K-Book Trends -

Search word : "Essay", Search result : 367

[TREND / TOPIC]

The Art of Selling Books: Innovative Strategies by Korean Booksellers

Topic The Art of Selling Books:Innovative Strategies by Korean Booksellers 2024.11.04 You will be able to find the figures for “reading preferences” in the results of the National Reading Survey conducted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism in Korea last year. It gives a hint to the “actual” reading population based on the ratio of people liking books. The overall reading rate covering paper books, e-books, and audio books was 95.8% for elementary, middle, and high school students and 43.0% for adults; the actual reading preferences turned out to be 39.6% for students and 18.3% for adults. The actual reading rate, which means readings done autonomously, is cut in half from the overall reading rate as the overall figure includes cases in which people have to read books for necessary reasons, such as for work or educational purposes. Why do people read books, but have very few “enjoyable” experiences reading them? Well, consi...

VOL.76 / 2024.11

[TREND / KNOWLEDGE]

Write the Story You Want to Read

Knowledge Write the Story You Want to Read Self-publishing platforms in Korea: The reasons for growth and the current state 2024.11.04 “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” - Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 While there is no established academic definition, “self-publishing” refers to authors planning, editing, publishing, and distributing their own manuscripts without working through a publishing company. As opposed to “vanity publishing,” which involves paying an upfront fee to a publisher to produce and distribute a book, it is used almost interchangeably with “independent publishing” in Korea (some researchers and book critics use the two terms separately). The desire to document ...

VOL.76 / 2024.11

[TREND / TOPIC]

What Comes After Today’s Korean-Style Healing Novels?

Topic What Comes After Today’s Korean-Style Healing Novels? 2024.10.07 “While the so-called ‘Korean style healing novels’ are selling well these days, trends always change. This craze will be replaced with a new trend sooner or later.” Barbara J. Zitwer, a literary agent working across English-speaking countries, said so in a recent interview. Zitwer is an American who has been exporting Korean literature overseas for about 20 years and is often referred to as a “Korean literature ambassador.” She explains that the phenomenon of Korean-style healing novels being so popular not only in Korea, but also abroad, is something that may change at any time soon. “At first, everyone read pure literature,” she said, “and then the trend shifted to healing novels.” While it may seem that the popularity of Korean literature across all genres has grown on the surface, Zitwer says that international readers switched genres when they got tired of...

VOL.75 / 2024.10

[TREND / TOPIC]

Korean Readers’ Picks in the First Half of 2024

Topic Korean Readers’ Picks in the First Half of 2024 2024.09.02 According to the “2023 National Reading Survey” announced by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism in Korea, the overall reading rate was observed to be 43.0%, the lowest since the survey was initiated in 1994. This means that 6 out of 10 adults don’t even read a single e-book or audiobook, let alone a paper book. The shrinking of the reading population, which forms the foundation for the publishing market, and the aging population have been issues in Korea for quite a long time. However, it was indeed a shocking figure for the publishing industry as it expected to see a steady increase in the reading population since it enjoyed a boom during the pandemic compared to other industries.In the first half of the year, the reduction in newly published titles, driven by a contracting publishing market, alongside the enduring popularity of long-time bestsellers, played a si...

VOL.74 / 2024.09

[TREND / EXPORT CASE]

Yanolja CEO Sujin Lee’s Restart Advances Into the UK

Export Case Yanolja CEO Sujin Lee’s Restart Advances Into the UK 2024.09.02 Restart (Cloud 9), a nonfiction essay about Yanolja’s vision to become the “Global One Top Travel Tech Company,” has just been published in the UK. It is an autobiographical essay by Yanolja CEO Sujin Lee, who constantly writes “new legends” as he continues to establish himself as an icon of fortitude and success. The UK publisher of the book is LID Publishing, a company with a strong and unique presence at the center of global issues, which has been publishing books by various figures.Restart is Sujin Lee’s 18-year business chronicle from 2005 - the year Yanolja was founded - to 2023, and the journey of Yanolja’s expansion from the number one accommodation company in Korea to a global company that is now creating a paradigm shift in the leisure and travel market. Subtitled “An entrepreneur’s journey from motel janitor to CEO of a global enterprise,” the book was first re...

VOL.74 / 2024.09

[TREND / BOOK TRIP]

The Great Legacies of Two Literary Masters of Modern Times

Book Trip [A Trip to Literary Museums ⑤] The Great Legacies of Two Literary Masters of Modern Times Busan Metropolitan City: Yosan Kim Jung-Han Literary Museumand Hyangpa Lee Juhong Literary Museum 2024.09.02 A writer’s legacy can sometimes become an important cultural asset for a region as it incorporates various stories. In this month’s issue, Book Trip travels to Busan, Korea, where you can feel a rich sense of literature. Busan, with its abundant tourist offerings such as the sea, movies, and modern cultural heritage, has a presence in literature that is second to none. The two pillars of Busan’s literary scene are Kim Jung-Han, who has intensely depicted modern life in his novels related to the region, and Lee Ju-Hong, whose works span a wide range of genres, including children’s literature, poetry, novels, and plays. The scent of their literature is wafting through the city, which has been a source of emotional support for people ...

VOL.74 / 2024.09

[TREND / SPECIAL PROJECT]

Want to Know More About Korean Architecture?

Special Project [English Books in Korea ②] Want to Know More About Korean Architecture? 2024.07.01 I start this article with the confession that writing an introduction to English books on Korean architecture is perhaps even more challenging than writing an English book on Korean architecture itself, primarily because the absolute number of such books is so small. Considering the fact that the Korean architecture market is not small at all, that many of the world’s leading architects have left their legacies in Korea, and that Korea has consistently participated in international architectural events such as the Venice Biennale, this is somewhat surprising. This is even more true when we consider that there are a significant number of people in the Korean architectural community who have had first-hand experience in other countries through studying or working abroad and are familiar with foreign languages. For a country that exports so many th...

VOL.72 / 2024.07

[INFORMATION / BEST SELLERS]

April Blooms: Bestsellers of the Month

Best Sellers April Blooms:Bestsellers of the Month 2026.05 Major franchises dominate the majority of South Korea's offline bookstore market. Currently, four major franchises—Kyobo Book Centre, Youngpoong Bookstore, Jongno Books, and Arc N Book—are competing in the offline retail sector. Starting with Kyobo Book Centre, which has the largest number of branches, followed by Youngpoong Bookstore, Jongno Books, and Arc N Book, we will examine the top 10 best-selling books. In our previous issue, we examined the bestsellers at Kyobo Book Centre. For our May edition—the third installment of our offline bookstore analysis—we focus on the bestseller list from Jongno Books for the first week of April. Taking the top spot at Jongno Books this week is Project Hail Mary, published by RHK (RH Korea). This surge in popularity is directly linked to the cinematic release of the film adaptat...

VOL.94 / 2026.05

[INFORMATION / BEST SELLERS]

Spring 2026 Bestseller List

Best Sellers Spring 2026 Bestseller List 2026.04 Major franchises dominate the majority of South Korea's offline bookstore market. Currently, four major franchises—Kyobo Book Centre, Youngpoong Bookstore, Jongno Books, and Arc N Book—are competing in the offline retail sector. Starting with Kyobo Book Centre, which has the largest number of branches, followed by Youngpoong Bookstore, Jongno Books, and Arc N Book, we will examine the top 10 best-selling books. In the previous issue, we examined the bestsellers of Kyobo Book Centre, Korea's largest bookstore franchise. For this April issue, as the second part of our offline bookstore bestseller analysis, we looked at the bestsellers of Youngpoong Bookstore for the first week of March. The top-ranked book at Youngpoong Bookstore during this period was the picture book Mom Became a Ghost! published by Gilbut Children’s Books. It ...

VOL.93 / 2026.04

[INFORMATION / K-BOOK MAP]

Where Literature Dwells - Bridging the Past and Present of Korean Literature through Its Museums -

K-Book Map Where Literature Dwells- Bridging the Past and Present of Korean Literature through Its Museums - 2026.04 Literary museums dedicated to specific writers hold profound significance. They serve as cultural archives that reveal the various elements behind the birth of a literary masterpiece. Numerous such museums operate across Korea today. Among them, we would like to introduce three locations selected for their historical and regional balance: the Yun Dong-ju Literature Museum in Seoul (Yun Dong-ju: 1917–1945), the Pak Kyongni Literature Park in Wonju, Gangwon-do (Pak Kyongni: 1926–2008), and the Na Tae-joo Pulkkot Literary House in Gongju, Chungnam (Na Tae-joo: 1945–). Yun Dong-ju was a poet who focused on self-reflection and maintaining a human conscience despite the oppression of the colonial era. Pak Kyongni was a novelist who gave form to the turbulence of modern Korean history thr...

VOL.93 / 2026.04

VOL.94/2026.05

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