This English version is translated from the original article published on Kompas.com
Writer: Yohanes Enggar Harususilo | Editor: Yohanes Enggar Harususil
If there is one profession that has managed to endure and even experience growth during this pandemic, it’s the “writerpreneur,” a portmanteau that combines “writer” and “entrepreneur”.
Aulia R. Sungkar, founder and director of Alveo.co.id (PRIVATE DOC)
Aulia R. Sungkar, founder and director of Alveo.co.id, a company that focuses on providing various writing, translating and editing services, asserted in an official statement published on Nov. 4, 2021 that the world of writing in Indonesia is currently undergoing rapid growth.
Aulia, known by his nickname Ollie referred to data from Dentsu Aegis Network indicating that the writing industry in 2020 experienced growth as a whole. It will continue to grow on a global scale in 2021, with Indonesia being part of this growth pattern.
This view is further underlined by the Dentsu Insights Consumer Report, which states that the nation’s online consumption increased by 70 percent in the 60 days since the start of the pandemic in Indonesia. And as internet usage increases, so too has the writing industry enjoyed the growth that comes as part of this recent trend.
According to Dentsu, the written content is extremely important for business. It also noted that digital marketing is important for improving a brand’s reputation.
“It is for these reasons that companies, organizations and institutions will always have a demand for writing services, regardless of whether they’re small, medium or large in scale,” Ollie said.
In line with this Dentsu report, Ollie sees promising potential on the horizon for the writing industry.
“There is still plenty of continuing demand for writing services despite the pandemic. Throughout this pandemic, my team has been working from home. Yet, we still have been able to coordinate with each other and, as a result, we have been able to carry out our work smoothly thanks to the help of technology and the internet making it possible to work from home,” Ollie said.
He added that the writing industry no longer just revolves around services involving novels, nonfiction books, literature or journalistic news, but has also come to follow new sources of demand thanks to developments in business and in government and social institutions that have come to need various writing services.
UNSPLASH/NEONBRAND
These services include advertisement scripts, movie and soap opera scripts, blog writing, articles for internal publications, newsletters and internal publications (such as in-house magazines), advertorials, as well as editing and translation services (from English to Indonesian or to other foreign languages).
The list of services also includes copywriting (for written marketing content) and helping companies to develop its image through company profile books and corporate websites.
“This has triggered an explosion in demand for writing, translation, editing, and social media services, especially for corporate clients. The existing market is still wide, but selling written products is also not an easy thing. It takes persistence and perseverance,” Ollie said.
Ollie, who graduated from the University of Arizona in 1997, said that he began his writing career when he was in college, during which he worked as a part-time writer. For more than two decades, Ollie has worked as a writer and a journalist at English-language media in Jakarta before finally deciding to establish Alveo.
In the five years since Alveo.co.id was founded in November 2016, the company has served clients both domestic and overseas, hailing from places like Australia, Singapore, Canada and the United States.
Ollie said that teamwork is the key to the success of running his business.
“I was previously only able to provide English writing services for my clients. But now, having established my company, I have seen how valuable teamwork can be. Now we can provide English, Indonesian and even Chinese and Japanese translation services,” said Ollie, who initially only had two employees when he established Alveo, but now has eight full-timers and several other contracted employees for a number of specific projects.
