Describe the main features of the policy/measure:
Since 2013, the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea has produced the ｢Rights Guide｣, which contains an introduction to the overseas publishing market, practical export methods and strategies, and successful cases to help domestic books to export. The basics edition covers overall information about exporting book copyrights. There are country-specific editions reflecting the publishing market environment in China, Southeast Asia, US and UK, and Latin America for the domestic publishers planning to expand in those specific markets. They provide export strategies by country and genre, contract procedures and formats of contracts, the status of various international book fairs and world publishers, and the status of domestic agencies. The basic edition and revised edition of the guide for the Chinese market were updated and distributed in 2020 and 2021 in consideration of the changed publishing market environment after COVID-19.
Furthermore, the need to support the export of domestic books ans book copyrights was further emphasized as the publishing industry accounted for 16.8% of the total content industry sales as of 2020, with Han Rivers’ “Vegetarian” winning the Man Booker Awards International Prize in 2016. Accordingly, the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea is promoting 12 support projects as of 2021 by increasing the number of export support projects.
Particularly, the agency has established and operated a publishing and export integrated platform, ‘K-BOOK’ that allows overseas buyers to check information on Korean books in English. In addition, the agency is pursuing various new projects to promote Korean book information abroad, including the operation of export coordinators.
Website of the policy/measure, if available:
What are the results achieved so far through the implementation of the policy/measure?:
A total of eight volumes (including revised editions) of ｢Rights Guide｣ were produced and distributed from 2013 to 2021 for the overseas expansion of excellent Korean publications. The K-BOOK platform, an integrated publishing and export platform, was newly established in 2019 to provide English services for overseas buyers to search and check information about Korean books. At the end of 2021, there was a cumulative of 15,441 visitors.
In conjunction with K-BOOK platform, the agency publishes a monthly English webzine, to promote domestic publishing trends, information, and the information about the content, writers, and publishers that are uploaded in K-BOOK platform. With the aim of global expansion from 2020, the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea also established ‘export coordinator’ program to provide a local information network for publication export. The export coordinator is responsible for identifying local publishing market trends and issues, researching local publishing groups and building contacts and networks, exhibiting and promoting K-BOOK platform, participating in local and neighboring countries publishing and reading events, and writing observations.
Financial resources allocated to the policy/measure in USD:
1,801 Million Won, 1.37 Million Dollars /As of 2021
Partner(s) engaged in the implementation of the measure:
Has the implementation of the policy/measure been evaluated?:
NO