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[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 dollar, which we had ...
  • VOL.81 / 2025.04
[TREND / SPECIAL PROJECT]

A City Where the Past and Future Meet: Tokyo

Special Project   [New Ways of Walking Through Cities ②] A City Where the Past and Future Meet: Tokyo   2025.02.17       Korea and Japan are countries that are both close and far away at the same time. They are located in East Asia and have similar climates, four seasons, and no time difference. Even the cityscapes look similar at first glance. Seoul and Tokyo both feature a mix of skyscrapers and traditional architecture. However, if you look a little deeper, you start to see the subtle differences between them. Whereas tradition and modernity blend together naturally in Korea, the two seem to be more starkly separated in Japan. For example, Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul seems to blend into the modern cafes and shops surrounding it, but in Tokyo’s Asakusa neighborhood, the shrines and temples are quiet reminders of a time gone by.When you first step foot in Tokyo, you feel like you have just walked in...
  • VOL.79 / 2025.02
[TREND / EXPORT CASE]

Spreading Its Wings To the World: The Seoul Letter Shop

Export Case   Spreading Its Wings To the World: The Seoul Letter Shop   2025.01.06   On October 12, 2023, I received an email from Shinwon Agency, Korea’s first copyright export agency. They wanted to meet me at the Frankfurt Book Fair. I was going to be there, so we agreed to meet on October 19. This was about a month after I had sent them a cold email looking for an export partner. Within that month, I sent them a cover letter for my publishing house, met with them to introduce my publication lineup, and passed on additional materials about the works they were interested in. Among them was a proposal for The Seoul Letter Shop (TXTY), including a synopsis.It felt interesting and fateful that two Korean companies would be meeting in Frankfurt on October 19, 2023, to talk about working together. Shinwon said that there was a lot of interest from Anglo-American partner agencies and offered an exclusive agreement for The Seoul Letter Shop. I was flabbe...
  • VOL.78 / 2025.01
[TREND / SPECIAL PROJECT]

Korean Literature’s Borderless Literary Appeal

Special Project   [Award-winning Korean Books ②] Korean Literature’s Borderless Literary Appeal Korean works nominated or winning international literary awards in 2024   2024.12.02   The flow, trend, and outlook of Korean literature   Until 2023, one of the major concerns in the Korean literary world, intellectual circles, and the publishing industry was whether Korean books, including literature, would continue to expand their presence in the global content market. And, this became a “certainty” in only a year. Han Kang’s winning of the Nobel Prize in Literature served as the catalyst. In the four years since 2020, the number of Korean authors winning international literary awards skyrocketed. Among the 45 awards won since 2003, 20 were from 2020 and onward. The following are some of the most prominent wins or nominations for international literary awards in the past four years.In 2020, Kim Young-Ha’s Diary of a Murderer (Bokbok Seoga) won Deutscher K...
  • VOL.77 / 2024.12
[TREND / KNOWLEDGE]

Korean Publishing Market’s Trends in 2024 and Outlook for 2025

Knowledge   Korean Publishing Market’s Trends in 2024 and Outlook for 2025   2024.12.02         Trends in 2024: Questioning life, fandoms, and Nobel Prize in Literature   Philosophy and psychology books have dominated the Korean publishing market, with Reading Schopenhauer at Forty (Uknowbooks) topping the overall bestseller list through August. Also, 11 of the 30 bestselling fiction titles in the first half of the year were “rebound” titles, meaning they were published more than 10 years ago. In addition, the nonfiction category returned to growth after 4 years of decline, and the cases of books becoming bestsellers after being recommended by celebrities increased.Reading Schopenhauer at Forty has continued to grow in popularity this year after being featured on a TV entertainment series last year. The autho...
  • VOL.77 / 2024.12
[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]

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 / 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 / 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 (Darjeeling), 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. So, where did Korean young...
  • 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
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