VOL.69/2024.04

 

Wisdom House, Inc

Dreaming of Becoming the Most Reader-centric Publisher

 

2023.01.02

 

One publisher is running with its dream of becoming a big and reader-centric general publishing house. Wisdom House is the publisher that recently reshaped itself through brand renewal to get closer to its readers. The publisher pays close attention to readers’ tastes and interests and sometimes talks to its readers. Wisdom House prints books and has expanded its realm to web comics and novels. The company is already recognized as one of Korea’s most influential publishers, but it never ceases to publish books on diverse themes, strives to be near its readers, and tries new things. Today, we met Wisdom House and heard its stories.

 

 

It’s an honor to have you here on K-Book Trends. Please introduce Wisdom House to our subscribers.

 

The general publisher Wisdom House, established in 1999, recently declared its mission of becoming the most reader-centric publisher in Korea. The company has been focusing on book publication and web comics/novels production as the two pillars of its business. Wisdom House is considered one of the most influential publishers in Korea, seeing that it recorded no.1 in book sales revenue (2018) and was nominated as the Publisher of the Year in 2019 by Sisa-In. In addition, many readers have loved the company for its web comics/novels, which successfully launched in 2017 with its well-made pieces.

 

Wisdom House recently changed its logo and redefined its color through brand renewal. Why did you renew your brand, and what changed? Also, how does Wisdom House want to approach readers in the future through its renewal?

 

Wisdom House changed its brand after 16 years and is now ready to meet its readers again. The core part of the brand renewal was to enhance Wisdom House’s strength further, being reader-centric. We want to become a publisher that listens to its readers and communicates through its quality content in diverse areas.
Wisdom House’s new brand symbol took its design from an owl, an animal of wisdom. The logo also shows our mission to become the most reader-centric publisher in Korea and our commitment to listening and reflecting readers’ tastes and interests as well as communicating. In addition, the symbol exists in the form that contains punctuation marks, including a comma, apostrophe, period, and exclamation mark, which shows that we have many stories reserved for our readers.

 

 

While expanding its content to web comics and novels, Wisdom House realized that each area’s readers differed reasonably. We approach our readers under a single name, Wisdom House. Still, readers of romantic Web Novels and books on business and economy are often poles apart, and we felt the need to communicate in a different manner, reflecting the characteristics of distinctive readers. While keeping a common foundational identity, Wisdom House also wanted to expand to various horizons simultaneously to show our commitment to becoming reader-centric. That is how we came to use different colors but the same symbol for each area.
An area that publishes adult books uses the color lemon, mint for kids, blue for web comics, and lavender for web novels. Each area has a unique color and welcomes readers joining that particular area by communicating with readers on our homepage or social media accounts. It clearly shows our intention to deliver content that meets readers’ needs.

 

 

We heard that Wisdom House has a new slogan of being “Reader-centric.” Publishing books while keeping readers in mind sounds natural, but not easy for a publisher to accomplish. So, what does “Reader-centric” mean to Wisdom House?

 

The new slogan released along with the brand renewal showed Wisdom House’s vow to become the most reader-centric publisher in Korea. It is in line with the company differentiating its color for each area, one of the core parts of Wisdom House’s brand renewal. As a general publishing house, Wisdom House has diverse readers, like the variety of content published by the company. Relevantly, the new slogan holds two meanings. One is that we will create content readers want from readers’ points of view, and the other is about letting the content touch readers’ hearts.

 

As Wisdom House dreams of becoming a reader-centric publisher, closing the distance with readers is essential. What kind of activities are you doing to get closer to your readers?

 

As we meet readers in diverse areas, we engage in multiple activities to fulfill readers’ preferences. For example, we regularly publish AHA-Letter, a newsletter targeting junior office workers highly interested in self-growth. The newsletter has the highest number of subscribers among newsletters published in Korea. As it introduces books and shares information readers want, the newsletter has seen a rapid increase in its subscriber count. For example, if one wonders about How to Work Well, Wisdom House provides books to help obtain relevant information through content or invites an author who can explain it more expertly through lectures or book clubs. For its high quality of information, lectures and book clubs held by Wisdom House are popular enough to record the highest number of participants every time they are held.
Also, for novel and essay readers, Wisdom House runs a book club called the SSA (Story Security Agency), where people gather in independent bookstores nationwide to read a sample before the book is published and share their feedback. The SSA differs from other mere book reviewers as it is a community where publishers, bookstores, and readers get together. Three tasks are given to readers as an agent of the SSA: Read the sample, gather at a local bookstore to share opinions freely, and deliver feedback on the copy to the publisher. The SSA was initiated with novelist Chung Se-Rang’s first essay, Can’t Love the Earth Like We Humans Do, in 2021 and has been active ever since.
Lastly, Wisdom House hosted The 1st Wisdom House Children/Young Adults Fantasy Literature Awards, where readers became judges for the first time in Korea. The venue was organized to find fantasy pieces that can deliver fantastic and epic pleasure to children and young adults. Unlike other contests, the awards adopted a judging system that concludes the final winner 100% based on readers’ decisions for the first time in Korea. Through the new system, the awards will be an opportunity to find works of literature based on readers’ experiences.

 

 

Wisdom House will become the most reader-centric publisher in Korea
by keeping readers’ minds at its heart.

 

 

Wisdom House is increasing contact with readers through diverse activities as a general publishing house. Are there any new attempts other than the ones mentioned?

 

The most recent attempt is Weekly Fiction, which releases a part of a short novel on the Wisdom House homepage every Wednesday. It is intended to deliver diverse aspects and new stories of Korean literature. The topics or forms of works vary, and novels finish as one piece. Other publishers also serialize novels or essays on their homepage or blog, but they release them several times in divided parts. In contrast, Wisdom House serializes an entire work every week, which makes a difference from others.
The first series is novelist Gu Byeong-Mo’s short novel Shattered (파쇄, 破碎). This piece is a supplementary story of the book The Old Woman with the Knife. It is a story of a female killer in the 60s named Jogak, a representative piece of the author for its fascinating story. Then, the works of authors like Lee Hee-Ju, Park So-Yeon, Jeong Yi-Hyeon, Kim Gi-Chang, Gwak Jae-Sik, Yun Ja-Yeong, Choi Hyun-Sook, Kim Dong-Sik, and Choi Jung-Hwa will follow every week one by one. When the series reaches its 50th edition, Wisdom House plans to collect each work and publish them into individual books.

 

To understand readers’ needs, one would need to have a reflex to catch the fast-changing trend in the industry. So, what keyword would you use to grab readers’ attention now? Also, which area will readers be interested in 2023?

 

It is challenging for an individual publisher to view the whole industry as areas or keywords readers are interested in vary based on released books. One way to do that is to refer to trend books that broadly show society’s overall aspects. For example, if we look at Wisdom House’s recently published Gen Z Trend 2023, Trend Korea 2023 (Miraebook), and Trend Monitor 2023 (Secret House) the keywords of 2023 would be “recovery, adaptation, and conformity.”
What people face in the current era include recovering from the COVID-19-stricken period, adapting to a new time and situation called New Normal, and conforming to external environments. External environments are what an individual alone cannot make a difference in, such as changes in international trends, including war, high-interest rates, and currency exchange rate hikes. In such times, readers’ interests lie in either figuring out and understanding the colossal structure of the world order or caring for and protecting one’s body and mind. To focus on the former readers, the book topics would include the role of a nation, responsibility as a citizen, the potential of democracy, in which people were relatively less engaged, and geopolitics, which recently saw growth in people’s interests. To focus on the latter readers, topics would include life in nature, focusing on oneself, keeping a distance in relations, and flexible communication. Regardless of what readers are interested in, the topics are on reality rather than time and space far off. Of course, Wisdom House will continue to release books with views on the far future. Leaving aside, as other publishers and we are readying new stories with different ideas and expectations, we ask readers to keep an eye on new and diverse books released soon in Korea rather than the ones to come in the far future.

 

Korean content is garnering much attention globally. Wisdom House’s books also meet its readers overseas, but there are books not released in other countries. Please introduce Wisdom House’s books that you would like to introduce to foreign readers, among the ones not published in other countries.

 

 

Three books were written by novelist Gu Byeong-Mo and published by Wisdom House. They are The Old Woman with the Knife, The Boy with Gills, and A Spoonful of Time. The Old Woman with the Knife and The Boy with Gills were exported to many other countries, but A Spoonful of Time is a work only widely known to readers in Vietnam. A Spoonful of Time is a Sci-Fi novel published in 2016. The book tells stories about a friendship built between a 17-year-old humanoid robot named Eun-Kyul, which came to work at a washhouse, and Myeong-Jung, who lost his family and lives by himself. It depicts how Eun-Kyul picks up the human’s way of living from the robot’s point of view delicately and calmly. We want to introduce this book to readers overseas, considering how heartwarming and touching the story is.
Writer Lee Deok-Wha was nominated as the Illustrator of the Year at the 2010 Bologna Children’s Book fair with his picture book Uncle Portoi (Treenbooks). In addition, his work The Kid with Thick Hair was also included in The White Ravens 2022. The White Ravens contains a list of children/young adult books worth reading from 53 countries selected by the International Youth Library of Munich, Germany. We recommend the book more so as it was included in the list. The book’s main character is a boy with thick hair. He is a cool kid who knows how to enjoy his uniqueness. It makes readers reflect on their actions by making readers think if they have hidden their true selves out of fear of being isolated for their unique features. More than anything, the book’s main character is adorable and attractive.

 

OSMU (One Source Multi Use) is the mainstream in Korea now, driven by publication. Books, web comics, and web novels are meeting readers in new forms. Wisdom House hosted a Web Comics/Web Novels Contest with the prize of the winner releasing the work in a video format. It is a prime example of Wisdom House’s work in the OSMU business. Please introduce Wisdom House’s work reborn as forms other than books, like musicals or videos.

 

An essay by Ha Tae-Wan, an influencer on social media and writer, Every Moment Was You was made into a web comic, web novel, and even a musical in November 2019. The musical starred Heo Young-Saeng, a former idol, and Yang Ji-Won, showing a sorrowful romance of the first love. Writer An Nan-Cho’s web comic Botanical Life was produced as a web drama in 2020. The drama was directed by Baek Seung-Hwa, led by Yun Hye-Ri as the main actor, and was broadcasted on the KBS Independent Movie channel. Finally, writer Elise’s web novel She Would Never Know was produced as a drama on JTBC in 2021, starring Won Jina, Rowoon, Lee Hyeon-Wook, and others.
Writer Mikang’s web comic Drinkers City Women was published by Wisdom House in 2014 and was serialized on Kakao Web Comics. Afterward, the piece was produced as a Tving original drama named “Work Later, Drink Now” in 2021, and starred Lee Seon-Bin, Han Seon-Hwa, and Jeong Eun-Ji. The drama will run its 2nd Season in December 2022 as it gained popularity while running. Furthermore, the drama and movie copyright was sold to China, which makes us look forward to its global popularity.
Writer Juu Young-Hyun’s Web Comics I Don’t Feel Like Doing Anything was produced as a drama on ENA in September and starred Lim Si-Wan and Kim Seol-Hyun. Writer Lee Ra-Ha’s Web Comics Daily Dose of Sunshine is currently under production as a Netflix original drama and will air in 2023. Director Lee Jae-Kyu, who produced the Netflix drama “All of Us Are Dead,” will direct the piece, and it will cast Park Bo-Young and Yeon Woo-Jin as lead actors.
Likewise, Wisdom House is actively engaging in opportunities to recreate its published books into diverse forms of content to meet more readers.

 

 

As a reader, I look forward to Wisdom House’s move as it works towards becoming a reader-centric publisher. Please tell us about Wisdom House’s plan or ambition.

 

We are living in an era of diversity more than ever. We will continue to broaden our content spectrum for readers with detailed and clear tastes and interests. Our strategy of becoming reader-centric will lead us to try various things. Predicting which content will be loved is not going to be easy. However, we hope that book lovers and people familiar with reading content, who create an early market, become genuine fans of our content. We also wish that fandom for our publications grows. Finally, we hope that people recognize Wisdom House as the leading publisher conducting exciting and fresh trials in Korea.

 

 

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