[Moneyverse] Reading in an Era Overflowing with Authors

"My dad is a police officer."

"So what? I'm six years old."

"My dad is really cool."

"Yesterday was my birthday."

This is a conversation from a cartoon I saw online a few years ago and saved. In an era of social media, when anyone can operate their own media, everyone is busy telling their own stories. The cartoon illustrates the resulting breakdown in communication.

Social media has given everyone the ability to operate an online media outlet, and new publishing systems have lowered the barriers to become an author to the height of a doorstep. The main driver of this new publishing system is print-on-demand (POD).

POD books have no inventory. There are no physical copies on bookstore shelves. When a reader orders a POD book from an online bookstore, it is printed and bound one copy at a time and then shipped. Because there is no need to pay for the paper and printing costs required for an initial print run, the cost of publication is only about one-tenth of the traditional method.

By using POD, authors can publish a book without going through a publishing house. All they need to do is send their files to a company that provides POD services. I have two acquaintances who became authors this way, and one of my own books is also distributed as a POD title.

People publishing their first work are usually full of expectations. Before "The World as Will and Representation" was published, Schopenhauer was brimming with pride and made his expectations clear. He did so in a letter written to his publisher on March 28, 1818. Some excerpts are as follows: "My work is a new philosophical system. And I mean truly new in every sense." "This book, in my firm belief, will be one of those works that serve as a source and inspiration for another hundred books in the future." However, the book failed to meet Schopenhauer's expectations. It barely sold at all. Even 16 years later, unsold copies remained, and many were disposed of as waste paper.

In the POD era, authors are in an even tougher position than Schopenhauer. The readership is limited, the overall number of books purchased is decreasing, yet every year even more titles are published through POD. Specialized companies such as BOOKK focus on POD, and Kyobo Book Centre, Aladin, and Yes24 also provide POD services. According to a 2024 research paper titled "Current State of Independent Publications and Measures to Activate Legal Deposit," the number of new POD books produced by BOOKK rose by 36%, from 6,645 in 2022 to 9,028 in 2023. According to Kyobo Book Centre, POD titles registered with Kyobo increased by 65%, from 5,578 in 2023 to 9,178 in 2024. (Comparing the numbers from BOOKK and Kyobo Book Centre shows that a significant portion of BOOKK titles are not sold at Kyobo. This also demonstrates that many first-time authors who debut with BOOKK purchase their own books from BOOKK to keep or give as gifts.)

Given the ongoing contraction of the publishing market, most authors are highly likely to follow in Schopenhauer's footsteps. The publishing market can be revived—and POD books can gain more attention—only when readers start reading more books. Therefore, for those who wish to become authors, I recommend purchasing at least one book a month. Otherwise, the publishing market will turn into a space where authors recite monologues, just as portrayed in the cartoon.

Baek Woojin, Economics Columnist

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