Selling Canadian Books and Translation Rights in Korea A Guide for Canadian Publishers 2nd edition
Contents 1. Selling Canadian Books and Translation Rights in Korea.... 1 The Korean Context......................... 1 Reading Trends........................... 4 The Korean Book Market...................... 5 E-book Market............................ 9 Sales Channels........................... 10 Library Sales............................ 12 English Language Institutes.................... 14 Trade, Pricing and Royalties.................... 14 2. Guide to Publishing in Korea.................. 16 Negotiating with Publishers.................... 16 Korean Market Access Options................... 17 Other Important Details...................... 19 3. Opportunities and Recommendations............. 20 Appendix............................. 22 Consumer Reading Trends..................... 22 Korean Book Market........................ 25 E-book Market........................... 28 Sales Channels........................... 30 Agency Contacts.......................... 33 Publisher Contacts......................... 34 Retailer Contacts.......................... 36 Domestic Promotional Events................... 36 III
1. Selling Canadian Books and Translation Rights in Korea The Korean Context South Korea is the only country to increase in status from developing country and foreign aid recipient in the early 60s to member of the OECD and foreign aid donor at the turn of the twenty-first century. Korea s 50 million inhabitants (nearly 2 million of them foreigners) now have an advanced lifestyle which to some degree as with smart phone penetration and urban style is setting trends around the world, and attracting considerable cultural attention. Korea s journey to become the world s fifteenth largest economy has not been easy. It is marked by thirty years of extensive government direction, and the heavy hand of the state continues to be ever present. Korea can be characterized as a land of giant conglomerates, known as chaebol, that have established a substantial global market share. These conglomerates, which include Hyundai Motors, Samsung, and LG, make exports the major driver of the country s economy. Korea was badly hit by the Asian crisis of 1997-98, but was consequently well prepared for the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-9. The crisis yielded little direct financial impact in Korea; however, the Korean won weakened against the US dollar and exports slipped, pushing the country into a recession. Despite the recession, the country managed to retain marginally positive economic growth. The Korean economy bounced back in 2010, and grew by 3.7% in 2011. The domestic economy in Korea has been steadily worsening since mid-2011. This has affected private expenditure as inflation has outgrown wages and household debt is at an all-time high since 1998. This is demonstrated by decreasing monthly expenditures on books and other cultural commodities, which are taking a hard hit during these periods. 1
Table 1 Key economic indicators, 2008-2012 2012 (est.) 2011 2010 2009 2008 GDP ( trillions) 1.251 1.215 1.172 1.065 1.026 GDP growth (%) 3.0 3.6 6.2 0.3 2.3 Private expenditure growth (%) 2.1 2.4 4.2 0.1 1.5 Unemployment rate (%) N/A 3.4 3.7 3.6 3.2 Exchange rate (C$1 = ) 1,122.65 1,119.61 1,125.68 1,100.24 1,038.31 Population 51,530,829 51,121,854 50,515,666 49,773,145 49,540,367 Households 20,403,388 20,132,485 19,865,179 19,261,292 19,005,339 Monthly household spending on books ( ) 20,690 20,570 21,902 21,211 22,638 Bookstores 2,920 2,962 3,111 3,009 3,519 After many achievements in the pre-industrial age, Korea has since suffered through colonization by the Japanese and then from a state-controlled system which simplified national diversity to a few stereotypes. Only in the last twenty years has Korea s culture become vibrant and creative. While English is taught as a second language from an increasingly early age, many still use Konglish (English words or words derived from English with the same meaning in Korean context) rather than correct English. Students tend to have a passive knowledge of the language. The oldest generation s second language is Japanese. Korea s population is aging. There are fewer young people of school and university age and a rapidly growing cohort of Korean baby boomers in their 50s and 60s (For Korea the baby boom generation came a decade later than in North America, and after the Korean war of 1950-53). The old-style, economically active population (defined as 15-64 years of age) will peak in 2017, however recent trends show strong employment growth of people in their 50s and 60s and unemployment among young Koreans in their 20s. The latest 2012 figures from the Hyundai Economic Research Institute reflect a reality where 1.1 million Koreans in their 20s are unemployed and 70.5% of them have given up looking for work. Although families are smaller than in the past, Korean families are great consumers of books, particularly children s books. However, it should be noted that once past kindergarten, Koreans are more likely to be reading online rather than off-line. The Korean system of education is intensive; Korean 2
students spend more hours studying in both formal schools and after-school private institutes than do students in any other nation. English is being taught as a compulsory subject from kindergarten on, and young Koreans have a much better command of it than their parents. Koreans are renowned for the length of hours that they study, and their aptitude scores in mathematics reflect this. The life of a Korean child from about the age of three, until taking the university entrance exam between the ages of 17 and 18, revolves around study at school and then putting in time after school at private institutes. The private institutes attempt to re-teach students the essential skills which should have been taught at school. The number of school children is shrinking however, as the population ages. This means that classes are smaller, and smaller schools are subsequently threatened with closure. Despite this intense education process, many Koreans feel unsatisfied with the Korean system which tends to favour learning by rote and seek at enormous cost to send their children (and often one parent) to an Englishspeaking country for part of their education. According to The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, out of a total of 289,288 Koreans studying abroad in 2010-11, 5% chose to study in Canada, with 24.9% and 21.8% choosing to study in the United States and China respectively. Children who have spent more than three years abroad are eligible to attend one of 165 prestigious Foreign Language High Schools in Korea, where approximately 100,000 students study in English. The number of bookstores in Korea has been steadily declining over the past decade. The vast majority of these are independent bookshops. Many of these shops were dependent on the sale of school textbooks, which are officially approved and frequently revised. It is the opinion of major publishers that the decline in bookstores will have minimal effect on future sales as big retailers, like Kyobo and Young Poong, pick up the slack. Buying online from big bookshops has also become convenient and quick, with books delivered inexpensively overnight or even the same day. Contrary to the decline in bookshops, the conversion of video stores into book stores that lend books and comic books rather than videos or DVDs is a remarkable phenomenon. 3
Korea is generally considered to be a difficult market to do business in, where local expertise will be required and although the country and ways of business are changing, it is still a culture in which relationships are considered important. For this reason, agents continue to be essential go-betweens between foreign publishers and Korean publishers. Reading Trends There is a general consensus in Korea that you will succeed in your later life if you manage to get into one of the top four universities, known by the acronym SKY Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University (plus Ewha Women s University). Korean students are pressured by parents to read and study intensively, in order to get into a good university. This would explain the year-on-year increase of average books read by students. A rising number of students aim to study abroad, with the goal of attending an Ivy League university. Readership is uncharacteristically low compared to the EU average for the 40-54 and 55+ age segments. One explanation for this might be that these people grew up during, and right after the Korean War when resources were scarce and the environment shaped the mindset of that generation. Table 2 Reading rate by age group (%) 15-24 25-39 40-54 55+ Average Korea (2010) 90 73 62 41 67 EU 27 (2007) 82 72 74 63 71 Source: Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Republic of Korea, Eurobarometer The same proportion of adults and children read to learn something new, but more children find it a joyful habit. Adults tend to read for peace of mind and to pass the time. 4