In the COVID Era, Book Sales Increased

[Asia Economy Reporter Seomideum] Although the global economy sharply froze due to COVID-19, the book market experienced an unexpected boom. Looking at the annual average Kyobo Bookstore sales volume from 2020 to the first half of 2022 compared to 2019, sales increased in most categories. However, travel, magazines, poetry/essays, foreign languages, early childhood, history/culture, and cooking categories showed a decline.

In particular, the economics and business category showed the highest sales growth rate at 45.3%. The boom in this category was driven by personal finance beginner guides, which in 2021 accounted for the largest sales share (9.0%) in the single book market excluding textbooks.

Next were used learning materials at 43.4% and elementary learning materials at 43.3%. Comparing sales from 2019 to 2022, some categories nearly doubled. As school openings were delayed and classes shifted online, learning-related books for students such as elementary/middle/high school learning, science, youth, and home life education books responded immediately.

Readers focused on actively discovering what they enjoyed during the increased time at home. Books related to ‘staying home’ lifestyles showed significant sales growth. Along with the trend of ‘companion plants,’ home gardening, camping/walking/bicycle travel, and gourmet travel books reflected readers’ attempts to relieve the stress suppressed by COVID-19. Among these, outdoor activity books on camping/walking/bicycling/gourmet travel saw the largest increase. It is expected that demand for domestic activities will decrease once overseas travel becomes unrestricted.

The diversification of readers’ tastes can also be seen in the variety of genres in bestselling novels and comics. During the COVID-19 period, Korean novels moved away from pure literature to be loved across various genres such as SF and fantasy. Thanks to the revival of Japanese comics, the comics category recorded its highest sales ever in 2021, proving that readers’ preferences have become more diverse.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.