VOL.69/2024.04

 

Songsongbooks

The Place that Holds Everyday Stories With Upbeat Sound

 

2022.11.07

 

There is a publisher who focuses on small things in our daily lives and delivers them in an upbeat sound, like ‘pasongsong gyerantak (파송송 계란탁, the sound of chopping green onions and cracking eggs when making noodles).’ Songsongbooks find minor but common events taking place around our lives, change them into stories, and give joy to readers. The publisher selects light but fun topics rather than solemn and grave ones and publishes interesting books. As a former comics magazine editor, Songsongbooks’ director Kim Song-Eun loves drawings and images. She sometimes invites writers to hold signing events and book talks. She even becomes a character in the book and meets readers to deliver happiness. Let’s hear Songsongbooks’ stories as it meets readers in diverse forms and finds joy in their daily lives.

 

 

It’s an honor to have you here with us. Please introduce Songsongbooks to our readers overseas and tell us what your company name means.

 

Hello, everyone! Songsongbooks started its business in October 2017. We release comic books, such as Cho Kyung-Kyu’s Omurice Jamjam series, Ma Young-Shin’s Artist and Namdong Industrial Complex, Lee Eun-Jae’s ONE, TEN, and Shut Up! and Dance?, Kang Ik-Joong’s collection of poems and pictures, as well as collections of drawings, and other non-fictions, such as Jun Soon-Ye’s Taste of Gangwon-do and Animals I love.
Regarding the publisher’s name – Songsongbooks – ‘songsong’ does not have a grandiose meaning. Still, I chose the name because I liked the sound of it being cheery. It also reminds me of small and light images, like song-al song-al (the sound of water droplets dripping) or song song (the sound of chopping food into small pieces). Rather than heavy and solemn stories, we aim to focus more on the small things around us.

 

You worked as an editor before opening your publishing company. Is there any particular reason you established a publishing house after quitting your job? Also, what’s the difference between publishing a book as an editor and as the director of a publishing company?

 

Before opening up my own publishing company, I worked for several publishers for 15 years, releasing books of literature, arts, and comics. I also worked as an editor of a comics magazine for three years. Many editors dream of establishing their publishing company. I did too. If you belong to a company, there are limitations in making books you want, or you would have to do something you do not want to do.
As an editor and director, the fact that I publish books does not change, but the gravity of the task comes differently. Glory and loss are all my responsibilities. It is burdensome that I have to be the one to be held responsible. However, it is great that I can decide to publish books that were rejected in my workplaces for it being “meaningful but not profitable.”

 

 

Many editors dream of establishing their publishing company.

 

 

You usually publish comic books or ones with eye-catching illustrations. Are there any standards for selecting books?

 

I think my experience as a comics magazine editor affected my choice. Even after quitting my work as an editor, I was drawn to comics and beautiful images, which led me to build relations with many artists. The projects are based on my interest, which increased the portion of comics and image-centered books published by my company. It also has to do with the fact that there are publication requests made mainly for image-driven pieces. I did not intentionally try to pick those books, but it happened to be so.

 

 

Omurice Jamjam is one of Songsongbooks’ representative books. But, including Omurice Jamjam, are there other books that you would want to recommend to readers living overseas?

 

Omurice Jamjam is a gift-like piece that includes funny food-related and family growth stories. No need to mention its impressive food drawings that make you drool. If you liked Omurice Jamjam, I recommend reading another food comics series by Cho Kyung-Kyu, titled Chinese Bonbon Club. The main characters of the piece are members of a secret high school students’ club that travel to eat Chinese food. The series has episodes in Seoul, Beijing, and Guangzhou. It started in 2008, and the storyline and characters with unique characteristics are charming. Volumes 1 and 2 make you feel hungry as you read through and see steamy foods, even though the books are in black and white.
Also, I also strongly recommend reading Ma Young-Shin’s Artist and The Way of Khak Kyoung-Su. The author won the Harvey Award, the so-called Oscar award for comics. The pieces show the cutthroat and petty lives of artists with detailed descriptions as if you looked through a microscope. The charms of Ma Young-Shin’s works, which pinpoint funny but sad reality, can be seen in the pieces.

 

Songsongbooks hosts events like author lectures and book talks. Please introduce an event that was particularly meaningful to you.

 

The most recent event Songsongbooks held on July 2022 was ‘Gumumm Bam,’ directed and organized by novelist Jang Gang-Myeong and online book reading community Gumumm’s director Kim Hye-Jung. Gumumm Bam is an offline event of Gumumm, which holds book talks in local bookstores every last day of the month. As the first book and the place, Cha Cha on the Bridge, the comic book released last July, and Songsongbooks were selected. The book talk, which had Jang Gang-Myeong as the MC, and Yoon Pil and Jae Soo as guests, had a lot of visitors. It was a happy but overwhelming event. Since there were many people gathered at the event for the first time after COVID-19, we had to be careful. Still, the event was exciting and exhilarating as it’s been a while since people gathered.
The next event will be Cho Kyung-Kyu’s book signing event, which will be held near the winter vacation season. We previously ran smaller but similar events in bookstores several times, but it was unsatisfactory due to the limited number of visitors considering time and site concerns. So, Songsongbooks plans to hold the event all day. We will also serve tea to people who visit the event.

 

 

We heard that the book cafe you ran along with the publisher is taking time off due to COVID-19. Are there any plans to re-open the book cafe?

 

Songsongbooks Book Cafe started its business on November 2018. After opening Songsongbooks, I rented an office for a year to work, but I kept on going to cafes to work instead of my office. So, I thought it would be better to open my cafe. (laughs) In the first year, we held exhibitions about the Chinese Bonbon Club and book signing events for Cho Kyung-Kyu a few times.
However, about a year after the book cafe opened, it became challenging to host events due to the impact of COVID-19. The publisher’s working capacity was growing as well, meaning that there were more books to be published. In addition, there were tasks, such as editing and marketing, to be done, and it was hard to run the cafe simultaneously. Therefore, the book cafe temporarily stopped its operation in the spring of 2022. The space is currently used as an office. We only plan to open the space when there are events.

 

 

It is great to host events like author lectures and book talks,
but what publishers provide are books.

 

 

It must have been disappointing for readers who used to visit the book cafe. However, we believe it was more so for you as there is a scene from Omurice Jamjam in which you are shown as an “editor.” Please share an episode related to the book cafe that impressed you.

 

I remember Omurice Jamjam fans coming from a far distance to visit the cafe. They were mostly children and their parents. Maybe because I appeared in the comics with my real name, the visitors were happy to meet ‘Song-Eun ssi (Mrs. Song-Eun).’ Some readers even brought letters and gifts, asking me to deliver them to the writer.

 

We look forward to Songsongbooks’ activities, including book cafe operations, authors’ signing events, and book talks. Please share the company’s future plan and goals.

 

It is great to give a chance to writers and readers time to meet, but what publishers provide are books. So, we will continue to find funny and meaningful short or long writings, edit them thoroughly and beautifully, and show them to readers.

 

 

---