Balai Pustaka

Balai Pustaka (Indonesian pronunciation: [ˌbalai̯ pʊsˈt̪aka]; Balai Poestaka in van Ophuijsen orthography, both meaning "Bureau of Literature") is the state-owned publisher of Indonesia and publisher of major pieces of Indonesian literature such as Salah Asuhan, Sitti Nurbaya and Layar Terkembang. Its head office is in Jakarta. Founded in 1917 as the Kantoor voor de Volkslectuur, Balai Pustaka was used by the Dutch colonial government as a means to control native Indonesians' access to information. After changing hands twice during the Indonesian war of independence, Balai Pustaka formally fell under the ownership of the Indonesian government.

From the Wikipedia article “Balai Pustaka”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Large trade publishers generally accept manuscripts only through literary agents, while many independent and small presses accept direct submissions during reading periods. Before submitting anywhere, read the publisher's current guidelines, study recent books on its list, and never pay a reading or publishing fee to a traditional publisher.