I am excited to have now released Business in Korea: A Guide for Foreigners 2nd Edition which is now available on Amazon.
The 2nd Edition is only available as a paperback and not as an ebook, so I wanted to explain why.
The reason is that the 2nd edition contains Korean text and amazon kdp does not support Korean text. While this wasn’t an issue that was apparent with the first edition (although it contained less Korean text) it is a big issue with the 2nd edition. so we are currently seeking other platforms to sell the eBook such as google play and google books.
Amazon KDP, unfortunately, doesn’t support Korean characters in e-books. It’s a hurdle I didn’t anticipate, There were some Korean characters in the 1st edition which rendered correctly, but the 2nd Edition contains a useful phrasebook and therefore much more Korean text. After a quality check on the eBook on Amazon KDP, I noticed that it dropped a lot of characters even when uploaded in ePub (.epub) format.
One solution was to remove the Korean script and use only romanisation for pronunciation and while this may be ok as many readers won’t probably be able to read the Korean text, I felt it detracted from the usefulness of the book to remove the Korean text completely. So I’ve decided to release the 2nd edition exclusively in paperback for now.
While the 2nd Edition is only available as a paperback for now, this is not the end of the road. I am actively exploring alternative platforms to bring you the second edition in a digital format. Google Play and Google Books are possible options with good accessibility and global reach.
I am also looking into other self-publishing platforms like Apple Books and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Ingram Spark, Kobo and more. Or even just selling directly from this website.
I understand the importance of having options, and I support digital publishing, although I do love a physical book.
I’ll update you soon with news on the digital front.