At Digital Book World 2016, as part of the Launch Kids pre-conference day, I spoke about what we've seen in children's publishing in the last 5 years and where we could be headed. The evolution of digital, content as a driver, and the development of Put Me In The Story, which is adding significant revenue to author and book brands.

1. Through the Looking Glass:
The Past, Present and Future of
Children’s Publishing
Launch Kids, Digital Book World March 2016
Dominique Raccah, Publisher and CEO

2. The book transformation

3. Online Distribution/Retail
Print
Digital
Brick and Mortar Retail
Online Retail
Format/Content

4. The first Kindle goes on
sale in November 2007
The Kindle DX Graphite
debuts in July 2010

5. The iPad1
first ships in
April 2010

6. eBooks Growth: 2008 – 2013

7. Borders

8. The impact

9. The Demise of Borders + eBooks—Total Books
-­‐24%
+10%
Source:
Nielsen Bookscan
(omitting week 53)
-­‐
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
700,000
800,000
900,000
YTD
YTD
YTD
YTD
YTD
YTD
YTD
YTD
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Series1
2012

10. The Demise of Borders + eBooks — Children’s + YA
-­‐24%
+10%
Source:
Nielsen Bookscan
(omitting week 53)
-­‐
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
700,000
800,000
900,000
YTD
YTD
YTD
YTD
YTD
YTD
YTD
YTD
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Series1
Series2
-­‐9%
2012
+25%

11. What we’re seeing today

12. Expanded Children’s Books Offering at Retail

13. The Continuing Momentum of YA

14. 90%
of
teens
read
physical
books
40%
of
teens
EXCLUSIVELY
read
physical
books
Source: Nielsen Books & Consumers Children’s Deep Dive, June 2015
1 of the
surprises

15. Book Based Media Tie-Ins

16. “
”
Today children are playing Minecraft, watching YouTube
and playing with apps—but they’re also still reading
books, watching TV and playing with toys. Kids are
more digital, but that doesn’t mean they’re abandoning
traditional sources of entertainment.
The Guardian, YouTube, apps and Minecraft: digital kids and the future of children’s media

17. The Persistence of
Physical Books

18. Ebooks
and
learning
Apps
YouTube
YA stars
Reinvention
of libraries
Social
reading +
writing
platforms

19. Evolution of children’s books at
Sourcebooks

20. Sourcebooks Children’s Bestsellers Entering 2011

21. Children’s Book Sales
2011 - 2015
3.5x
growth

22. Young Adult Book Sales
2011 - 2015
7.5x
growth

23. Sourcebooks Sales by Piece of Business
2015

24. Growth Continuing in 2016 (up 23%)

27. Jab-Fire
Starred Reviews
2014
2013
2015
2012
2011
2016

28. Personalized Content

29. The Opportunity: Books Are Great Gifts
$15.72 billion!
2014 U.S. trade book
sales (AAP Snapshot)
$2.36 billion!
The opportunity in the
books-as-gifts market
43%!
For children 12 and
under (Nielsen)
15%!
Trade books bought as
gifts in the U.S. (Nielsen)
And personalized books can create extraordinary gift experiences

30. Self-published
books developed
for personalization

31. Author + content driven
Marianne
Richmond
Greg
Lang

32. Could you create additional revenue
for bestselling authors and brands
through personalized books?

33. The #1
Personalized
Books Site in
America

34. Our Bestselling License Partners

35. Bestselling Author Brands
Come from book publishing and are author/creator driven
Lemony Snicket
Bestselling author of the Series of
Unfortunate Events, we are creating
personalized hilarity with his All The
Wrong Questions series.
Nationally known gift product
and novelty book author brings
her new picture books to
Sourcebooks & PMITS.
Internationally renowned photographer
Anne Geddes has joined Sourcebooks
with both personalized and non-
personalized product.
Marianne
Richmond
Cornerstone Sourcebooks
and Put Me In The Story
author with more than 2
million books sold.
Nancy Tillman
New York Times bestselling author and
illustrator.

36. Creating extraordinary customer + book experiences…
Your child as narrator
Your child’s name woven into
Illustration
Play “I Spy” with your
child’s face

37. An Adoption Story
“Safe and sound, you’re here with
me now, and that’s all I’ll ever need.”
11 Year Old with Asperger’s
“I got this book for my 11 year old
daughter with Aspergers. She absolutely
loves it and reads it over and over. It’s
helped bring some positive interactions into
every day, days often filled with frustration.
I’m going to order her a second one. This
is the best gift I’ve ever gotten her.”
100’s of Different Use Cases
How customers use Put Me In The Story
Deployed Daddy
“My boys love this book, especially my
3 year old. Daddy is deployed, so
whenever he misses him he can look
through the book and find Daddy’s
smiling face on every page.”

38. Coming to Put Me in the Story from Harper Collins

39. Creating additional revenue
for bestselling authors and brands

40. NEW revenue for bestselling books + licensed content partners

41. “
”
…nothing says
'transformation'
more than
revenue
sources you
didn’t used to
have.
—Mike Shatzkin,
ideolog,
Nov. 5, 2015

42. 2015: Put Me in the Story adds significant additional revenue
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
100.00%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
PMITS
%
of
Sales
PMITS
%
of
Sales
AVERAGE
36%
On average
Put Me in the
Story adds
36% NEW
units

43. At the beginning…

44. Creating an Additional Revenue Stream for Books:
Experimenting with Non-Book Product
Plush
1. Sleepytime Elmo
2. My Favorite Teddy Bear
3. Cozy Polar Bear Plush
4. Sesame Street Elmo Plush
Personalized Gifts
1. Santa is coming placemat
2. I Love You placemat
3. Lil Owl Nightlight
4. Little Sweetheart Pillowcase
5. Whooo Loves You Placemat

45. Barnes and Noble: Immediate in-store experience :
Espresso Machine

46. Barnes and Noble:
experimenting with in-store
211 stores
across the
country

47. Barnes and Noble: Online

48. The #1
Personalized
Books Site in
America
Creating an
extraordinary
customer
experience

49. There are no
secrets to
success. It is
the result of
preparation,
hard work,
and learning
from failure.
Colin Powell
The future of children’s
books —
physical books and read
aloud will not change

50. “
”
Every author is a potential brand, every brand is a
potential license; every book has multiple format and
market opportunities. What is great about children’s
publishing and media is that there is both lateral
opportunity—formats, series, tv, movies, games,
licenses, toys, etc.—and potential for ubiquity and
longevity that happens in the adult market only rarely.
—Lorraine Shanley, 2016

51. Creating New Revenue Streams for Authors + Brands
Around Personalized Books As Gifts
Personalized Book
Personalized versions of print or
digital books.
Personalized Gifts based
on books
Personalized non-book gifts
include puzzles, placemats, wall
art and more.
Non-Personalized Gift
Non-personalized, non-book gifts
include things like plush, to be
bundled with book product.
Non-Personalized Book
The trade version of a book, in print
or digital. The same product that
could be purchased in stores.
non-personalized
personalized
physical + digital book
non-book gifts
CONFIDENTIAL

52. “
”
Ingram sees personalized publishing as a
strong growth area both for trade publishing
and also for our print and fast distribution
capabilities.
In creating Put Me In The Story, Dominique
Raccah and her Sourcebooks colleagues
foresaw this trend, locked up premium
content with licenses, and have started an
unbelievable franchise that is only scratching
the surface of its potential.
—John Ingram, March 2016

53. Questions? Thoughts. Comments.
dominique.raccah@sourcebooks.com
@draccah