Now, it's K-Book! The Korean wave (or hallyu), driven by a variety of cultural contents, such as Korean pop music and television dramas and movies, has been sweeping across China, Southeast Asian Nations and even the EU.
Hence the Korea IT Times met with Lee Jae-ho, Chairman of Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea (KPIPA), a government-affiliated organization dedicated to promoting excellent Korean publications to the rest of the world though monthly webzine “K-Book Review” and the “export portfolio” development program.
The key to the S. Korean government’s creative economy initiative can be found in Korean books. Musicals, animated films, soap operas, movies are all different adaptations of books. By incorporating Korean values into books, I will expand the global hallyu boom to Korean publications,” said Lee Jae-ho, Chairman of KPIPA, which sees Korean publishers’ overseas market entry as a way out of the long-drawn-out recession in the domestic publishing industry.
He stresses that drawing up business strategies, based on sympathy and communication, is a prerequisite for making the Korean wave spill over to k-books. Since exporting books is more of a business activity, a higher premium should be placed on industrial communication and profit generation rather than on making unilateral cultural approaches.
To soup up the S. Korean publishing industry, the KPIPA has been conducting market researches, nurturing talent, promoting reading and supporting the export of Korea publications.
Above all, the KPIPA is running an export support center for Korean publishers in order to assist domestic publishers in making forays into overseas markets. By offering online and offline consultations on publishing copyrights, the handling of finished products, legal matters, tax issues, etc., experts on the export of publications are lending a helping hand to Korean publishers and writers wishing to go global. What’s more, the KPIPA issues and distributes “Guidebook on the Export of Publishing Copyrights”: Basic. and Market (China). in print and online.
“On April 8 through 10, I and 10 Korean writers, including Hwang Sun-mi, Lee Jung-myung and Shin Kyung-sook, took part in the London Book Fair 2014. Enjoying London-based media outlets’ constant requests for interviews with Korean writers, Korean writers were able to spend some quality time talking to global readers about their books. Publishers from around the world showed a keen interest in Korean novels,” Chairman Lee said.
During the London Book Fair 2014, Korean novels, such as “Leafie, The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly” by Hwang Sun-mi, “The Investigation” by Lee Jung-myung and “Please Look After Mom” by Shin Kyung-sook, basked in great popularity, thus landing on major local bookstores’ best seller list.
K-Book PR agents vigorously work in major export markets.
“Our capable k-book PR agents are working in three major export destinations: Japan, the EU and China. Korean Kim Seung-bok is in Tokyo, Russian Natalia in London and Korean Kim Koo-jeong in Beijing,” Chairman Lee mentioned.
The KPIPA is financing the three agents’ overseas PR activities and financially supporting Korean writers’ meetings with local readers. The KPIPA plans on hiring more K-Book PR agents in over 10 nations in Latin America and Southeast Asia in the near future.
Furthermore, the KPIPA has been dispatching experts on exporting publications to overseas book fairs and supporting Korean publishers’ development of export portfolios.
The KPIPA’s program to dispatch export experts to overseas book fairs has been put in place since the latter half of 2013. The KIPIPA selects publication export experts, capable of promoting Korean publications in overseas markets and dispatches them to overseas book fairs in lieu of publishers who are unable to attend overseas book fairs.
“The KPIPA launched a support program for the development of export portfolios for Korean publishers this year. Through this program, a total of 35 Korean publishers, wishing to make inroads into overseas markets, received financial support,” Chairman Lee added.
On top of that, the KPIPA accepts and evaluates business proposals from small-sized, cash-strapped publishers in a bid to award KRW 10 million to those with brilliant planning power and ideas.
“Since fixed book pricing systems are designed to require bookstores to sell books at fixed prices, it ultimately works as a safety net for publishers. As of now, of the 34 OECD member nations, 14 nations, including France, Germany, Austria and Japan, have put in place fixed book pricing systems while 20 nations, such as the US, are allowing bookstores to discount book prices at their discretion,” Chairman Lee said.
S. Korea is scheduled to join the fixed book pricing camp in November. Korean bookstores have thus far offered discounts of up to 19% on newly-released books. However, the maximum discount rate will be taken down to 15% starting from November. The nation’ introduction of such a system aims to protect mom-and-pop publishers from large bookstore chains’ race to the bottom in book prices.
Chairman Lee has also set his sights on the promotion of e-books because public awareness of e-books is still too low. He looks to make e-books catch on swiftly just like certain movies hit the 10 million-viewer mark in a trice. To that end, the KPIPA will hold Digital Book Fair Korea, the nation’s first-ever e-book fair, on November 6 through 8 at KINTEX, Ilsan.
“The S. Korean IT industry is pretty much in good shape and the domestic game industry is charging towards the top of the global market. The globalization of the domestic publishing industry necessitates efforts for the development of great contents. The development of great contents requires the nation’s education systems to turn into creative ones. Since Koreans are tenacious and creative, the future of the S. Korean publishing industry, I believe, is rosy,” Chairman Lee said.
