Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Penerbit itu memilih sampul cerah agar cerpen saya mudah ditemukan pembaca baru. - That publisher chooses a bright cover so that my short story is easily found by new readers.

Penerbit itu literally is publisher that, but in practice it usually means that publisher or the publisher (a specific one already known in the context).

In Indonesian, the demonstrative itu (that) normally comes after the noun:

penerbit itu = that/the publisher
buku itu = that/the book
orang itu = that/the person

Compare with English, where that comes before the noun. So the word order difference is normal: Indonesian prefers noun + itu, not itu + noun (except in some special emphatic or spoken styles).

Why is it memilih and not just pilih or something else?

The base form is pilih (choose). In normal sentences, you usually use the me- form memilih for an active verb with a direct object:

penerbit itu memilih sampul cerah
= that publisher chose a bright cover

Patterns:

pilih → memilih (to choose)
baca → membaca (to read)
tulis → menulis (to write)

Bare pilih is used in:

commands: Pilih satu! = Choose one!
or in some very informal speech or headlines.

So here memilih is the normal, grammatical active verb form.

Why is it sampul cerah and not cerah sampul like “bright cover” in English?

In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun:

sampul cerah = bright cover
rumah besar = big house
baju merah = red shirt

So the pattern is noun + adjective, unlike English adjective + noun.

If you say cerah sampul, it sounds wrong or at least very strange; it doesn’t follow the normal noun–adjective order.

What is the nuance of agar here, and how is it different from supaya or untuk?

Agar introduces a purpose or desired result: so that / in order that.

… memilih sampul cerah agar cerpen saya mudah ditemukan …
= chose a bright cover so that my short story would be easy to find …

Similar words:

agar and supaya – very close in meaning.
- agar is a bit more formal/written.
- supaya is more neutral/everyday.
untuk – usually for / to, and when used with a verb it’s normally followed by the bare verb:
- untuk menemukan cerpen saya = to find my short story
  You can’t just replace agar with untuk here without changing the structure.

So you could also say:

… memilih sampul cerah supaya cerpen saya mudah ditemukan pembaca baru.

This sounds natural too, just a bit less formal.

What exactly is cerpen? Is it different from cerita pendek?

Cerpen is a common abbreviation of cerita pendek:

cerita = story
pendek = short
cerita pendek = short story
cerpen = short story (standard, widely used)

Both cerpen saya and cerita pendek saya mean my short story.
Cerpen feels a bit more compact and is very common in publishing, schools, magazines, etc.

How does the clause cerpen saya mudah ditemukan pembaca baru work grammatically?

Literally:

cerpen saya = my short story (subject)
mudah = easy
ditemukan = be found (passive of menemukan, to find)
pembaca baru = new readers (agent/doer)

So the structure is roughly:

[Subject] + [adjective mudah] + [passive verb ditemukan] + [agent pembaca baru]
my short story + is easy + to be found + (by) new readers

Natural translation: so that my short story is easy for new readers to find / is easily found by new readers.

Key points:

It’s a passive construction: ditemukan (be found).
cerpen saya is the thing being found (patient/subject).
pembaca baru are the ones doing the finding (agent), but expressed without a preposition.

Why is there no oleh before pembaca baru? Shouldn’t it be oleh pembaca baru?

Standard full passive with an explicit agent is:

cerpen saya mudah ditemukan oleh pembaca baru
= my short story is easily found by new readers

However, in Indonesian the preposition oleh (by) is very often omitted, especially when:

the agent is clear and not ambiguous
the sentence is not overly formal

So both are acceptable:

mudah ditemukan pembaca baru (more natural/less formal)
mudah ditemukan oleh pembaca baru (more explicit, slightly more formal)

In everyday writing and speech, dropping oleh like in the original sentence is very common.

Could we make this clause active, like agar pembaca baru mudah menemukan cerpen saya? Is that okay, and what’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

agar pembaca baru mudah menemukan cerpen saya
= so that new readers easily find my short story

Differences:

Original: cerpen saya mudah ditemukan pembaca baru (passive)
- Focus on the short story: it is easy to find.
Alternative: pembaca baru mudah menemukan cerpen saya (active)
- Focus on the new readers: they easily find it.

Both are grammatical. The passive version is slightly more typical when talking about how accessible/visible a product is (the object being easy to find).

What does mudah ditemukan mean here? Is it like “easy to find” or “easily found”? Could it be dengan mudah ditemukan?

Mudah ditemukan literally is easy to be found, which corresponds to:

easy to find
easily found

So:

cerpen saya mudah ditemukan pembaca baru
= my short story is easy for new readers to find / is easily found by new readers.

You can say:

cerpen saya dengan mudah ditemukan pembaca baru

but this sounds a bit heavier and more formal.
Normally:

mudah ditemukan (adjective + passive verb) is the smooth, natural choice.
dengan mudah tends to emphasize how it is found (with ease), like an adverb.

How do we know this means “the publisher chose a bright cover”, not “chooses” or “will choose”? There’s no tense marking.

Indonesian verbs usually do not change form for tense (past/present/future). Memilih can mean:

chooses
chose
will choose

The time reference comes from context, or from extra words such as:

sudah (already) – past
tadi (earlier) – past
akan (will) – future
nanti (later) – future

For example:

Tadi, penerbit itu memilih sampul cerah…
= Earlier, that publisher chose a bright cover…

In your isolated sentence, English readers often interpret it as past (chose) because it describes a completed decision, but Indonesian itself doesn’t mark that directly.

Why is it cerpen saya mudah ditemukan and not cerpen saya yang mudah ditemukan?

Both are possible, but they have slightly different uses:

cerpen saya mudah ditemukan pembaca baru
- A complete clause: my short story is easy to find.
- mudah ditemukan pembaca baru is a predicate describing cerpen saya.
cerpen saya yang mudah ditemukan (pembaca baru)
- yang mudah ditemukan is a relative clause: “my short story that is easy to find”.
- Often used when comparing or specifying among several possibilities, e.g.:
  - Ini cerpen saya yang mudah ditemukan pembaca baru.
    = This is my short story that is easy for new readers to find.

In your sentence, we’re simply stating a property (it is easy to find), so we don’t need yang. The predicate construction without yang is the most straightforward here.