Value context and insight. lkm@koreatimes.co.kr
First K-pop, now K-books: Korea hopes its next big export is literature
A promotional poster for the 2026 K-Book Copyright Market / Courtesy of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
By Lee Kyung-min
Korea has conquered global airwaves with its pop music and dominated television screens with its sleek dramas. Now, Seoul is making its most aggressive push yet to ensure that the next global Korean wave phenomenon begins on the printed page.
Publishers and media executives from 31 countries gathered at the Lotte Hotel World in Seoul, Monday, for the opening of the 2026 K-Book Copyright Market. The three-day event, now in its eighth year, has quietly evolved into Korea’s premier business-to-business forum for literary rights. It serves as a vital pipeline for expanding the international footprint of Korean books and intellectual property.
Organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism alongside the Korea Publishing Industry Promotion Agency, this year’s market matches 100 domestic firms with 100 overseas buyers for an estimated 1,850 one-on-one consultations.
The stakes are increasingly high.
Industry titans, including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and Hachette are in attendance, alongside newcomers from emerging markets like Guatemala, the Czech Republic and Lebanon.
To streamline the high-stakes negotiations, organizers offloaded preliminary briefings to online sessions earlier this spring, deploying an army of interpreters on-site so that editors could focus strictly on closing deals.
Yet the true narrative of this year’s market lies in how the definition of a "book" is shifting. This week’s attendees include not just traditional publishers, but also broadcasters, streaming giants and webtoon syndicates. They are all hunting for the next narrative universe that can be cross-pollinated into television dramas, films or digital comics.
The convergence underscores a broader reality: In the modern entertainment economy, a successful novel is no longer just a physical object on a shelf, but the foundational intellectual property for a multimedia franchise.
"The international profile of K-books continues to grow," said Kim Jae-hyun, director general of the ministry’s Cultural Media Industry Office. "We hope this event leads to tangible export results and expands into a wide range of content industries, including film and television."
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.