KL International Book Fair: Platform for foreign publishers to enter local market

The Sun

2 days ago

KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair (KLIBF) 2025 serves as an important platform for foreign publishers to enter the local market and attract Malaysian readers.
Maria Mahat, co-founder of Ungu Pen, a Singapore-based publisher, shared that her company's participation in the fair served to introduce Malaysian readers to her company's offerings and allowed them to build closer relationships.
'At Ungu Pen, we publish a lot of Malay and bilingual Malay-English books, especially children's books. So, we want to test the market here since we are close and have languages in common.
'We don't have a specific sales target as we are still new and not well known but Alhamdulillah, there are books that have sold out and we want them to know that there are foreign publishers that publish Malay books of quality that suit readers here,' she told Bernama here recently.
She also said that the books her company publishes focus on children, and are come with unique features such as the use of dyslexia-friendly fonts and digital elements such as animation, songs and augmented reality (AR), which make reading more interactive and fun.
Unggu Creative founder, Dr Noridah Kamari said that she decided to join the fair for the first time this year to introduce her books to Malaysian readers and form closer ties with local writers and readers.
'We have attended KLIBF as visitors before, this is our first year as an exhibitor. We want to test the market and see how well Singapore books are accepted by readers here.
'Our focus isn't just to sales, but more towards building a social network with readers and writers, especially from Malaysia. This is because Malaysian writers are involved in our publications, such as the Kayu Api magazine that features their works,' she said.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Yusuf from Indonesian publisher Gema Insani said this year was the third time his company joined the fair, and they were sharing a booth with two other publishers from home.
'We are sharing a booth together with Pustaka Al-Kautsar and Gulalibooks and we believe that the potential of the Malaysian market is big with the positive response from chidlren, students and adults.
'The books we carry, include those by famous icon Buya Hamka, historical comics and children's books, match the interest of readers here,' he said.
This year's book fair bears the theme 'Buku: Membaca, Memimpin' and ends today after starting on May 23, with over 1,000 exhibition booths by almost 300 local and foreign publishers.