Han Kang drives readers to bookstores both online and offline

Major bookstores in Korea are experiencing a surge in sales of all of Han Kang's works following the announcement of her Nobel Prize in literature.

On Friday day morning at Kyobo Bookstore in Gwanghwamun in central Seoul, people had lined up in front of the branch before it opened. Shortly after business began at 9:30 a.m., Han’s books were already sold out, and the special display set up to commemorate the award from the day before was empty.

By around 10:30 a.m. that day, the shelves had been restocked with Han’s books. The area in front of the display, as well as outside the bookstore, was bustling with people eager to purchase her works.

The websites of major bookstores such as Kyobo Bookstore and Yes24 even experienced service outages and connection delays.

On the real-time bestseller lists of Kyobo Bookstore and Yes24, Han Kang was perched in the respective top spots.

More than 130,000 copies of the Nobel laureate's works had already been sold across two platforms in less than half a day. A majority of the available inventory was exhausted due to the surge in orders, leading to most of her books to be sold on backorder.

According to data from Yes24, all top ten spots on the real-time bestseller list were occupied by Han Kang immediately following the recent Nobel Prize announcement. Sales of her major works saw significant increases, with “Human Acts” rising 784 times, “The Vegetarian” increasing 696 times and “We Do Not Part” soaring 3,422 times compared to the day before the award announcement.

Additionally, as of Friday, the day after the award was announced, five of Han Kang’s works ranked within the top 10 in the overall bestseller list. Yes24’s bestseller list is a ranking that considers data of the previous seven days. The explosive sales in just a few hours pushed her books on to the weekly bestseller list.

In the real-time bestseller list of Kyobo Bookstore, her landmark "The Vegetarian" was followed by her other works in the second to ninth spots: “Human Acts,” “We Do Not Part,” “The White Book,” “Greek Lessons,” "I Put the Evening in the Drawer," "The Vegetarian (Revised Edition)," "Human Acts (E-book)" and "The Essentials: Han Kang."

Major publishers held emergency meetings due to the overwhelming number of orders. Han Kang has engaged with readers through key domestic publishers, including Munhakdongne Publishing Group, which published “We Do Not Part,” “Black Deer” and “The White Book”; Changbi Publishers, which published “The Vegetarian” and “Human Acts”; and Moonji Publishing, which published her short story collection.

Following her Nobel Prize in literature win, publishers anticipate a significant increase in sales of her entire body of work.

An official at Kyobo Bookstore stated that book sales of Nobel Prize-winning authors over a 10-year period, measured one year before and after the award date, experienced a significant increase following their recognition. Belarusian writer and 2015 laureate Svetlana Alexievich's books saw a remarkable rise of 373.1 times, while last year's winner, Jon Fosse, enjoyed a surge of 294.4 times, both benefiting from the Nobel Prize effect.

“The ability for Korean readers to read the Nobel Prize-winning author's works in its original language without translation is likely to further heighten their interest," the official said.

The Swedish Academy's Nobel Committee announced Han as this year's Nobel Prize laureate in literature on Thursday in Stockholm.