VOL.69/2024.04

 

Marketing in Korean Bookstores:
Recovered Editions & Book-funding

Faster and unlike anyone else

 

2023.12.04

 

 

 

“Faster and unlike anyone else” - this is a phrase from a popular Korean song. No item is exempt from this rule, but it is a hot topic in the Korean publishing and distribution market. Because of the fixed book price system, price competition among retailers is impossible in Korea. Shipping competition, which was fierce in the early days of online bookstores, has also faded. This is because there is not much difference in the delivery speed between bookstores. Competition for merchandise is still fierce but less so than before for various reasons, including readers’ fatigue with merchandise and rising production costs. So, how can bookstores promote their books “faster and unlike anyone else”?
There are two ways that stand out - recovered limited editions and book funding. However, it is hard to say that these are recent trends. Bookstore-led recovers of books have been active since 2017. Funding has been around for over a decade with Aladin’s Bookfund. At this point, recovered limited editions and funding have taken root as part of many different book sales strategies.

 

 

First, let’s talk about recovers. Publishers have been changing book covers for a long time for reasons such as revisions. Yet, recovers at bookstores are not only done by publishers, but also by bookstores. Examples include Yes24’s “Yes Recover,” Aladin’s “Another Cover,” and Kyobo Book Centre’s “Recover:K.” The names are different, but the workflow is similar. Since limited edition marketing is the essence of recovers, there has to be a demand for the limited edition. Books that are already loved are a priority. Recovered books are created at the request of a bookstore and are a one-time supply. Due to the inventory burden on the bookseller’s end, they are produced in quantities that can be sold out in 2-3 months at most. The number of copies a publisher produces at a time varies, but it is usually between 1,000 and 2,000, meaning the book must be in high demand to sell that many copies in two to three months.
In the course of producing and selling recovers, sometimes the initially anticipated demand suddenly drops off, and you end up with an unintentionally long run of limited editions. This can be a bit embarrassing for both the publisher and the bookstore. To avoid this, there are at least two requirements when printing recovers. The first is a “good reason.” My latest “Yes Recover” project, the book Career and Family, had a clear motive. The writer was the winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics. Another common element in recovery marketing is numbers. Examples include Use of History (Dasan Books) by Choi Tae-Sung, which celebrated 200,000 copies sold, and If We Cannot Move at the Speed of Light (East-Asia Publishing) by Kim Cho-Yeop, which also celebrated selling 200,000 copies.

 

 

The rest of what you need, along with a good reason, is the “physicality.” This is the characteristic of recover marketing, which is to create a sense of ownership in readers by changing the physical appearance of the book with the same content. It would be great if the fanbase of an existing book would purchase it for the mere fact that it is a limited edition with a different cover, but not many books have such a fanbase. Inevitably, you also need to try to stimulate the desire of non-fans to buy the book. It is obviously better to have a new cover that looks better than the old one. A beautiful cover is also a great way to create merchandise for the book. However, this is easier said than done. Covers are a matter of personal preference, and the quality of cover design in Korean publications is high - so it is not always easy to make a cover better than the existing one. Therefore, other methods are used to stimulate the desire to collect the recovered book. A typical example is hardcover books that add a sense of luxury. However, due to the overall increase in production costs, hardcover covers are becoming increasingly difficult to produce unless the book has a large production run. Adding a personalized message or signature from the writer could increase the value of the cover.

 

 

Next is funding. Book funding, which used to be mainly conducted by crowdfunding platforms such as Tumblbug and Wadiz, is also being actively carried out by bookstores. For example, Yes24 introduces books under the name of “Grae Bindery” and Aladin presents books under the name of “Book Fund.” Funding is a way to introduce meaningful books for the first time. As a reader, you can get the book with your name written on it, as well as limited edition merchandise. The difference between funding on a crowdfunding platform and a bookstore is membership. Whereas the average user of a crowdfunding platform is a casual reader (who reads an average of 4-5 books a year), members of a bookstore are book lovers. While the books that perform well on crowdfunding platforms tend to be those with high-end physical properties, in bookstores, even ordinary paperbacks can raise a lot of funds. As such, many readers are interested in funding in bookstores if the book itself has excellent value, even if its physical properties are not fancy, such as poetry, fiction, non-fiction, humanities, history, and so on.
Yes24’s Grae Bindery has been introducing a number of books since 2021, starting with The Story of Scottish History. The idea behind Grae Bindery was to reprint out-of-print and out-of-stock books that readers were frustrated about not being able to find. However, it is not easy to find books in this condition. Books that sell well don’t go out of print or out of stock. And even if there is demand, publishers are reluctant to reprint them if they have to renew their contracts. However, classics whose copyrights have already expired are relatively easy to reprint. Plus, the topic of “Scottish history” was rare enough. These elements raised nearly 9 million won for the reprint of the book through funding. Bookstores are actively promoting book funding for various reasons, including not only books that are out of print, but also writers who are being introduced to Korea for the first time, books that are necessary for our current society, and sets that require expensive production costs.
What I noticed during the funding process is that expensive brick books perform well. For example, Daily Liberal Arts (UU Press) by Jeon Sung-Won, which has 1,112 pages with a list price of 38,000 won, raised more than 17 million won with over 500 contributors. Similar to brick books, high-priced series sets also performed well. For example, this year’s limited edition series set commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Toemarok (Elixir) series raised over 120 million won. Series sets that focused on the physicality of the book appealed successfully to the existing fanbase. Another case where bookstore funding worked well was for local writers. While it has become mandatory for writers to have a social media account, the first readers tend to be fans and acquaintances of the writer. Here, funding can help them reach out to fans and acquaintances more quickly. Meanwhile, online bookstores have been around for a long time and have more members than newer crowdfunding platforms. Yes24, for example, has more than 21 million members, so if a bookstore is running a fundraiser, there is no excuse for not being able to participate in the fundraiser because you did not sign up.

 

 

For these reasons, recovers and funding run by bookstores will continue for the foreseeable future. However, as not all covers and funding are successful, the hunt for the jade stone will continue. Recovers will be a collaboration between publishers and bookstores focusing on improving the physical properties of the book, including the cover. Since funding is centered on books that are being introduced for the first time, publishers and booksellers are expected to come up with ideas for promotional materials such as card news and copies that can intuitively convey the appeals of the book to readers.

 

 

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Written by Son Min-Gyu (In charge of humanities and society books at Yes24)