Comprehensive Management of Book Production, Distribution, and Sales Information
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Publication Industry Promotion Agency officially launched the Integrated Publishing Distribution Network today (29th). It is a communication network that comprehensively manages information on book production, distribution, and sales. Users can utilize the necessary information by topic. A Ministry of Culture official explained, "It helps modernize and rationalize publishing distribution as well as supports publishing planning and marketing based on data." He added, "It is necessary to pursue business expansion and stabilization with a long-term perspective," and said, "We will communicate with publishers, distributors, bookstores, and consumers to create a beneficial system."
The main service includes 'input and management of book metadata.' Publishers register, edit, and manage standardized detailed information (metadata) of published books and share it with distributors and bookstores. Bookstores' Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems are linked with the Integrated Network, enabling automatic transmission of sales and inventory information for each book. A Ministry of Culture official stated, "Publishers can manage sales information from multiple bookstores at once without separately checking with each bookstore."
This system also provides various promotional management services. Once the Publication Price Processing System is integrated within this year, managing price changes for books will become possible. Next year, a book order management service between distributors and purchasers (wholesalers, publishers, bookstores) will be introduced. The Ministry of Culture official said, "Currently, about 330 regional bookstores are connected along with Kyobo Book Centre, Aladin, Youngpoong Bookstore, and Yes24," and added, "We will continue discussions to further expand connections with distributors."
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