs to move to Indonesia and revive my family business. The first day at the job was an eye-opener because I was like a fish out of water. I had to learn fast; I read many books, joined the Indonesian Publishers Association, went to many book fairs, seminars, workshops, and built a publishing network. I was on a steep learning curve and I think it was just in my genes, the more time I spent in reviving the publishing business, the more my passion grew for the industry.
2) Over the last 4 years the Indonesian publishing industry has been in the spotlight having been Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair and Market Focus at the London Book Fair, with you heading the National Book Committee organising these events. How did you find this experience? What motivated you to take on this role?
It was such an honour to be trusted to head the National Book Committee (NBC). I would never imagine myself – a triple minority (the youngest person there – at 33 years, a female and a non-muslim), entrusted to lead a government entity in a country with the largest Muslim population in the world. Even though NBC was set up by the Minister of Education and Culture (MoEC), we started with no programme, no allocated budget, and no acknowledgement. No-one took us seriously, especially because the Indonesian Book Council was closed by the President in 2014. We had to make sure this rare opportunity for the book industry given by the government was not wasted. We had to come up with everything, the organizational structure, collaborate with all book stakeholders and come up with programmes that could benefit the country for the long term and look for funding from various sources without relying too much on the MoEC budget.
Luckily, NBC was established largely due to the guest of the honour programme at Frankfurt Book Fair. We believe that our presence in Frankfurt was a huge success, over 200 Indonesians writers/ publishers/ artists/ creative players participated in year-long events. It was very much a collective effort that united all the book stakeholders together, which was also a first. NBC therefore got off to a good start, but we wanted to not only focus on international outreach but also improving literacy in our country. We came up with programmes that were new to our country, such as Translation Funding Programme, Writers Residency Programme, Literary-Action festivals, Industry Database and then there was also the Market Focus Country at the London Book Fair in 2019. The NBC has now been dis-continued but under a newly established foundation, we are continuing programmes that were initiated during NBC periods including the Jakarta Content Festival – a partnership programme with the Frankfurt Book Fair, a 5000 sqm Book Park and Intellectual-exchange hub in central Jakarta, the first literature museum and many more. For me it has been important that everything that we have worked on over the last 5 years was continued especially during this difficult pandemic situation.
3) What have been the biggest challenges you have faced in your career and how have you overcome them?
For me, when dealing with many stakeholders to produce an international programme, managing ego-sectors was a challenge. In every decision made, it was important for me to have a good consensus, to be inclusive and make sure it could benefit the whole industry. Having good and transparent communication was key. Of course, we couldn’t please everyone, but I had learnt to accept that. Two other things that we are facing in Indonesia are improving the reading culture and fighting against book piracy. These two contradict each other, on one hand, we have a low reading habit but at the same time piracy is increasing. Both problems contribute to the decline of our industry and both problems are what our programmes in the foundation have been focused on.
4) How have you found the role of women in your career in finance versus your career in the publishing industry? What is the Indonesia publishing scene like for female leaders and entrepreneurs like yourself?
In my financial career, I rarely see women on top management level. I could say similarly in the publishing industry, especially in Indonesia. The editorial department would be filled with women but for positions that require longer hours and higher commitment, most are led by men. Which, as a woman, a wife and a mother, I can understand – even though growing up I never felt I was unable to do things because of my gender and in New Zealand at that time we had a female Prime Minister. But living in Indonesia I face more challenges from the community, women are expected to manage the household and manage the children more than the men. My biggest struggle has been fighting that stigma. For my position, I have to travel a lot and leave my family for weeks, and there were even times when I had to fly to Europe twice in a month. The problems came not from my husband (who is extremely supportive) but from the society around me that believes mothers should allocate most of their time taking care of the family, and work/ career should come second. In higher positions, juggling this can be very challenging as companies have targets to be delivered and you are competing with men, where for them it is expected that they work longer hours to provide for the family. And in a cultural communal environment such as Indonesia, people can be extremely judgemental and tend to mind other people’s business.
5) Have there been any women that have inspired you in your career in general and in your publishing career?
As far as role models go, there have been several inspirational women in my life. I admire these women not necessarily because of their position but because of their character and their perseverance and compassion. From Indonesia, its Susi Pudjiastuti, former Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, the first tattooed female minister that never completed high school education. She is known for her aggressive anti-illegal fishing policies. Another figure I admire is Angela Merkel, from her faith to her bold decisions, and she is also an activist of freedom of speech.
6) What are your proudest moments of your career? And what motivates you now?
When Indonesian books are published overseas, which most people won’t probably have heard of before. Since we started 4 years ago, the National Book Committee has recorded more than 1500 titles sold to foreign publishers. In a way, it has proven that Indonesian content can compete in the global market. Another proudest moment was being able to give the welcoming speech at the Market Focus reception at London Book Fair. That moment symbolizes an accomplishment from what I would say close-to-a-miracle work for being the Market Focus Country. I don’t want to spill the beans on our struggles, but I witnessed everyone in the committee putting their 110% effort to make it happen. What motivated me from both these moments is the fact that what we do changes our nation for the better.
7) In Indonesia are there any programmes to specifically support women in publishing?
Unfortunately, I haven’t heard of one. To be frank, the NBC did not put a large focus on gender but rather on the quality of work. Some of our best-selling rights for Indonesian works came from inspiring Indonesian women and that was seen at many events that we did.
Our foundation is currently developing a programme to nurture literacy skills among women especially mothers. I think mothers have an important role in early literacy. From providing what to read, helping kids to read, as role models for young readers and help to develop their love of books. By equipping mothers with these skills, she could impact the entire family.
8) What do you think of the Global PublisHer network and how do you think it can support women in publishing moving forward?
It’s a great initiative and should include more women from the local markets. Maybe this initiative can be even more inclusive by creating satellite networks like PublisHER Asia or PublisHER Africa…just a thought.
9) Where does your career take you next?
In our publishing company, we are focusing on improving our online platform where we want to reinvent a new publishing process. We want to move towards various media formats while improving the engagement of our content rather than to rely on conventional ways. But for the industry, under the 17000 Pulau Imaji foundation (direct translation is 17,000 Islands of Imagination), we are continuing our efforts in improving literacy in Indonesia by various programmes. One of them is in partnership with Frankfurt Book Fair on setting up a book and creative content hub in Jakarta for the Asia Pacific market. Our first event will be launched this November and it’s called Jakarta Content Week.
Emma’s always looking for more Meeting House interviewees. To take part please get in touch via Twitter, Facebook or info@womeninpublishing.org.
