Founded in 2007, Xiron Books is one of the largest privately-owned publishing companies in China. Since 2017, it has published more than 500 titles, with sales totaling over 1.3 billion yuan. With content production at its core, Xiron Books has a strong presence in the entertainment industry on the whole—venturing into book publication, internet literature, television, and film. Big Fish is an imprint of Xiron Books that ac`quires mostly foreign literary titles. We have published numerous international best-sellers, including The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce and A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. In addition, we have acquired some major Korean titles including The Crucible by Gong Ji-young, The Vegetarian, The White Book, and Human Acts by Han Kang, and Diary of a Murderer by Kim Young-ha.
I have 10 years of experience as a publisher. I first encountered Korean literature upon joining Xiron Books in 2018. I’ve published the Chinese translations of Cho Nam-joo’s Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 and Shin Kyung-sook’s Please Look After Mom, and plan to introduce more Korean literary works to readers in China.
At the Online Publishers Roundtable, I look forward to interacting with Korean publishers and writers, and hearing about the latest publishing trends in Korea. Furthermore, I’d like to learn from the publishing philosophy of different Korean publishers, and get tips on how to discover and promote new writers and works. I’d like to take this opportunity to find more notable Korean writers that I can introduce to Chinese readers. I’ll look for any similarities between Korea and China, and see if feminism is reflected in contemporary Korean literature or what themes are explored by young Korean writers. I want to know how the Korean publishing industry is coping with the changing circumstances where more and more readers are turning away from books in print. And I would also like to know if there are any new forms of publication available.
