K-Book Trends -

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[TREND / TOPIC]

The Meaning Behind Korea’s “Copybook” Craze

Topic The Meaning Behind Korea’s “Copybook” Craze The Analog Comeback in a Digital Age 2025.05.07 The Return of Analog Sensibility with “Text-Hip” Culture Professor Kim Nan-Do, author of the book Trend Korea 2025 (Mirae Books), picked the “appeal of materiality” as one of the consumer trends in Korea this year. It is the power to make people not only appreciate content with their eyes, but also want to touch it physically. This is manifested in the “materialization of content” phenomenon. Kim explains that in the age of immateriality, where everything is digitized, people still crave something they can experience with their hands. This explains the recent craze for “transcription books” in the Korean book and publishing market. It is an era where all information is reduced to images and videos. People exposed to all kinds of digital content are now seeking the pleasure of holding a pen, touching paper, and seeing the contents of a book in ...

VOL.82 / 2025.05

[TREND / BOOK TRIP]

The Hometown Scenery That Became the Literary Roots of a Modern Boy

Book Trip [A Trip to Literary Museums ⑥] The Hometown Scenery That Becamethe Literary Roots of a Modern Boy Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwondo: Gasan (可山) Lee Hyo-Seok Memorial Hall 2024.10.07 Fall in Pyeongchang begins with the white buckwheat blossoms. The buckwheat fields that cover the vast expanse of Bongpyeong-eup in white create a dreamlike beauty in combination with the blue sky. In his novel When Buckwheat Flowers Bloom, writer Lee Hyo-Seok described this view as “I could hardly breathe in the soft moonlight as if it were sprinkled with salt.” Pyeongchang hosts the “Hyoseok Culture Festival” to spotlight the literary world of Gasan (Lee’s pen name) Lee Hyo-Seok, including When Buckwheat Flowers Bloom in September, when you can stroll through a field of buckwheat flowers as if you were walking into a scene from the novel. It’s a great example of how a writer’s masterpiece can have a profound impact on local culture. Ou...

VOL.75 / 2024.10

[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 / BOOK TRIP]

The World Grows in the Wait

Book Trip [Into the Book ⑨] The World Grows in the Wait Seoul Station and Palaces: Walking Tour of Seoul’s Traditional Landmarks 2024.04.01 The Seoul Kid There are a lot of people waiting for something in the (Seoul Station) square.The homeless uncles, lady ‘Guichani,’ people from churches,and even the officers from the police district are waiting for something. The essence of waiting is to attune yourself to the other person’s time. Waiting for the person’s arrival, the heart, or happiness is all centered on the other person. Park Young-Ran’s novel, The Seoul Kid (Woorischool), captures how two brothers grow through their waiting for Iron Man through the eyes of a boy. Two brothers, aged 10 and 18, await the “Iron Man” who left them behind. When the older brother gets tired of waiting and sets out to find him himself, the younger b...

VOL.69 / 2024.04

[TREND / KNOWLEDGE]

A Call for an Evolutionary Level of Imagination: Replacement of Dominant Species

Publishing Industry A Call for an Evolutionary Level of Imagination:Replacement of Dominant Species Current status of author management in Korea 2024.02.19 Korea’s Greenbook Agency (CEO Toni Shi-Hyoung Kim) was one of the earliest adopters of the concept of author management. It was originally founded in 2006 as an agency specializing in the international trade of publishing rights. All of its executives, including CEO Kim, are former publishing professionals or translators, and the company has completed more than 1,000 copyright deals. In 2017, the company launched its author management business by signing an exclusive contract with Kim Bo-Young, a major Korean SF writer. Since then, it has signed award-winning fiction and non-fiction writers such as Bora Chung, Djuna, Park Seo-Ryun, Kim Hyun-Jin, Shim Wan-Sun, and Kim Joo...

VOL.67 / 2024.02

[INFORMATION / BEST SELLERS]

New Spring, Books Worth Your Attention

Best Sellers New Spring, Books Worth Your Attention 2026.03 As we approach the spring of 2026, the bestseller charts for the second week of February once again demonstrated the enduring power of fiction, with novels claiming six of the top ten spots. For our 2026 feature, we move beyond the digital sphere to focus on brick-and-mortar bookstores, where readers can personally browse the shelves, feel the texture of the printed type, and choose their books through a physical encounter. In South Korea, major franchises occupy the majority of the physical bookstore market. Currently, four main franchises—Kyobo Book Centre, Youngpoong Bookstore, Jongno Books, and Arc N Book—are in competition. We intend to examine the top ten books across these locations, starting with Kyobo Book Centre, which holds the largest number of branches, followed by Y...

VOL.92 / 2026.03

[INFORMATION / BEST SELLERS]

The End of Summer, or the Beginning of Change

Best Sellers The End of Summer, or the Beginning of Change Bestseller Trends in the Three Biggest Online Bookstoresin Korea for the 2nd week of August, 2025 2025.09.04 By mid-August, students’ summer vacations come to an end, and the holiday season for adults begins to wind down. People feel “a sense of reward for having endured the summer heat,” while looking forward to the cool weather of autumn. Yet with climate change and the recurring notion that “this year may be the coolest summer we will have,” the end of summer brings not only relief but also unease. The August bestsellers reflect this ambivalence, featuring both titles that hold steady in the rankings and others that signal the start of change.On the overall bestseller list, Sung Hae-Na’s Honmono continues to firmly hold the No. 1 spot. At the same time, the debut novel Grapefruit Apricot Club by Han Roro?a Korean singer-songwriter who debuted in 2022?draws attention. The novel, which explor...

VOL.86 / 2025.09

[TREND / KNOWLEDGE]

Korean Book Publishers Eye Webnovels and Webtoons

Publishing Industry Korean Book Publishers Eye Webnovels and Webtoons Why is Dasan Books starting an entertainment business? 2022.04.04 With the global mega-hit of “Squid Game” on Netflix in 2021, the world began to take a greater interest in Korean content. Other webtoon-based dramas, including “Hellbound” and “We Are All Dead,” are seeing good records as well, and Korean webtoon platforms such as Piccoma, Line Manga, and Tapas are rapidly growing in the global market. Now webtoons are rising as the next driver of Korean content, or K-content, which has been represented by K-pop.Korean book publishers are also greatly interested in webtoons and webnovels. General publishers such as Woongjin Thinkbig, Dasan Books, and Wisdom House have shown a clear movement in this regard. It also seems that those that have not yet started a relevant business are paying heed to the webnovel and webtoon business, the newly emerging field in the content industry. ...

VOL.45 / 2022.04

[TREND / KNOWLEDGE]

The Rise of Literary Agencies

The Rise of Literary Agencies 2021.06.07 There are not many literary agencies in Korea. Most of the publishers prefer working directly with authors over cooperating with agencies. It was common for publishers to think that it is safer to pay more of an advance to overseas writers who have already finished writing their manuscript or are expected to finish them soon rather than domestic writers who have not yet completed their manuscript.The most significant characteristic of the Korean publishing industry would be “diversity.” The system in which up to 6 thousand small- and medium-sized publishers make more than 80 thousand physical titles each year has greatly diversified the types of books published in Korea, but the limited average sales of each title was an expected outcome. In such an environment, it is difficult to invest a sufficient amount of development fee for each title. Hence, even though the literary agent succeeded in discovering fine manuscripts or o...

VOL.35 / 2021.06

[TREND / KNOWLEDGE]

Audiobooks: Issues and Future Developments

Audiobooks: Issues and Future Developments 2021.05.03 Recent issues surrounding audiobooks The voice service provided in announcements, news reading services, or e-book devices uses TTS (Text-to-Speech) technology that converts written letters into sound. As it has no accent and cuts the sentence in weird places, we have to track what it said while listening to the voice. Recently, as more people read books while traveling, e-books are transforming into audiobooks. Most people wish to hear a human’s voice when listening to one. The audiobook market is growing rapidly, but the production time, cost, and technological limitations have been slowing progress down. However, as the A.I. (artificial intelligence) voice synthesis technology is now being applied where it can process natural language, synthesize voices, and recognize the context, listeners can feel as if a real voice actor or actress is reading the story. If this technology becomes capable of expres...

VOL.34 / 2021.05

VOL.92/2026.03

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