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| Publishing Trends |
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Vol.6 Winter 2009
(Page 12-13) |
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Please Look After Mom Passes Million Mark |
 By Shin Junebong |
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The most fascinating newsmaker in the
Korean publishing market for the second
half of 2009 is Shin Kyung-sook. Please Look After Mom, a full-length novel
published in November 2008, made a
breakthrough sale of a million copies in
early September, 10 months after its initial
publication. Despite the small scale of
the publishing market in Korea, a million
seller isn’t all that rare. In the 1990s, the
novel Who Ate All the Shing-a? by Pak
Wansuh, and the novel My Sister, Bongsoon,
by Gong Ji-young, each sold over a million
copies. In 2007, Song of the Sword, volumes
one and two, by Kim Hoon, a journalist
turned novelist, made their way to the
million seller list. Please Look After Mom,
however, is remarkable in that it rose to the
position of a million-seller in a relatively
short period of time, and under adverse
circumstances due to the economic crisis.
According to Changbi, the publisher, Please Look After Mom had a monthly sales
record of between 63,000 and 142,000
copies. The readers ranged from teenagers
to those in their 50s. Older people in their
60s and 70s showed up as well at book
signings held at major bookstores. The
novel is indeed a “national novel,” to put it
in terms of a popular Korean phrase.
To celebrate the sales of a million
copies, Changbi plans to produce an audio
book version of Please Look After Mom to be
distributed to the illiterate and the visually
impaired. Top-class radio performers took
part in the production of the audio book.
Overseas markets have been showing a
positive response to the book as well.its
copyright has been sold to 14 countries.
The book is about the disappearance
of a mother of five, whose family goes out
in search of her. The love the family has
for the mother is expressed through the
alternating points of view of the daughter,
the sons, and the husband. In addition, the
chapter narrated from the mother’s point of
view reveals her hidden, lifelong love. |
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