Book sales jump as Guardian's popularity soars

A scene from “Guardian / Courtesy of tvN

By Park Jin-hai

The continued popularity of tvN’s fantasy-romance drama, "Guardian: The Lonely and Great God," is pushing books featured in the show onto the best-seller list.

Gong Yoo, who plays an immortal goblin, reads the book “The Stars Might Take Your Pain Away” to his human bride, played by Kim Go-eun.

In the scene, Gong looks at Kim from across the street, who gives him a big smile, and he thinks of one of the poems and begins to recite it.

“The size of a mass is not proportional to its volume

That little girl as small as a violet

That little girl that flutters like a flower petal

Pulls me with a mass greater than the Earth,” he said.

“Writer Kim Eun-sook is a book lover,” an official of the drama production company Hwa & Dam Pictures said. “She takes inspiration from books and uses those books as part of the drama material. The book used in ‘Guardian’ is also handpicked by the writer and included in the script.”

“The Stars Might Take Your Pain Away” is a compilation of 101 poems selected by renowned Korean poet Kim Yong-taek that includes Kim In-yook's poem "The Physics of Love." As soon as the drama’s fourth episode aired on Dec. 10, the book gained renewed attention.

In Kim’s dramas, books are used as a motive or hint for the following story, industry sources say. In SBS fantasy “Secret Garden (2011),” “Alice in Wonderland” was effectively used to tell of the emotional changes between the lead actor and actress. “The Great Gatsby” was used in the SBS romance “The Heirs (2013)” to signal the difficult romance between the poor girl and the rich man.

Although many other product placements (PPL) used in TV shows make viewers raise their eyebrows, the book in “Guardian” has been used efficiently as PPL.

In the first week between Dec. 7 and Dec. 13, the book reached the top five in overall sector sales, and it topped the best-selling book list in the following week. Poet Kim In-yook republished his book with the new title of “The Physics of Love.”

“With the drama’s production company, we have made a PPL contract,” said an official of Wisdom House, publisher of “The Stars Might Take Your Pain Away.”

Although the exact price for the PPL is unknown, industry insiders say it may reach 200 million to 300 million won.

“Nowadays, book PPL is recognized as a common thing,” an industry insider said. “Major publishing companies actively use it in marketing. If it is well used, as in the case of the drama ‘Guardian,’ I think it works positively, injecting new vitality to the waning local publishing industry.”