VOL.69/2024.04

 

“PDF/POD” - Korean Publishing Market
Develop into Diverse Formats

 

2023.02.20

 

 

 

The interesting promotional text of a self-published e-book, How to Write a Profit Generating E-Book, by writer Yoo Sung-Woo says, “The secret to earning 500 million won with a 10-page PDF e-book” on the page of a crowdfunding platform Wadiz. The book successfully raised hundreds of million won of funding. Before the book was introduced to Wadiz, it was released on freelancer matching platforms, like Kmong, Taling, and Class 101, accumulating more than 500 million won in revenue. Though the book was not officially published in the market, and considering that selling 10,000 copies of a book was regarded as half of a success in the prolonged recession for publishers, an individual book recording such revenue was unprecedented.
An increasing number of people collect and sell their practical know-how into PDF e-books on freelancer matching or crowdfunding platforms. As the introduction of the book How to Write a Profit Generating E-Book says, “Small know-how and experiences of individuals become necessary information for some, and the collected information creates revenue in the current era.” Publishing projects that met their Wadiz funding targets have diverse topics, including ones on British English, how to design a webpage with a higher sales rate, how to make a game without coding, job market analysis for a wafer inspection equipment checker, and how to win a civil lawsuit without hiring a lawyer.

 

 

In the past, publishing included planning, contributing, editing, designing, production, and distribution, requiring close collaboration among experts. However, with the universalization of e-books and the advancement of platforms, publishing became a tool for personal branding for everyone and a profitable side job for some. Even if one does not gain much from the publication, there is nothing to lose. Anyone can start without a separate production cost, and most of the revenue goes to the author, excluding the fee for using the platform. On the other hand, individually published e-books are published in the market without ISBN codes, and it is hard for self-publishers to advertise. Considering its characteristics, raising funds on renowned platforms is now highlighted as simply putting up an e-book on the platform itself can help promote the publication.

 

 

Likewise, the Korean publishing market is developing into diverse forms as the entry barrier for individuals gets lowered. Another example of self-publication is POD publication (Publish on Demand). POD publication is a type of paper book self-publication, which consigned the publication process, such as production and distribution, to experts, like Bookk or Kyobobook’s Pubple, connected to large bookstores. As long as the manuscript exists, one can select a paid or free template to design the cover and inside and set details, such as price and production conditions, to publish books. Once the book goes through the process, it is saved on a platform in a file format and is printed once there are actual orders made. Platforms replace specific roles of publishers in POD publication. Thus, the revenue is divided as 7:3 or 8:2 between the platform and the writer.
Conventional self-publication costs extra for production even if the published books are retrievable. Unlike regular publishing, the biggest benefit of the POD type is that it does not have any inventory left. Also, the POD type allows writers to publish the book in e-books in the future, as most platforms release ISBN for free. Books published in the POD method can be found in affiliated major online bookstores, such as Kyobobooks or Aladin.
Kyobobook started running the POD service in 2012, and the service grew ninefold in around ten years. There are more than 20,000 books released through Kyobobook’s POD service. In the 1st half of 2022 alone, there were 2,540 books published. Among those books, there were 710 books published by individuals, not publishers, and the age of individuals who published through the service spans from people born in 2006 to 1935 with 327 active writers. A member of Kyobobook said, “The service feels new to many yet, but the range of POD is expanding in the individual publishing market. Its usage is widening to cover from autobiographies to college textbooks.”
Most sold areas of the service are poems/essays, and employment/examination books, taking 21% and 13%, respectively, as of July 2022. Recently, there have been increasing cases of teenage writers publishing records of their school life, novels, or children’s books, along with their guardians. As it is easy to produce a small number of books through the service, most writers publish to collect or gift them to people. Still, purchases of commercial books, like college textbooks, are increasing continuously. The most sold POD book in the 1st half of 2022 was a non-face-to-face forest experiencing program manual named What Can You Do to Play in Forests?

 

 

Some do not acknowledge PDF e-books or POD-published ones as a traditional form of books. Nevertheless, the rapid growth in self-publication shows changes in social recognition that one can publish books without debut or verification by the system, such as contests or publishers.
The indie publishing fad stands at the starting point of the change. Indie publishing, in which an individual manages the overall publication processes, from planning, contributing, editing, and production to distribution, increased drastically. The traditional publishing industry keeps its eye on indie publishing as more and more people see commercial success. In October last year, there were around 23,000 visitors to the biggest book market ‘Unlimited Edition’, organized by indie publishers for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19. Similar events, such as ‘Publishers’ Table’ or ‘Little Press Fair,’ increased. Even in Korea’s representative book fair, Seoul International Book Fair, indie publishing is gaining more influence every year.

 

 

Some non-fiction such as writer Baek Se-Hee’s I Want to Die but I Also Want to Eat Tteokppokki (Heun), writer Lee Ki-Joo’s The Temperature of Language (Malgeulteo), and writer Lee Seul-Ah’s Daily Lee Seul-Ah Essay Collection (Hey Uhm Book) are the best-selling indie publications. Furthermore, writer Lee Mi-Ye’s fiction Dallergut Dream Department Store (Sam & Parkers), which ranked 1st regarding the annual sales of Kyobobooks and Yes24 in 2021, also started as an indie publication through crowdfunding and got ecstatic feedback from its readers. After the fundraising, the book was published in its current form, selling more than a million copies.

 

 

Indie publishing got attention from the market once crowdfunding platforms, such as Tumblebug and Wadiz, became universal distribution channels. Since one can print only the online-ordered number of books, writers no longer have to take the risk of doing the legwork to stock their books in bookstores, making early investments, and taking on the unsold inventory. The public’s interest in crowdfunding platforms is increasing as publishers try out the publication by funding. As long as the concept is clear, it becomes easier to go viral.
Likewise, small stories, which used to be ignored by conventional commercial publications, small but unique stories to be clear, are now voiced in the publishing industry. For example, I Want to Die but I Also Want to Eat Tteokppokki is a book that shows the writer’s consultation records with his psychiatrist as he suffered from dysthymic disorder and anxiety disorder. Mental illness was taboo in Korea when the book was published in 2018. Writer Baek Se-Hee said he only initially aimed to sell to 200 readers.
The biggest trait and charm of indie publishing is that it can get away from the logic of commercial publishers, who take universality as the standard of publication, as they have to meet the minimum number of copies in sales. In some cases, demands unnoticed by conventional publishers were pioneered through indie publishing. For example, in 2018, The Collection of Eastern Ghosts and Monsters (The Kooh) and Korean Yokai Encyclopedia each reached 100 million won and 70 million in funding on Tumblebug. The books recorded unexpected but interesting results while sticking to yokai and monsters of Korea, an unknown topic to many. Writer Ko Seong-Bae’s The Collection of Eastern Ghosts and Monsters was re-published as Korean Yokai Encyclopedia by Wisdom House Publishing Co., one of the biggest publishers in Korea.

 

 

Now, we live in an era when readers, not famous or authoritative writers or publishers, make best sellers, and an unknown individual can become a publisher. Earlier, Alvin Toffler predicted, “In the information revolution era, information would be the energy source, and many would become a producer as well as a consumer.” Correspondingly, small but unique stories out in the world are expanding through self-publication, including indie publishing, over the horizon of the publishing industry with their diversity and are expected to bring large-scale changes over time.

 

 

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Written by Kim Hye-Gyeong (Journalist at Readernews)