Haruki Murakami's 'The Tale of Kaho' sparks Korean publishing rights bidding war

Every time Haruki Murakami releases a new novel, Korean publishers scramble to outbid each other for the rights — and "The Tale of Kaho," his first with a female lead, is no exception, drawing bids from more than 10 houses. 

"The Tale of Kaho," Murakami's 16th novel, follows Kaho, a picture book illustrator, through a peculiar chain of events that begin after a man she is meeting for the first time insults her appearance. It is the first time in Murakami's career that a woman leads a novel of his. The book, published in Japan on July 3, drew crowds who lined up outside bookstores to buy copies at midnight on release day, and it has already sold 300,000 copies in its home country.

Bidding for the Korean rights to "The Tale of Kaho" closed on Tuesday, according to publishing industry sources. More than 10 publishers reportedly entered the competition, including Munhakdongne, Minumsa, Viche — the literary imprint of Gimmyoung Publishers — and Munhaksasang, all of which have published Murakami's previous novels.

Sakai Agency, which manages Murakami's copyright, is overseeing the bidding. Publishers submit not only their advance bids but also their marketing plans. "The decision isn't made on the bid amount alone," the head of one publishing house said on Wednesday. "Murakami makes the final call based on an overall assessment, including trust in the publisher and its promotional budget."

Even so, industry insiders agree the advance bid remains the most important factor. The advance for Murakami's previous novel, "The City and Its Uncertain Walls" (2023), is known to have been in the 1 billion won (about $710,000) range. Some in the industry expect the bid for "Kaho" to come in lower given the sluggish publishing market, the weaker won-yen exchange rate and the novel's comparatively muted reception in Japan relative to its predecessor, but most expect the winning bid to again land between 1 billion and 2 billion won. An advance of 2 billion won is typically considered to break even at 200,000 copies sold, a threshold that rises above 300,000 copies once marketing costs are factored in.

Advances for Murakami's books stayed under 10 million won as recently as the late 1990s, according to industry accounts. They rose into the hundreds of millions of won in the 2000s and climbed to roughly 500 million won around the release of "Kafka on the Shore" (2002). Despite the high advance, "Kafka on the Shore" sold more than 800,000 copies in Korea, generating a significant profit for its publisher, Munhaksasang, and giving rise to an industry phrase — "the Murakami lottery" — reflecting the belief that securing his rights was a near-guaranteed windfall for publishers. 

Around that time, Sakai Agency changed its approach to selling the rights. Where Munhaksasang had previously published most of Murakami's Korean editions, the agency began opening the rights to competitive bidding, starting with "1Q84" (2009). Munhakdongne won those rights with an advance of about 80 million yen — roughly 1 billion won at the time's exchange rate. The three-volume "1Q84" went on to sell more than 2 million copies in Korea, and the advance for Minumsa's edition of the following novel, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" (2013), rose to around 1.5 billion won. Advances for subsequent titles have held around that level.

Some are wary of the intensifying competition over Murakami's rights. "Publishers in the English-speaking world and Europe typically give the right of first refusal to the publisher that released an author's previous work and negotiate the contract directly," the head of one publishing agency said. "Open bidding competitions are a strategy by Japanese agencies to drive up advances. Given the state of the publishing market these days, it's hard to turn a profit paying a 2 billion won advance."

An employee at a smaller publishing house was more blunt, calling the process "a feast only the big publishers who can afford high advances get to attend."

Many industry observers expect Murakami will ultimately sign with one of the three major publishers that have released his recent books — Munhakdongne, Minumsa or Viche — for "The Tale of Kaho." 

"There's talk that even if a smaller, newer publisher submits the highest bid, Sakai Agency ultimately signs the contract with a major publisher at that same price," the employee said. 

BY YOON SUNG-MIN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]