K-Book Trends -

Search word : "Trend", Search result : 540

[TREND / TOPIC]

Dreaming of a Different Peace as We Depart from Houyhnhnms

Topic Dreaming of a Different Peace as We Depart from Houyhnhnms 2024.08.05 The 2024 Seoul International Book Fair (SIBF) has concluded with great success. During the peak hours when the crowd surged, I found myself in a state of constant anxiety, hoping that everything would go smoothly. As visitors queued up, stretching so far that the end of the line was out of sight, and the temperature inside rose, making the air conditioning struggle, my heart tightened. Yet, now I breathe a sigh of relief that the event ended without major incidents. Main posters of 2024 SIBF Challenges in preparing for the 2024 Seoul International Book Fair This year’s preparation for the Seoul International Book Fair was fraught with challenges. Traditionally held in Hall A on the first floor of COEX, we were informed last year to reduce the event...

VOL.73 / 2024.08

[TREND / KNOWLEDGE]

Korean Publishers’ Efforts to Meet New Readers

Knowledge Korean Publishers’ Efforts to Meet New Readers 2024.08.05 Publishers have been putting the utmost effort into connecting readers, works, and authors. One of the examples was booktalks, where readers meet the author. Booktalks helped publishers expand the horizon of readers’ engagement with works and maintain fanship, but it was not easy to secure new readers. As a large number of booktalks turned contactless after the outbreak of COVID-19, the small influx of new readers fell even more.Meanwhile, as the marketing trend in Korea moved onto pop-up stores, many Generation Z started to take shots, do opening rushes, and leave reviews. This trend has made it a must-do event for companies when launching new products (brands). There were even reviewers who left comments on pop-up stores open in Seongsu-dong (the region in Seoul settled as a hot place among Generation Z as it became the hub of pop-up stores). Where both present and future readers...

VOL.73 / 2024.08

[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]

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

[TREND / EXPORT CASE]

Top 10 World Bestseller of Picture Books: Publisher BookGoodCome

Export Case Top 10 World Bestseller of Picture Books:Publisher BookGoodCome 2024.07.01 BookGoodCome is a publishing house established in 2009 by a couple ? writer Lee Rury and translator Lee Soon-Young. It enters its 15th year on July 4 this year. For the past 15 years, the publishing house has published about 330 titles, and 150 of them are creative books it planned. BookGoodCome has been participating in a number of international book fairs every year since 2011, and has signed approximately 100 export contracts up to date. So, let’s take a look at world bestsellers published by BookGoodCome! * K-Book Trends Vol. 10 ? Go to the interview with BookGoodCome BookGoodCome’s booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair No. 1 is the Coda the Polar Bear series. Its first volume is Coda the Polar Bear: The First Story, Black Noses, written by Lee Rury and illustrated by Bae Woory. It was exported to 3 countries, incl...

VOL.72 / 2024.07

[TREND / BOOK TRIP]

People’s Lives Seen Through the National History of Chaos and Turbulence

Book Trip [A Trip to Literary Museums ③] People’s Lives Seen Through the NationalHistory of Chaos and Turbulence Boseong-gun, Jeollanam-do: The Jo Jung-Rae Taebaek Mountain Range Literature Museum 2024.07.01 Literary museums are the most effective place to deepen your understanding of writers and their works, and to fully appreciate them. This is because they exhibit works in a variety of ways and present writers’ biographies, enabling us to walk into the world of literature with a richer perspective. So, sometimes, a trip to a literary museum is enough to make us more mature readers. In this edition of Book Trip, we traveled to Jeollanam-do, Boseong-gun, the hometown of Jo Jung-Rae, a master of Korean literature and the writer of Taebaeksanmaek (meaning Taebaek Mountain Range)(Hainaim Publishing), the ultimate saga novel. Aside from the pleasure of discovering traces of Taebaeksanmaek around every corner, Boseong-gun has much to offer, as it breathes th...

VOL.72 / 2024.07

[TREND / TOPIC]

Development and Transformation of Korean Young Adult Fiction

Topic Development and Transformation of Korean Young Adult Fiction 2024.06.03 “Young Adult (YA)” is a keyword that can’t be left out when discussing Korean literature in recent years. In fact, “recent” might not be the right word. It was in 2021 when the first article on the topic of “young adult fiction” appeared in K-Book Trends, and Sohn Won-Pyung’s Almond (Dazzling Publishers), which was mentioned as a work that led the young adult market at that time, was published in 2017. However, the term “young adult” appears in the submission guidelines of new fiction contests, in the names and intentions of newly conceived novel series, and in the introductions of young adult SF or fantasy novels. As such, young adult fiction is expanding and changing at a remarkably rapid pace. This growth can be attributed to the steady improvement of Korean young adult fiction, the changes in general fiction, and readers’ enthusiasm for new genres. S...

VOL.71 / 2024.06

[TREND / SPECIAL PROJECT]

Korea Today and the Charm of Korean Culture

Special Project [English Books in Korea ①] Korea Today and the Charm of Korean Culture 2024.06.03 I’m pleased to be able to introduce the English edition of my book about Korea through this interview. This is because such an opportunity does not come around often, and because through this, I can draw the attention of the industry and readers in this harsh climate where the number of English books about Korea is decreasing rather than increasing.One keyword that automatically comes to mind when you think of English books about Korea is “Kinokuniya” bookstores in Japan. I was literally overwhelmed by the number of English books about Japan that I saw at Kinokuniya Bookstore in Japantown, San Francisco, US. On the other hand, the number of English books published in Korea is far too little, and the fields are focused on culture and language, with very few on economics, society, practical skills, and people. What’s more, the number of titles is shrinking.M...

VOL.71 / 2024.06

[TREND / TOPIC]

How Did the “Best Book Design From All Over the World” Begin?

Topic How Did the “Best Book Design From All Over the World” Begin? Books selected in Korea in 2024 2024.05.07 Launched in 1963 by the German Stiftung Buchkunst, the “Best Book Design From All Over the World” is a world-renowned competition that is now co-organized with the Leipziger Buchmesse. Leipziger Buchmesse is the earliest international book fair held every year. Leipzig, the background of Martin Luther’s debates on reformation, has been a center of book printing, publishing, and design since medieval times, as well as being home to numerous publishing houses. The competition is set in this historical context.In Korea, the Korean Publishers Association has been holding a contest for Korean books, and the selected books have been submitted to the contest in Germany. Consequently, Uhm Yoo-Jung’s collection, FEUILLES (Leaves), published by Media Bus in 2021, won the prize for the first time in Korea, followed by Workroom Press’s Samu...

VOL.70 / 2024.05

[INFORMATION / BEST SELLERS]

Which Foreign Books Did Korean Readers Choose in 2025?

Best Sellers Which Foreign Books Did Korean Readers Choose in 2025? 2026.02 "Interest in Korean fiction" is an indispensable phrase when explaining recent publishing trends in Korea. Thanks to the halo effect of Han Kang's Nobel Prize in Literature win in 2024, Korean novels swept the top spots on the comprehensive bestseller lists last year. The slump in non-fiction books, driven by the commercialization of generative artificial intelligence (AI), also played a significant role. The prevailing view in the industry is that the surge in Korean fiction—and Korean literature at large—is a "butterfly effect" resulting from the contraction of the local non-fiction market, a sector traditionally dominated by renowned foreign authors rather than domestic ones. However, this situation may present a unique opportuni...

VOL.91 / 2026.02

VOL.92/2026.03

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