K-pop boyband BTS revealed as authors of mystery Flatiron book, with Pan Mac publishing in UK

A disappointment for Taylor Swift fans as the mystery 4C Untitled Flatiron Nonfiction Summer 2023 book is revealed to be written not by the 33-year-old American singer, but by famous Korean boyband BTS.  

Last week, Swift fans started speculating that an untitled book, to be published in July by Flatiron Books, was her memoir. The guessing game began when booksellers in the US started saying that they had to sign an affidavit to stock copies of an untitled book with “global appeal” and a print run of one million copies, landing on 9th July. 

But the publisher has now revealed that the book is titled Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS, and is written by journalist Myeongseok Kang with the seven members of the K-pop band. An oral history by RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Junkook, the book has been translated by Anthony Hur, Clare Richards and Slin Jung. 

Pan Macmillan will publish in the UK simultaneously with Flatiron Books in the US. Lucy Hale, Pan publisher, bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Megan Lynch at Flatiron, St Martins Press.

The announcement was supposed to come a month later, on 13th June. Swift fans took this as a sign that the date, Swift’s favourite number, suggested that the book was about the singer. Its 554 pages were also seen as a clue, adding up to the same number as the announcement release date. Further guessing was also made on the side of the BTS fans.

The book has become a bestseller on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, the speculation driving swathes of pre-orders by both Swifties and the ARMY, the devoted BTS online fandom.