VOL.77/2024.12

Korean Publishers

 

ACHIMDAL BOOKS

Never Changing Literary Value Rises Radiantly and Brightly

 

2021.11.01

 

Literature is a genre with deep roots in the publishing market, but there is an increasing number of cases where the genre is excluded from the mainstream. On top of this, there aren’t too many literature publishers that completely fulfill their roles properly. In a reality like this, we cannot help but approve of ACHIMDAL BOOKS for fulfilling its role as a publisher of literature and continuing to make efforts, including the expansion of opportunities for poems, essays, and other works of literature to be published. Although it is a small publisher, there seems to be a light that shines with the rapid advancement of ACHIMDAL BOOKS, which works to broaden the literature base by searching for new ways of publishing literature in a clever way.

 

Logo of ACHIMDAL BOOKS

 

Please tell foreign publishers what ACHIMDAL BOOKS does and what meaning lies behind the name.

 

ACHIMDAL BOOKS is a publisher that focuses on Korean literature. We publish poems, essays, picture books, and other genres of literature written by Korean authors. “ACHIMDAL” in Korean literally means a moon that rises in the morning. We could make the connection to literature since it always stays in the same place, whether it is visible or not, just like the moon. We plan on continuing to publish works of literature that provide comfort and strength in our daily lives.

 

The publisher displays an eye-catching existence to the point where it has become the talk of poetry lovers. Please tell us why you established a publisher that focuses particularly on poems.

 

The main reason why we decided on this is because we all liked poems. We started with publishing poetry collections since it was relatively less difficult to publish than planned publications since they took much less time and money.

 

 

We want to continue publishing literature books that provide us comfort and strength,
like the moon that always stays in its place.

 

 

It’s the unwritten law that poetry collections are not so easy to approach without working together with a large publisher or well-known and established poets. However, ACHIMDAL BOOKS has come up with a new way to publish poetry collections of established poets as well as debuting poets, covering a wide range of poets. So how did ACHIMDAL BOOKS come up with impressive methods of its own such as funding or Q-rating?

 

The literary world can be defined as a big concept to refer to authors and readers. They already had the thirst for having books published through small publishers instead of all being published by large publishers. It might seem like authors want their works to be published by big publishers, but some authors do not. Also, some authors cannot get their books published although they’ve made literary accomplishments. The reality is that there aren’t many publishers of literature that these kinds of authors can go to as an alternative to get their works published.
When we first started as a publisher, it was when issues arose due to the power and authority of the literary world in society. There were discussions on how these issues were linked to the “platform system” custom where those who haven’t won literary awards or spring literary contests would not be acknowledged as real authors. ACHIMDAL BOOKS began with this in mind. So we decided to discover the works that we wanted to and receive submissions and publish them regardless of whether the writers made a debut with literary awards or got the approval of editors, known to be an authoritative factor of publishers and literary circles. It goes along the same lines for the name, “Q-rating,” which means that we introduce works to readers while maintaining the uniqueness of our line of poets.

 

I think it’s not an exaggeration to say that you thought out of the box and suggested a new direction in publishing. Despite this, it is evaluated as the success of a small publisher. Please tell us about your key to success and the competitiveness of ACHIMDAL BOOKS.

 

To reflect, I’d say we just let the publishing industry know of our name and provided an alternative that can be used to publish Korean literature. The task we have to accomplish is to make it possible to continue with this flow.

 

 

ACHIMDAL BOOKS became a hit in the publishing industry that is not doing so well due to a variety of factors. In addition to this, poets who debuted through the publisher or published poetry collections play an active role. Please tell us about the main works and the authors.

 

Logically speaking, when considering the scale of the publishing market, no book has been a “hit.” I can say that many people continue to read our poetry collections, considering what they are and that they are the publications of a small publisher. Out of those poetry collections, many of our readers read Dear I by So-Yeon Kim. It is a poetry collection in which the scenarios in daily lives are observed with a cold heart, and the unpleasant words trapped inside us are unveiled.

 

The genre of literature, including poems, has a goal and purpose they have to fulfill in the publishing industry. I think this might be why ACHIMDAL BOOKS works as a publisher for poetry collections. What purpose should poems serve in publishing, and how do you think they have to grow and develop?

 

There was a time when people thought of poems as one of the most important aspects of art as they considered it the purest type of art. However, people don’t think the same way about poems anymore. Nevertheless, poems are still a genre of art that can express a variety of thoughts, topics, social issues, ideas, and images in a short but impressive way. Moreover, there is the power of intuition and emotional comfort that you can only get from poems. That’s why serious readers still read thin poetry collections among thick books. This could be the same as why large publishers still publish poetry collections that are less profitable than other books.
Poetry collections act as a makeshift bridge that links literature, art, one’s personal life, and society in compressed language. One of the tasks we must continue to accomplish is to publish unique poetry collections with refined and familiar cover designs so that more readers don’t see poems as something difficult to approach.

 

 

 

They continue to say that it is a publisher that creates best-selling poetry collections. Please introduce and select the popular books that ACHIMDAL BOOKS would proudly recommend.

 

In addition to Dear I by Kim So-Yeon, ACHIMDAL BOOKS has published Your Space—How to live as a tree by Yoo Hee-Kyeong and The Arboretum by Yoo Jin-Mok, I Had a Name by Oh Eun.
Yoo Hee-Kyeong is a poet who writes out what’s inside in a monologue. He grabs the interest of many readers with his lyrical touches, and this kind of trait is especially emphasized in Your Space—How to live as a tree, where he compares his age to a tree and forest.
Yoo Jin-Mok is a poet who awakens the life and death of herself and others through her sensual language. In The Arboretum, the titles of all the poems are the names of plants, and she tells short stories of the memories and feelings linked to the flower.
Oh Eun is a poet who focuses on the power of words. He studies the pronunciation, meaning, and nuance of words and discovers new meanings of words as he writes sentences with words in different ways. In I Had a Name, the meanings of words he discovers weave their way into the lives of normal people and eventually lead to the universal truth of mankind.
Also, the poem collections are full of love poems written by many poets for their dogs, I Am Thankful for My Dog and Your Cat Would Be Affectionate and are loved by readers.

 

Please introduce and recommend recent publications.

 

The recently published The Mother Tongue Would Rather Be Silence by Mok Jung-Won is an essay that criticizes performing arts based on the plays, operas, dancing performances, and people the writer experienced for 6 years in France. The thought of disappearance, a characteristic of art about time, meets with the life of humans and leads to various topics such as sadness, women, and death.
ACHIMDAL BOOKS published the fourth poetry collection of Yoo Gye-Yeong, My Position from Now On and Glassed Eyes by Lee Je-Jae, a new poet who just started writing poetry.

 

 

 

It is very difficult for poems to earn a spot in the foreign market since it’s about emotional connections. What kind of efforts is the publisher making to be a part of the foreign market, and what is the reaction of those in foreign countries?

 

Korean poems are also being introduced with the rise in interest in Korean literature. Some foreign publishers interested in Korean poems reach out to us sometimes. For them, poems take a small part in the market due to the efforts of a small number of readers, so we think that they show curiosity from the sense of belonging they feel just by reading poems regardless of nationality or language.
In conclusion, getting more people to read poems, whether they are in Korea or in foreign countries, is what’s important. That’s why we are making efforts to expand the base for poetry in Korea and increase the number of its readers. We think that more people in foreign countries will show interest in Korean poems when an increasing number of readers in Korea show interest.

 

 

We are making efforts to expand the base for poetry in Korea and increase the number of its readers.

 

 

You expressed the aspiration to establish a literary community. We are excited to know about the next steps of ACHIMDAL BOOKS. Please tell us about the future that ACHIMDAL BOOKS is planning.

 

We have to keep making an effort so we can continue publishing literature. More and more readers need to know about our books for us to continue publishing literature. We try to publish great books so we can reach out with our books to more readers. That’s the only honest thing a small publisher can do.

 

 

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Organized by Kim Young-Ihm