Survival of Books in Cross-Media Age
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
``Riding the Bullet'' written by Stephen King made its debut on the Internet in 2000, available for download free-of-charge. It stunned the publishing industry, as the demand for the story was so high that it rendered the server totally inaccessible.
Many publishers thought the digital era would eventually bring an end to the publishing industry within five years or so, as electronic books and Internet-based materials might replace paper.
But unlike the high expectations several years ago, electronic books are now struggling to make profit, and hardcopies are still on the shelves of bookstores.
However, nobody can deny the change engulfing the publishing industry. On the surface, it appears to be the same. But contents and consumers have definitely changed.
``Books Are Evolving ― Publishing Business in Cross-Media Era,'' written by Han Ki-ho and published by the Korean Publishing Marketing Research Institute, looks into these changes.
Han, who entered the publishing industry in 1982 and worked for 15 years, established the institute in 1998.
He starts talking about the importance of writing on the Internet because of the emergence of such digital devices as mobile phones, e-mails and blogs.
The book says that digital-savvy youngsters cannot imagine life without text-messaging through personal devices.
Yet, ironically, the author asserts that writing has become more important than ever, as a surviving strategy for communication with others.
He insists that a growing number of databases that seem to carry all the information in the world are prompting the changes to cope with the crisis in paper books, he says that storytelling is a key element for the survival of books.
He introduces ten types of storytelling in the publishing industry ― moving not lecturing readers, suggesting direction of actions rather than just giving facts, giving a clear message to readers, having dramatic compositions, suggesting clear characters, using a fable or allegory, boosting the credibility of narrators, having universal sensibility, appealing to individual emotions and adapting the industry to an Information Technology-friendly structure.
The author says that ``faction'' ― a combination word of ``fact'' and ``fiction'' ― is increasingly noticed as a trend; ``faction'' has become a necessary part of storytelling.
He says ``faction'' is an outcome of the digital era marked by an over-supply of information.
``Faction has much to do with the `search' via the Internet, which can be called a `type of reading' in the digital era,'' the book says.
The author explains that much easier access to information enables ordinary people to write works by just hooking up to Web sites.
The book says that the future publishing business will depend on mobile phones as an aspect of the cross-media strategy because the mobile phone is a broadband convergence network combining sounds, texts and motion pictures as a ``perfect media.''
The cross-media strategy refers to media properties, services or stories distributed across media platforms through various media forms. Digital contents are published in papers or extended to various genres such as Web sites, mobiles, films, games and animations. So far, photos, animation and novels are known to be appropriate to the strategy.
According to the book, the sales profits in the local cross-media market recorded 100 billion won for photos, 50 billion won for animation and 10 billion won for novels in 2007.
But the author stressed copyrights are a daunting obstacle in further growth of cross-media strategy.
Not only the contents but also editing skills are indispensable to help the publishing industry keep afloat. He mentions the importance of designs, titles, prefaces, advertising paper-book bands and font types to appeal to consumers who are keener on visual aspects.
The book also describes the current situation of the Korean publishing business, and translation problems.
The author cites a ghost-translation scandal involving popular broadcaster Jung Ji-young for the nation's best-selling book of the year, ``Don't Eat the Marshmallow… Yet!'' and says the present translation culture in Korea operates under unfavorable conditions.
He also cites the New York Times in 2007, saying that Korea had the number one translation-dominated publishing industry. Translated books take up 29 percent of the total books published annually in Korea.
Han points out that such heavy reliance on translations has distorted the industry and weakened its competitiveness. He argues however that the government could support training for more professional translators.