K-Book Trends -

Search word : "Financial Crisis", Search result : 16

[TREND / TOPIC]

The Era of High Exchange Rates and the Korean Publishing Market

Topic The Era of High Exchange Rates and the Korean Publishing Market Readers ultimately respond to good content 2025.04.07 The structure of the Korean publishing market and translation-oriented publishing in the 1990s I vividly remember the days when the Asian Financial Crisis hit Korea. The value of foreign currencies jumped one day. I waited for it to fall, but things didn’t go as expected. The value of foreign currencies continued to skyrocket, and the value of the Korean won plummeted. This was the situation in 1997. Until then, the Korean publishing market had been heavily dependent on importing translation rights to titles that could compete in Korea from overseas markets, mainly Japan and the English-speaking countries. In this climate, Korea was hit by the era of high exchange rates. By the time we had to pay the advance for a title contracted at 800 won per dollar, the exchange rate had nearly doubled to 1,600 won per ...

VOL.81 / 2025.04

[TREND / TOPIC]

What the “Steady Seller Phenomenon” Means for the Book Market

Topic What the “Steady Seller Phenomenon” Means for the Book Market On books that have reached their 100th print 2024.07.01 The implication of books that hit the 100th print Kim Dong-Sik’s The Grey Man (Yoda Books) recently celebrated its 100th printing in the Korean book market. While the writer’s dramatic leap from a foundry worker to a best-selling writer has been spotlighted, what is perhaps most important is the internal narrative of the short stories contained within. This collection of 24 short stories was selected from the hundreds of short stories he posted to the horror forum of an online community, “Today’s Humor.” It is indeed a kaleidoscope of life’s short stories, sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking. Readers have responded so enthusiastically to the short story collection, which went into its 100th printing in 2017 - 7 years after it was first published, and there are many factors behind this. The factor include the dra...

VOL.72 / 2024.07

[TREND / SPECIAL PROJECT]

New-nostalgia, the 1990s Sought in the 2020s

Special Project [Book × New-nostalgia] New-nostalgia, the 1990s Sought in the 2020s 2024.05.07 By their very nature, books are vessels of knowledge encompassing all fields. Endless topics can be written about depending on the material and message. In the [Book × _____ ] series, experts recommend Korean books in their respective fields that you’ve been curious about but had trouble discovering more about. Now, let’s jump into the infinite world of books through the collaboration of books with various fields. Why are the 2020s bringing back the 1990s? The past ages do not just recede from the present over time. Some events from the past have become the underlying framework for the present. The 2020s have been through the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, and have embraced each of them one after the other. The 1990s, in particular, are often invoked in the 2020s when it comes to p...

VOL.70 / 2024.05

[TREND / KNOWLEDGE]

Current status of each field in the Korean publishing market ④ Social Science Publications

Current status of each field in the Korean publishing market ④ Social Science Publications 2020.05.04 The 1980s were the golden age for social science publications in the Korean publishing industry. Under the ruling of the new military dictatorship, it was social science books and their readers that took the lead in the overall social transformation through intense democratic and labor movements. The books were the texts of social movement and transformation. Bookstores specialized in social science books, though most of them cannot be found today, thrived next to colleges across the nation. With the “announcement of democratization” in 1987, Seoul Olympics in 1988, and the establishment of a civilian government in 1993, Korea has been pursuing cultural diversity amidst the paradigm shifts of political democratization, globalization, and becoming an information society, positioning itself as a responsible member of the international community. Social ...

VOL.22 / 2020.05

[TREND / BOOK TRIP]

Where the Children from the Book Children of Kwaeng-I-Bu-Ri Village Used to Play

Book Trip [Into the Book ①] Where the Children from the BookChildren of Kwaeng-I-Bu-Ri Village Used to Play Mansuk-dong, Dong-gu, Incheon: Time Travel with the Book 2023.08.07 Children of Kwaeng-I-Bu-Ri Village The Kwaeng-i-bu-ri Village is the oldest poor neighborhood in Incheon. (...)Over the years, the village turned from a forest of pine trees into a factory townfull of smokestacks and shanty houses. Children of Kwaeng-I-Bu-Ri Village (Changbi Publishers), published in 2000, is a children’s book featuring the life of twin sisters Sook-Hee (the main character) and Sook-Ja living in a poor daldongne neighborhood. The word “daldongne” means a poor village situated on the slopes of a hill in Korea, and it is said to have deriven from its proximity to the moon. It is widely known that Kim Jung-Mi, the writer, had once run a s...

VOL.61 / 2023.08

[TREND / TOPIC]

“Restructuring of Family” Becoming Inevitable

Topic “Restructuring of Family” Becoming Inevitable 2023.04.03 Korea has risen from a poor country to a rich country with a per capita income of 30 thousand dollars in just half a century. With such an astonishing economic development upfront, many parts of society have been transforming rapidly. It’s no exception for families. Recently, there have been voices from parts of Korean society that the structure of the “family” should be re-engineered from the bottom. More books in the publishing market have begun to discuss the “restructuring of family.” Changes in Gender Norms in Korean Society Korean society has undergone rapid industrialization and urbanization in the 1960s and 70s. This spurred a fast transition from the traditional way of having big patriarchal families to nuclear families. However, nuclear families still had some patriarchal elements left, and men-focused gender roles were maintained. Also, while there was no sturdy s...

VOL.57 / 2023.04

[INFORMATION / BEST SELLERS]

3rd Week, July 2023

Best Sellers 3rd Week, July 2023 Best seller Trends in the Four Biggest Online Bookstores in Korea 2023.08.07 In July, books about famous Koreans becoming popular across the world became best sellers. For example, the book Beyond the Story, ranked 3rd on the best sellers list, was published to mark the 10th year since the debut of BTS, a famous K-pop idol group worldwide. It features the group’s activities and behind stories with in-depth reports and interviews. Also, the book National Star Lim Young-Woong and the Historical Syndrome analyzes singer Lim Young-Woong, who became a “national star” after winning in a trot (a genre of Korean music, inspired by the country’s folk songs) audition program. Writer Ha Jae-Keun - a literary critic and his fan ? investigates the factors behind Lim’s popularity in an entertaining way. Meanwhile, a book about a popular “animal” could be seen among the best sellers. For example, Baby Panda Pubao is a photo essay th...

VOL.61 / 2023.08

[INFORMATION / NEW BOOKS]

Brilliant Regards

New Books Brilliant Regards 2023.07.03 Grief and Healing Delivered in Beautiful Sentences, Brilliant Regards The first full-length novel in 12 years by novelist Baik Soulinne, who has earned the trust of critics and readers with her unwavering literary skills.Talking about the inevitability and limitations experienced during an awkward childhood that you only realize when you grow up, the book offers its sweet and brilliant “best regards” to its readers across time. Young Haemi closes her mind in the face of overwhelming tragedy and loneliness caused by an accident, her sister’s death, and an abrupt migration to Germany, and lies to people around her so they don’t worry about her.Other Korean nurses dispatched to Germany help Haemi, and they soon become Haemi’s haven and new home.But the relief is short...

VOL.60 / 2023.07

[TREND / TOPIC]

A Retirement-encouraging Society in the Era of a 100-year Life Expectancy

Topic A Retirement-encouraging Societyin the Era of a 100-year Life Expectancy 2022.04.04 While working at a large corporation, person ‘A’ started investing in real estate in 2014. Through ‘gap investment (a type of investment in Korea where the house owner leverages the money provided by lump-sum housing lease to purchase a house with a small amount of capital),’ ‘A’ started buying houses near the metropolitan area. After six years, by 2020, his asset amounted to 2.5 billion won. He could not imagine his wealth to grow to such an extent.Based on his experience, ‘A’ opened a podcast channel on real estate investment and saw a rapid increase in subscribers. After listening to ‘A’’s podcast, a publishing company representative contacted ‘A,’ asking if he would like to publish a book about his experiences. ‘A’ decides to write a book and concludes a contract with the publisher. The next day, ‘A’ handed his resignation letter to the ...

VOL.45 / 2022.04

[INTERVIEW / KOREAN PUBLISHERS]

Window of Times

Korean Publishers Window of Times Pierce like a spear, reflect like a window, or sing like a singer 2025.06.02 Why do you make books? Every publisher will have a different answer to this question. Yet, every answer has its own value, and our lives are thus enriched. The publisher Window of Times continues to release books about beings and lives that we are familiar with, but know little about. From Marx to Chomsky, from farmers to convenience store part-timers, it delves deeply and uncomplicatedly into the stories of those we mistake for too distant or too familiar - to make books as a spear, window, or a song (창 in the publisher’s Korean name, “시대의창,” can be used in three different ways) to the world. The logo of publishing house Window of Times It’s a pleasure to have you with us on K-Book Trends. Please introduce to our international readers the publishing house along with the meaning of the com...

VOL.83 / 2025.06

VOL.93/2026.04

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