VOL.69/2024.04

Agencies talk actual copyright export cases

 

2018.01

 

It is a well known fact South Korea's copyrights are being exported actively throughout the globe. However, it is difficult to know in detail what books are being sold into which countries and how. This is because the information is directly connected to the business operations of agencies that are involved in intermediating export deals. It is also because so many books are being exported to other countries simultaneously.
In our January webzine, we will look at what kinds of content have been exported so far including literature, children's books, practical books, series, comics, webtoons and language education workbooks. Through these detailed examples from agencies, readers will even be able to find tips they would not have found out about without having gone through the export process themselves.

 

 

Table of Contents

 

1. Literature - Joseph Lee, President of KL Management

2. Children's picture books, practical books - Sun-hang Shin, Imprima Korea Agency China Team

3. Book Series - Yeon-hye Chung, Head of Lingking-Asia International Inc.

4. Comics, webtoons- Nam-ho Kim, Head of Topaz Agency

5. ELT workbooks - Amo Noh, Head of Amo Agency

 

 

1. Literature

- Joseph Lee (President of KL Entertainment)

 

Kyung-sook Shin's Please Look After Mom and Sun-mi Hwang's The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly

 

 

Kyung-sook Shin's Please Look After Mom found itself on the New York Times' bestseller list as soon as it was published in early April, 2011. Shortly after, it made Amazon.com's Best Books of 2011 list that selected 100 books. In the novel category, it was selected as one of the best 10 novels along with Japanese writer Haruki Murakami's IQ84. Shin had opportunities to meet with foreign readers in six cities in the United States and eight European cities. In addition to topping bestseller lists in the United States, Shin's novel also rose to first place among new releases in 10 days following its release in Italy. The novel was also named among other bestselling novels in a leading newspaper there. In Taiwan, Please Look After Mom became the third bestselling novel there. In the spring of the following year, Shin's Please Look After Mom received the Man Asian Literary Prize, which was unprecedented for a South Korean novelist and an Asian female writer. Through this South Korea's literature was suddenly in the global spotlight, receiving attention from publishing markets and writers worldwide. It ultimately became a critical bridge for South Korean literary works to broaden their territory. As of now, Please Look After Mom has been exported to 37 countries.
Sun-mi Hwang's The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly was published in the United States and United Kingdom in late 2013 and early 2014, respectively. When South Korea was invited to the London International Book Fair in spring of 2014 as honor guest country, Hwang was selected as 'today's author' at the fair. As of December this year, The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly has been exported to 29 countries and made it on the bestseller list in the United Kingdom in April 2014. Thanks to Hwang, the presence of South Korea's novels was made known in U.K. bookstores. That year the book gained notable attention in the United Kingdom, becoming one of the top-selling novels in the top 10 independent U.K. bookstores in 2014, best book of 2014 by Water Stones and best book of 2014 selected by booksellers. Prior to this, the book had been selected as book of the year in Poland in 2012. Consequently, Hwang was now a global author. More recently, Hwang's The Dog Who Dared to Dream has been published in Western and Northern Europe and is receiving consistent praise. Another one of her longer length novels, Miracle on Cherry Hill was recently exported to the United Kingdom.

 

Jung-myung Lee's The Investigation, Han Kang's The Vegetarian and Human Acts

 

 

Korean author Jung-myung Lee was the recipient of one of Italy's most coveted literary prizes in July 2017 when she was given the Premio Selezione Bancarella for The Investigation. This title is given to five authors who make it to the finalist round for the Premio Bancarella. Among the six authors who were finalists for the top prize, Lee was the only non-Italian writer. The Premio Bancarella award is the only Italian award where actual local booksellers are included on the judge panel. At the award ceremony, the members of the judge panel take a vote and select the winners. The prize, established in 1953, was first given to U.S. novelist Ernest Hemingway. The Investigation was published by Macmillan Publishers in spring of 2014 and later was on the longlist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2015. Since its release outside South Korea, the novel has received praise for its literary value and popular appeal and to date, its copyright has been sold to Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Spain.
In 2016, Han Kang received the global spotlight after winning the Man Booker International Prize for The Vegetarian. The news of the award resulted in a wave of interest in not only the author herself, but South Korea's literary world as well. The copyright for this book has been sold to nearly 40 countries so far and Human Acts, another novel from the author, is also currently the subject of interest from the United States and Europe. Recently Han Kang's The White Book, a compilation of poems, essays and stories in novel-form, was published in the United Kingdom, furthering her success as a unique author.

 

Hye-young Pyun's The Hole, Ashes and Red

 

 

Hye-young Pyun's novella Caring for Plants was translated and published in The New Yorker on their July 10 issue. It was only the third time for a Korean writer to have their work published in the magazine. Previously four poems by Ko Un were released in 2006 and in 2011, Mun-yol Yi's novella An Anonymous Island was published. Interestingly, Pyun's novel The Hole was released in the United States on Aug. 1 shortly after Caring for Plants was published. This book was published by Arcade Publishing. Pyun's first full-length novel Ashes and Red will also be released through the same publisher in Aug. 2018. In the spring of 2016, a two-book deal regarding The Hole and Ashes and Red was signed with Arcade Publishing, which was the first of its kind. The author's Ashes and Red was previously selected as book of the year in 2016 in Poland.

 

 

2. Children's picture books, practical books

- Written by Sun-hang Shin (Imprima Korea Agency China Team)

 

Growing emphasis on authors in China

 

The Chinese publishing industry has also recently starting placing emphasis on authors, resulting in some authors' work being consistently imported to the country. For example, Polish author Iwona Chmielewska is known for actively publishing books in Korea and her publications have been aggressively sought after in China. Many places have imported and started selling her books in Korean, including Taiwan and China. Also in Chmielewska's case, she had little trouble getting her books published in China thanks to her Polish nationality while South Korea and China were in the middle of a dispute over the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense(THAAD).

 

 

In the case of author Hee-na Baek, who has a considerable following thanks to her book Cloud Bread, she has seen contracts signed but actual publications have been delayed in Taiwan and China(Jieli Publishing House). Before the spat over THAAD, Baek had been invited to give lectures at the 2015 Shanghai children's book fair in addition to book readings at elementary schools, book autographing events and promotional events at bookstores. The author had gone on to expand her presence in China in 2016 through various events, like reading and making books at the Beijing Books Building. However, as diplomatic conflict grew between the two countries, Korean book publications were stalled in China and it has been the same for new releases.

 

 

More Korean picture books exported on back of popularity

 

The popularity of picture books has been increasing in China and Taiwan and exports of South Korean picture books have been growing in tandem. Of course in China's case, there are still difficulties like CIP(cataloging in publication) issuances being barred but most expect consumers' demand for high quality picture books will continue to grow. Recently published books like the below and their respective authors' future books are worth a look. Especially in the case of writer Hye-won Gyeong, she was invited to a book autographing event at a Taiwan bookstore after her book Elevator was published there in December 2017. Taiwanese publishers also prefer selecting books based on authors, and Gyeong has seen continued demand for contracts.

 

 

Export cases of books for elementary school students, children

 

Aside picture books, books for elementary school students like Book Reading Troll (Sang-bae Lee, Cheoeum Junior, 2008 / Xinyong Publications, 2012) and Today, What Shall I Write In My Diary? (Seol-a Jeong, Blue Garden, 2010 / Liaoning Publisher of Science and Technology, 2014) continue to produce royalty payments following additional contracts. At this point we can easily say these are books well accepted by Chinese students and their parents.

 

 

A math book series for children not yet in school called Apple Math Stories 1~25 (Korea Steiner, 2010 / China's Eastern Publishing Co, 2012) has also been consistently recording good sales as word of mouth spreads among Chinese parents. The year the contract for the book was renewed, royalty payments had already exceeded the pre-royalty check from the renewed contract.

 

Export examples of practical books

 

 

Among books for practical use exported to China, 10 Minutes To Creating a Man's Body (Ju-ho Chung, Vita Books, 2013 / Posts & Telecom Press, 2014) has seen sustained sales since it was published in Chinese. Garden of Time (Ji-hye Song, Book Life, 2015 / China's CITIC Publishing House, 2015) which was exported to China at the height of the coloring book boom recorded a large number of sales that year and the following year. Books on learning languages are also consistently popular in China. Business Email English Phrases Dictionary (Darakwon, 2009 / China's Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2011) and Sinagong TOEIC Series (Gilbut Easy Talk, 2006 / China's Machine Press, 2010) have been selling steadily since their release.

 

 

3. Book Series

- Written by Yeon-hye Chung(Head, Lingking-Asia International Inc.)

 

Children's picture books

 

 

Finger Play is a book that incorporates the use of fingers, whether it be by the young reader alone, or by the reader accompanied by their friends or parents. There are English and Korean words inside the book, but the book itself requires little knowledge of language. Thus is such that direct requests from publishers in other countries have been made for exports of the book. So far, contracts have been signed for English, Spanish and simplified Chinese. The last contract was signed at the 2017 Beijing International Book Fair even during heightened diplomatic tensions between South Korea and China over THAAD. The clear theme and colorful artwork tell a fun story that can be enjoyed without language barriers and future prospects are good for warm, friendly picture books like these.
The World's Biggest Cake is a picture book for young elementary school students based on an actual incident in 1491 when Leonardo Da Vinci was asked to create a giant wedding venue that resembled a wedding cake for Italian Ludovico Sforza. The book has already seen a surge in sales in China while Eastern Book Press in Taiwan is scheduled to publish the book early next year. The exciting story, fun details from history, imagination and creativity-boosting elements are all things publishers are currently looking for in picture books.
The Safety Story Series is for very young children to elementary school students. It is a series addressing basic themes on safety, involving play, traffic, food, illnesses, outdoors, electricity, fire, disasters and crime. Even the book itself was produced with technology that prevent paper cuts and received a presidential award. This too, was exported to China in spite of the diplomatic row. Chinese publishers are increasingly looking for books on children's safety as China no longer is enforcing a one-child policy. The picture book series on safety is seeing continued demand from China and Taiwan.

 

Other children's books

 

 

The series 68 Days With Arrogant Jean Louis is a story by acclaimed South Korean children's book author Sun-mi Hwang on human relationships centered around children. The stories were jointly written by Bo-yeon Lee, an expert on children's psychology. This book series was actually requested by a Chinese publisher and later planned by a Korean publisher. The series will be published in China through Jiangsu Publishing, which has already released seven of Hwang's books in China, including The Day I Hid My Diary. The team on the series is planning to release five books over the next two years. There is wide anticipation over the series already as Hwang is writing the stories and the news of the contract was carried widely back in September 2016 in China. Audiences globally outside South Korea and China are also expected to enjoy the book series as its content deals with relationships most people can relate to. The joint project combining a broad theme with joint bilateral planning has aimed to curry up interest among readers and is expected to have a synergy effect on sales in both South Korea and China as it will boost cultural exchanges and book promotion.
The Big History series(20 books, Why School) was produced by the same publisher that created the Why series. If Why had focused on elementary school students, this new series prompts middle and high school students to ask "how". In three categories(the universe, life and mankind), the books are divided neatly between 10 pivotal points in time from 13.7 billion years ago and addresses 20 big questions. All contracts and payments have been completed with China and Taiwan for 13 books and the books are currently being prepared for local publication. The comprehensive knowledge series for adolescents that addresses the big combined history of science and humanities is seeing an increase in demand from both China and Taiwan.

 

Books for adults

 

 

Publications linked to wildly popular television drama series like Descendants of the Sun Photo Essay are always bound to sell like hotcakes. If it had not been for the THAAD conflict, books related to dramas like Guardian: The Lonely and Great God would already have been signed for offshore releases. A self-development book called Sometimes You Must Be Very Lonely was recently exported while 200 Beautiful Korean Foods For the World was also exported with strong support from the Korean Food Promotion Institute along with Dae Jang Geum's Palace Cooking and I Like Meat. Language learning books like Have You Tried Memorizing One English Book? always gain much attention like other books that help readers learn Korean. Aside these, books related to politics and political figures like The Destiny of Jae-in Moon and From Destiny to Hope were unprecedentedly exported.

 

Book series for adults

 

 

Export contracts for books on South Korea's capitalism, economic policy and issues in society overall like Korea's Capitalism 1 and Korea's Capitalism - Why We Should Be Angry help balance out Korean book exports which tend to be geared towards Hallyu. Exports of historical books like Talking Joseon's Kings 1, 2, Study on Joseon, The Life of a Joseon King, The Life of a Joseon Yangban and The Life of a Joseon Woman show firm and steady demand from Chinese readers previously exposed to Korean history through historical Korean television dramas.

 

 

4. Comics

- Written by Nam-ho Kim(Head, Topaz Agency)

 

Export contracts for comics

 

Comics are usually exported overseas in magazine or volume form. In the case of magazines, contract fees are paid per page while publication fees for separate volumes are roughly 8 percent of the consumer price. The number of magazines or volumes to be sold overseas varies by region but usually 3,000 copies are the norm in an initial contract. Guarantee money that equals this number is usually paid out as advance payment and the contract is signed. Additional royalty fees are usually more important than advance payments and agents are advised to be careful not to push too hard for a big advance as that may result in the contract being scrapped altogether. In the case of e-books, their copyrights are usually sold worldwide by language.
When contracts are signed, English speaking countries include the United States, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Italian speaking regions refer to Italy, San Marino, the Vatican and Switzerland while German speaking regions are Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg. French speaking regions are France, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Canada while Russian speaking regions would include Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Spain, Argentina and Chile would be Spanish speaking regions and in the case of signing contracts with Argentina, regions like Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Paraguay are all also included as Spanish speaking countries. Brazil is a Portuguese speaking region while Mexicans speak Spanish. Other regions sign contracts in their respective languages.
Both parties usually abide by South Korean law when signing contracts, but should there be a signee who wishes to apply their local laws, this might prove as a hurdle in the contract signing process. In this case, their opinions should be respected while applying international arbitrage laws in the arbitration clauses and a separate clause should be added that going forward, arbitration court cases can be heard in South Korea.

 

Actual cases of comic exports

 

 

Some representative exports of South Korean comics would include: Ragnarok (Myung-jin Lee), Priest (Min-woo Hyung), Island (In-wan Yoon, Kyung-il Yang), Cheon Choo (Byung-jin Kim), Gung (So-hee Park) and Full House (Su-yeon Won).
In the case of Ragnarok, both contracts for magazine(Japan, Mexico, Malaysia and France) and volume form were signed. In volume form, the comic found much popularity in the following countries through their respective publishers: Oozora(Japan), Chuangyi(Singapore), Wahlstroms(Sweden), Conrad Editora(Brazil), La Cupula(Spain), Elex Media (Indonesia), Flashbook(Italy), Kasen(Poland), Mikro Oasis(Malaysia), Panini(Germany), Punainen Jattilainen(Finland), SCLA(China), Seebd(France), Siam(Thailand), Tokyopop(U.S.), Kim Dong(Vietnam), Editorial VID(Mexico) and AST(Russia).
Priest was also exported to AST(Russia), Elex Media(Indonesia), Jpop(Italy), Kasen(Poland), Normal(Spain), Pauna Media(Finland), Seebs(France), Siam(Thailand), Star Comics(Italy), Tokyopop GmbH(Germany), Tokyopop Inc.(U.S.), Enterbrain(Japan), Jade Dynasty(Hong Kong) and WIN(Taiwan).
Recently, Eden's King was exported to France's AC Media and the export contract was of a rare form as the comic was the joint effort by a Japanese story author and a South Korean artist. Looking ahead, it would serve publishers well to look closely at this kind of unique contract.

 

The difference between paper comics and webtoons

 

Currently in South Korea, the popularity of webtoons is high and despite there being numerous webtoons, there is undoubted difficulty in exporting these abroad. One big issue would be the fact that the market is still at an early stage when it comes to paid-for content while there is also an imbalance between online webtoons and the offshore publishing market that still prefers publications in paper form.
Another reason for the difficulty would be that global readers find it hard to fully understand stories in webtoons compared to paper-bound comics. If webtoons are created going forward with paper format comics also in mind, it will be easy to export them.

 

 

5. ELT workbooks

- Written by Amo Noh (Head, Amo Agency)

 

Roughly 10 years ago, Amo Agency started exporting ELT(English language teaching) workbooks under Neungyule's exporting brand Build&Grow. The agency aided Build&Grow enter offshore markets and as of now, books from the company have been exported to 30 countries. Aside this company, the agency is currently helping companies like Clue&Key, Woongjin Compass, Carrot English, Visang, I Am Books and Happy House export their workbooks abroad. Export customer countries include all of Central and South America as well as Taiwan, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Canada, Spain, Egypt, Turkey and some Middle Eastern countries.
When first starting out exporting ELT workbooks and programs, the agency was under the misconception that popular ELT books in South Korea, where currently all the ELT books in the world are currently being sold, would also be popular overseas. The agency was wrong. When ELT books made in South Korea were offered, a cold "No thanks" was heard in return and despite persuasion that the content inside would change their minds, it was all in vain.

 

Unexpected hurdles while exporting ELT workbooks

 

After continuous explaining and persuasion, we finally managed to convince some publishers to read the books, but we were shortly faced with other troubles. South Korean ELT books were not made according to international curricular but the needs of South Korean cram schools, hence forming a gap between the needs of South Korean consumers and those abroad. An overhaul of the books was needed in order to meet the needs of overseas consumers. There was also some content that needed to be deleted from the books due to cultural differences. After supplementing the books with new content, the agency went back into sales, but other homework awaited its workers.
In the first steps of exporting books, we lined up several candidate publishers by country and selected partners by country but what took us and South Korean publishers by surprise was the fact that simple concepts in terms of size or distance were completely different. For example, when we received a request for a "small" sample for promotion uses, we would say it would be possible only to learn their concept of "small" was a far larger size compared to what we had thought.
Meanwhile, our offshore clients started roaming their respective countries as if they were our co-workers and word started spreading of South Korean ELT books and brands. As that process and time passed, we saw orders come in and actual sales start to take place. At this stage, South Korean publishers are advised to visit customer countries and educate teachers on the books and how to use the workbooks.
Through location visits and meeting the teachers, we learned the level of education and teachers in South Korea was much higher than those in other countries. And the books that had satisfied teachers and students in South Korea were able to receive similar feedback from offshore teachers and students.

 

Advice for those preparing ELT workbook exports

 

We receive questions at time regarding ELT workbooks exports. What I would like to tell them first is that this business requires more initial investment than expected and it takes a long time for a new brand to become known in a strange country. There is a high chance of success for a popular South Korean book, but if the book is not popular in South Korea, then readers abroad are likely to have the same response. Also, as this is not a business where projects end quickly, good offshore partners should be selected and long term investment and efforts should be made so they perceive themselves as another South Korean publishing branch - only then will success become visible.
When I think millions of children around the world with different races and nationalities are learning languages and growing their dreams through books our agency exported to Asia, South America and the Middle East, that thought in itself is enough for me to find fulfillment in my work. When looking at our order forms and export declarations after two to three years of hard work, I think, “South Korean books are really being exported. Our books are increasingly finding popularity and being accepted.” I cannot forget the moment five years ago when I spotted a small girl walking a hallway inside an old school with one of our books in her arms. I also believe the publishers who work with us have also been deeply moved at the success they've seen by working with us - not giving up and making big investments despite no guarantee when that investment would be returned.

 

 

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Written by Joseph Lee (President of KL Management), Sun-hang Shin (Imprima Korea Agency China Team), Yeon-hye Chung (Head of Lingking-Asia International Inc.), Nam-ho Kim (Head of Topaz Agency), Amo Noh (Head of Amo Agency)