Who Will Follow "Solo Leveling"? Fifteen K-Book Publishers Head to New York

Ministry of Culture and Publication Agency to Host 'Visiting New York Book Fair' on September 2-3
Fifteen Korean Publishers and Forty U.S. Publishing Groups and Agencies to Participate

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Publication Industry Promotion Agency will hold an export consultation event in New York, USA, to connect domestic publishers with major local publishing groups.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Publication Industry Promotion Agency will hold the "2026 Traveling New York Book Fair" on June 2-3 in New York, USA, facilitating export consultations between 15 domestic publishers and 40 American publishing and rights-related officials. The photo shows the main image of the event. Photo by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

The Ministry announced that, together with the Publication Industry Promotion Agency, it will host the "2026 Visiting New York Book Fair" at the NYC Seminar and Conference Center in New York from September 2nd to 3rd, 2026. Fifteen Korean publishing companies and forty American publishing and copyright officials will participate in one-on-one export consultations.

The "Visiting Book Fair" has been an ongoing initiative since 2015 to support the overseas export of Korean publishing content. Last year, a total of 1,045 export consultations were conducted across five countries, resulting in export achievements of approximately 17.66 million dollars. This year, similar consultation events will take place in Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, the United States, and Italy.

At this New York Book Fair, fifteen Korean publishers—including Glorion, Iyagikkot, Dasan Books, MiraeN, Jaeumgwa Moeum, and Cake Co., Ltd.—will participate directly in on-site consultations. In addition, a separate agency will handle consultations for 101 Korean book titles.

From the United States, global publishing groups such as Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette Book Group affiliates will take part. Major imprints including Alfred A. Knopf, Crown, Berkley, and Random House Children's Books under Penguin Random House; Quill Tree Books under HarperCollins; and Athenium and Atria under Simon & Schuster will also conduct one-on-one meetings with Korean publishers.

Independent publishers and literary agencies will also participate. Groups such as Quarto Group and Authors Equity will discuss not only the export of translation and publishing rights but also the potential for secondary adaptation of publishing intellectual property (IP) into movies and dramas.

At the seminar held on September 2nd, literary agent Barbara Zitwer—who introduced works such as Han Kang's "The Vegetarian" and Shin Kyung-sook's "Please Look After Mom" to overseas audiences—will deliver a presentation on "Global Success Strategies for Korean Content: Entry into the U.S. Publishing Market and Growth Opportunities for Korean Literature."

Recently, Korean content in the U.S. publishing market has expanded beyond literature to graphic novels and screen adaptation IPs. According to Circana BookScan data cited by the Ministry, ten print volumes of "Solo Leveling" made it into the local annual top 20 sales rankings. Film and TV adaptation rights for Korean novels such as "One Thousand Blues," "Hole," "Origin of Species," and "The Designers" have also continued to be contracted.

At last year's New York consultation event, 252 consultations were conducted, resulting in contracts worth approximately 7.5 million dollars. This year, the Ministry plans to explore not only rights exports but also various business expansion opportunities, such as the secondary adaptation of publishing IP. The books used for consultations during the event will be donated to the Korean Cultural Center New York afterward.

Choi Sunghee, Director-General for Content Industry Policy at the Ministry, stated, "The United States has the world's largest publishing market and is an important market where publishing IP can be expanded into various types of content. We hope that Korean publishers will discover substantial export opportunities and explore new business expansions by meeting with key local publishing and copyright stakeholders."

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