Last Year, Book Prices Increased While Number of Titles and Copies Published Decreased

Last year, both the number of new book titles published and the number of copies issued decreased compared to the previous year. According to the Korea Publishers Association, the number of titles published last year was 61,181, down 5.4% from the previous year, and the number of copies issued was 72,910,992, down 8.8% from the previous year.

According to the publishing production statistics released by the Association on the 17th, the overall scale of publications decreased last year, while prices increased. The average price of published books last year was 17,869 KRW, up 4.4% from the previous year.

[Provided by the Korea Publishers Association]

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The highest proportion of new titles published was in the literature category at 21.6%. Among them, novels were the most numerous with 3,579 titles. Outside of literature, the order was social sciences (18.2%), children’s books (13.8%), technology and science (11.5%), comics (9.7%), religion (5.0%), arts (4.0%), philosophy (3.9%), history (3.5%), language (2.6%), study aids (2.5%), general works (2.2%), and pure sciences (1.5%).

In terms of number of copies issued, children’s books accounted for the largest share at 25.7%. This was followed by social sciences (16.2%), literature (15.7%), study aids (11.1%), technology and science (6.4%), comics (6.3%), philosophy (3.8%), religion (3.7%), general works (2.8%), history (2.7%), arts (2.4%), language (1.9%), and pure sciences (1.5%).

The highest book list price was for history books at 24,060 KRW, while comics were the cheapest at 5,845 KRW. Other categories were technology and science (23,903 KRW), arts (22,544 KRW), general works (22,295 KRW), social sciences (22,273 KRW), pure sciences (22,146 KRW), philosophy (19,521 KRW), language (18,231 KRW), religion (16,272 KRW), study aids (13,811 KRW), literature (13,591 KRW), and children’s books (12,227 KRW).

The number of translated book titles was 10,472, a decrease of 14.2% from the previous year. The countries most translated from were Japan (4,138 titles), the United States (2,957 titles), the United Kingdom (919 titles), France (608 titles), and Germany (379 titles).

In 2022, there were 5,611 publishers who submitted copies to the Korea Publishers Association. Over the past three years, 12,916 publishers have submitted copies. As of 2022, the total number of registered publishers was 75,196.

Meanwhile, the Korea Publishers Association publishes the "Korean Publishing Yearbook" annually to disclose publishing production statistics. However, this year, to provide and utilize statistical data more quickly, the publishing production statistics were released in advance.

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