Sue Park: Championing voices in publishing

What led you to choose the Cambridge MBA? 

Can you imagine turning down a life-changing deal because of trauma? I never thought I’d encounter such a case until I found myself trying to persuade one of my clients to accept an offer that was going to launch her international career. 

“No matter how good the deal, I want nothing to do with it.” 

These were among the most heart-breaking words I’ve ever heard as a literary agent. A prize-winning Korean author had declined an offer for her novel from a major US publisher. When I was completely caught off guard, she explained that after winning one of South Korea’s biggest literary prizes, she discovered her contract had stripped her of her copyrights. Her whistleblowing forced revisions in future agreements, but it also made her a pariah. Facing threats and isolation, she changed her name, quit writing and relocated to escape the spotlight. 

That experience motivated me to establish South Korea’s first literary agency dedicated to representing authors from the very beginning of their careers, supported by a wonderful team of co-agents around the world. Existing agencies in South Korea largely focus on importing foreign titles rather than protecting local authors and I wanted to change that. 

I’ve also witnessed a sharp rise in export sales of English books, evidence of a growing readership across cultures that primarily consumes content in English. The UK’s rich literary heritage places the country at the center of this global shift and Cambridge offers the perfect environment to strengthen my business acumen and build key connections within the UK publishing industry. 

What has been your biggest career accomplishment so far? 

Every achievement, big or small, has made a lasting ripple across my career and I honestly don’t think I’ll ever be able to rank them, some of the smaller feats ended up opening doors to unexpected strides and changes down the road. But if I had to single one out, not just for the scale of the accomplishment, but for the way it shaped my perspective, I’d choose the book I handled, ‘If You’re Going to Live to One Hundred, You Might as Well Be Happy’. It’s a nonfiction work on aging, not defying it but living comfortably and truly with it, by a South Korean author who was once a democracy activist and later worked at the forefront of mental health as a teaching and practicing doctor. 

He made his debut as a non-academic writer after retirement and instantly became a bestselling author. To this day, now in his nineties, he continues to be invited to speak at events. When our agency first took on the project, however, my boss didn’t love the translation sample we commissioned and dismissed the book as lacking for international promotion. But I believed in his vision and what he had to say, so I worked on a new sample myself, in my free time. And guess what, my boss loved it. 

I ended up selling that version to a major UK publisher, one that has also published the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Viktor Frankl, Brené Brown, Marie Kondo, Wim Hof and Charlie Mackesy and later in more than 15 countries. It also became my unexpected debut as a literary translator, all because I fought for a voice I believed in and went further than I otherwise would have. 

How do you feel about receiving your scholarship? 

When I first shared the news with my family, that it was a scholarship for female leaders in particular, my dad, a very conventional leader himself, poked fun at me. To be fair, I was also pleasantly surprised, since I’ve never thought of myself as a conventional leader either. But I’ve always believed that leadership comes in many forms and necessarily so. I tend to associate quieter qualities, such as devotion to a long-term vision, diplomatic tact and the ability to inspire through action, with signs of truly lasting leadership and those are the values I’ve tried to live by. I’m honoured and moved that the Foundation recognised these qualities in my career trajectory and I feel deeply validated in more than one way. 

What do you hope to gain from the MBA over the next year? 

Business insights are crucial for negotiating and evaluating contracts in today’s publishing landscape, where decisions are increasingly data-driven and involve multiple departments. I recognise that guidance from the right mentors could elevate my expertise to the next level and Cambridge is the ideal place to find that support, with its unique offering of courses and area of focus related to arts and media. 

I also strongly believe in the benefit of having business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit, particularly for creatives. Creative work has never been more easily drowned out than it is today. It has become more crucial for creatives and their supporters to understand how publishing and entertainment operate in a business context. Many artists, even highly respected names such as Picasso and Wallace Stevens, were visionaries who saw the value of engaging with the business side of the art world. And in their spirit, if I may, I don’t believe in struggling aimlessly, the tired artist stereotype, I believe in striving smartly. 

Where do you see the MBA taking you in your future career? 

My short-term goal is to acquire managerial and entrepreneurial skills through an MBA and gain broader industry exposure. Post-MBA, I plan to work in a large corporate publishing environment to understand the business ecosystem from a new perspective. This experience, learning how projects are selected, offers crafted and marketing strategies executed, will be vital for my long-term goal of expanding my agency into a global entity over the next decade, by helping me make informed decisions. 

What does Cambridge mean to you? 

In short, Cambridge represents a wealth of everything I’ve ever wanted from a school but never quite found all in one place. It offers unrivalled institutional resources, opportunity, legacy and prestige. It’s a place where the best minds gather from all over the world, in true diversity, to learn from stellar faculty. To me it is the very embodiment of both meaningful tradition and productive subversion. It matches my blueprint of what the best education should be, right down to its aesthetic and philosophical spirit. 

Something few people know about you… 

I’ve written and published poetry and short fiction, as well as translated Korean literature, under my full name, Suphil Lee Park.