The Genre Fiction Festival brings many pop fiction readers together to share their love for this minor literary genre. The number of participants increased as years went by, indicating that a revival of genre fiction is underway. And the person who sparked the resurgence of pop fiction in Korea is Kim Hong-min, CEO of Booksphere Publishing House specializing in genre fiction books. For the past ten years Kim has published some 120 books in the sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and mystery genres considered the minority of the literature world and served as an advocate for genre fiction lovers.



He took rather an unconventional road to promoting his business and pop fiction. He planned fun events like the Genre Fiction Festival and on-train editing session by his readers and communicated with the fans of genre literature through his personal blog, where he uploaded postings about his inner thoughts or funny anecdotes instead of promotional articles about his publications.

Kim also started reader funding, much like crowd funding, a fundraising program which receives monetary support from readers to market new releases. He was able to raise more money than he needed because he spent the last ten years building reader trust. So it's only natural that his publishing company has become a solid community of its own. Booksphere is a reader-based publishing company aiming to make reading fun for everyone.