International Trends: Korean Children’s Book Market
Published on 05/06/2023
International Trends: Korean Children’s Book Market
Teacher: Yeeun Kim, Yeon Agency
There are a variety of prominent themes for children’s books in South Korea. One of the steady, best-selling themes is still Fairy Tales: Korean traditional tales, Andersen’s Fairy Tales, and Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Warm and traditional media styles of illustrations tend to be hired for this genre of children’s books. This style is also often used in storybooks and child’s therapy where they foster children’s manners as well as their mental and emotional health.
As the content of the picture books gets difficult and informative, the publishers prefer bright colors for a fun and pleasant atmosphere in the book to keep the children’s attention and successfully convey the knowledge.
A Tip for Illustrators
Once you are hired on a job, it is important to build strong trusting relationships with your clients and to provide good illustrations in the style of your portfolio (that’s why they hired you, after all)! The publishing community in Korea is very small, which means editors know one another, and being true to your style, and being a communicative and on-time illustrator means a lot when they consider hiring you for future titles.
They recommend illustrators to their friends in the industry and they do check their competitors’ books and check the illustrators if they find artwork interesting.
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