'Sallim Knowledge Collection' to mark 500th issue
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A ceremony commemorating publishing the 500th issue of educational book series, “Sallim Knowledge Collection” was held at the Press Center in downtown Seoul, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Seon-ah
By Baek Byung-yeul
The Sallim Publishing Company, a medium-sized publisher specializing in literature, has released its 500th issue of its educational book series, “Sallim Knowledge Collection.”
Ever since its first issue came in 2003, the pocket-sized series with less than 100 pages have sold more than 2.5 million copies in total, shedding light on wide range of fields including philosophy, history, current social affair, business, art and more.
“It is the first time that 500 books in a series mark have been published,” said Sim Man-su, CEO of the publisher at a press conference in Seoul, Wednesday.
Sim Man-su, CEO of the Sallim Publishing Company, left, and author Nam Jung-wook, center, who wrote the 500th issue of the company’s educational book series, “Sallim Knowledge Collection” talk to reporters. / Courtesy of Sallim Publishing Company
“Compared to overseas publishers like Iwanami Shoten of Japan, Reclam of Germany or Presses Universitaires de France, which published thousands of their educational book series over 100 years, 500 seems to trivial. But we are the first publisher to achieve it.”
For its 500th issue, which began selling this week, the Sallim Publishing Company tells the story about “marriage” ranging from the origin of current marriage system to how the western style weddings had been adopted in Korea.
As Sim mentioned, a few publishers have released their education book series in pocket-sized, but they had to stop at around 200th due to low sales volume.
“We cannot deny that books covering art, history and culture are occupying the biggest part in sales, but we also have been keeping our principles that we will deal with every subject that can attract more readers,” Sim added.
The top 3 best selling issues are “China’s distortion of Goguryeo history,” “Symbol of color, psychology of color” and “Story of coffee.”
To keep up with the change that more readers read books through electric book rather than conventional paper book, the Sallim now publishes their educational books in various platforms such as e-book and audio book.