Visit to Elex Media, my Indonesian publisher

With my last bit of time before flying off, I went to visit Elex Media, my publisher, which was located 30mins away from the hotel (with jam included).
From left: Rena my future editor, Intan my promoter, Whindy my managing editor in charge of liaising with me.

The only publisher that I visited before was Chuang Yi, back in 1997 during their prime. They closed down last year, probably due to decreasing sales and high production cost in Singapore. I remember their office was very small and had less than 8 people in the office. So visiting a much bigger publisher was an eye opener.

They have different groups within Gramedia building and theirs was located on... 2nd floor?

They focus mainly on publishing Japanese manga.

On the wall are signboards from famous Japanese manga artists, who had visited them over the past 30 years! Wow!

This is the desk of my cover designer... who wasn't there...

I also got to see how they work at the translation department as well as the "censorship" department. The artists there do a great job of duplicating and editing from the original artwork instead of drawing swimsuits on all nude bodies like what Chuang Yi used to do...

I met Willys, in charge of all social media accounts for Elex Media. He was the one who recommended my book to Whindy to be published in Indonesia :D
Thank you Willys!

Here is a photo with the big bosses of Elex Media: Vincent and Ari. As well as me receiving a gift (2 traditional Javanese dolls) from the Elex Media team! Sorry I didn't bring gifts so I will send my cat army over when they are ready!

Whindy told me that they (non-fiction department) got into a fight with the fiction department to decide who should be in-charge of my book because both sides were eager to publish my work. Wow, I am very honoured. On the other hand back in Singapore, I was rejected by a local publisher when I just returned from Japan in 2013. That was my only hope of getting published because other publishers were doing educational comic books or children's comic book. So in the end, I had to self-publish... such irony. There was also a Malaysian publisher, who insisted that I change Singapore to Malaysia before he can publish, claiming that otherwise the book will not sell well in Malaysia!? With my books doing well in Indonesia, it proves that my book can survive without changing any country names to preserve the authenticity.

Thank you Elex Media for publishing my work and your warm hospitality!
I will see you again for the second book!