K-Book Trends -

Search word : "Novel", Search result : 626

[TREND / EXPORT CASE]

Factors Behind the Success of Korean Webtoons and Webnovels in the Global Marketplace

Export Case Factors Behind the Success of Korean Webtoons and Webnovelsin the Global Marketplace Based on the Southeast Asian market, including Thailand 2024.08.05 Korean webtoons and webnovels are making waves in the global content market. In particular, they are drawing global attention with great success in Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand.The scalability of secondary use of IP is the most notable factor these days. Many webnovels and webtoons are being adapted into various media, such as dramas, movies, and games, providing publishers and media companies with additional opportunities for monetization. This, coupled with the influence of the Korean Wave, is creating a synergistic effect. The global popularity of K-Pop and Korean dramas has increased worldwide interest in Korean culture, and this has naturally led to a greater interest in Korean webnovels and webtoons. As you can see in the image below, this is clearly evident in the statistics...

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

[INFORMATION / AGENCY LIST]

Agency List

Agency List Agency List 2026.06 Abba Communication Ltd. Launched as a translation and interpretation agency in 204, Abba Communication (Abba here after) now also acts as a copyright agency. Abba supports young Korean publishers who are aspiring to build experiences in moving on to the international market, providing consultation on the way until they become global. Abba’s special forte is its excellent professional team with expertise in re-writing and/or editing synopses and introductions into texts both competitive and persuasive. Other services Abba provides include translating original materials and creating promotional texts. Focused Subjects LiberalArts : Biography, Management, Negotiation Contacts • Kim jungsukE-mail : jskim@abbacomm.co.kr / Phone : +82-2-707-2103 / Regions : Asia, UK, USA • Han-gyul GoE-mail : a...

VOL.95 / 2026.06

[INFORMATION / NEW BOOKS]

What If You Encountered Your Own Clone One Day?

New Books What If You Encountered Your Own Clone One Day? 2026.05 Can Hate Be Replicated?, Yoon, Hye-seong, 2026. Yoon, Hye-seong’s debut novel, Can Hate Be Replicated?, has been released as part of the "Short Series" by Safe House (Anjeongaok), a publisher specializing in genre fiction. Safe House is a production studio that creates and distributes stories for "fandoms" of genres such as SF, fantasy, mystery, horror, and romance. Author Yoon previously co-wrote the script for the K-drama 〈The Dream Life of Mr. Kim〉. While that drama offered a realistic and satirical portrayal of the lives of Korean office workers, Can Hate Be Replicated? explores a deeply human story of alienation, conflict, and the eventual downfall of a couple facing extreme suffering. The novel is categorized as a "Gyeong-jangpyeon," a format that can be described as a novella—a medi...

VOL.94 / 2026.05

[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

[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

[INFORMATION / AGENCY LIST]

Agency List

Agency List Agency List 2026.05 Abba Communication Ltd. Launched as a translation and interpretation agency in 204, Abba Communication (Abba here after) now also acts as a copyright agency. Abba supports young Korean publishers who are aspiring to build experiences in moving on to the international market, providing consultation on the way until they become global. Abba’s special forte is its excellent professional team with expertise in re-writing and/or editing synopses and introductions into texts both competitive and persuasive. Other services Abba provides include translating original materials and creating promotional texts. Focused Subjects LiberalArts : Biography, Management, Negotiation ...

VOL.94 / 2026.05

[INFORMATION / NEW BOOKS]

How close are we, and how far apart?

New Books How close are we, and how far apart? 2026.04 Kim Yeon-su, Hirano Keiichiro, Nearby World (2026) Nearby World, a collaborative project planned and written by Kim Yeon-su and Hirano Keiichiro, prominent novelists representing Korea and Japan, has been published. Nearby World is the first installment of the Cross series, in which two authors living in different languages and cultures select a theme, in this case, ethical dilemmas, and each complete a work to be bound into a single volume. Author Kim Yeon-su explains that the term ethical is not a binary distinction between right and wrong, but rather an attitude of contemplating each person's own truth and sense of rightness within events where the desires of countless humans are intertwined. The volume includes Kim Yeon-su's Our Failure followed by Hirano Keiichiro's The Decisive Moment, concluding w...

VOL.93 / 2026.04

[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

[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

VOL.96/2026.07

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