Indonesia may not seem the most likely place to be trying to sell remaindered English-language books, but Big Bad Wolf founders Jacqueline Ng and Andrew Yap are past masters at the art of the impossible. In pre-Covid times Big Bad Wolf would ship 5 million (no typo!) books at a time to Jakarta for eleven day 24/7 flash sales, and still not be able to meet demand.
From a physical-only presence pre-Covid, Malaysia-based mega-book-sale operation Big Bad Wolf today straddles both the physical and online worlds as it finds its feet in the New Normal. A case in point being the four city Indonesia tour that runs alongside a continuing Tokopedia presence.
Now Indonesia may not seem the most likely place to be trying to sell English-language books, but Big Bad Wolf founders Jacqueline Ng and Andrew Yap are past masters at the art of the impossible. In pre-Covid times Big Bad Wolf would ship 5 million books at a time to Jakarta for eleven day 24-7 flash sales, and still not be able to meet demand.
Of course the Old Normal has not yet been revisited, and with a global recession underway to compound matters Big Bad Wolf operates on a scaled-down routine, but still the books are flowing and still the buyers are coming.
Big Bad Wolf is just winding up its Burabaya tour as this post goes live and, Covid permitting, will hit Yogyakarta in August and Bandung in September before the showcase Jakarta event in October. None are on the scale of the pre-Covid events, but the Wolf is slowly regaining momentum.
Earlier this year Big Bad Wolf ran two Tokopedia sales –
and Big Bad Wolf also has a regular online presence on Lazada in the Philippines.
In-person events have been muted this year, of course, but still Big Bad Wolf has been to Thailand and the UAE this year with its in-person sales, and safe to say more world events are planned.
All told Big Bad Wolf has sold English-language books – by the million – in 34 cities across 13 different countries, with over 5 million live visitors and over 30 million books sold in total. Since the Pandemic began Big Bad Wolf has held online sales in 11 countries.
Those new to TNPS may be thinking, what’s the big deal? Selling English-language books in countries like the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia… Anybody can do that.
But here’s the thing: Big Bad Wolf doesn’t go anywhere near these countries. Instead try Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates, along with, of course, homeland Malaysia.
And yes, a reminder I did say “by the million”. Use the TNPS search bar to see full coverage of the Big Bad Wolf global operation. But let me close this post by plucking a few past headlines to make the point.
Plenty more in the archives, but let me leave you today by going full circle back to Indonesia, where in 2018 Big Bad Wolf shipped 5.5 million books to Jakarta.
You couldn’t make it up.
