Dalmatian Sees Some Bright Spots
By John A. Sellers, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 9/11/2008
Two years after adding Intervisual Books and Piggy Toes Press to its portfolio, Dalmatian Publishing Group continues to diversify and expand its presence in the children’s market. Part of Atlanta-based Anderson Press, Dalmatian continues to operate in a decentralized fashion, with Intervisual remaining in Santa Monica and the company’s Dalmatian Press imprint based out of Franklin, Tenn.
Dalmatian acquired Intervisual and its Piggy Toes imprint in summer 2006, as part of a bidding war in the wake of Intervisual’s filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier that spring. Dalmatian’s bid topped that of Educational Development Corp., which also had sought to acquire the beleaguered company.
Intervisual’s current publisher, Debra Mostow Zakarin, joined the company just as these dramatic changes were about to unfold. “The same week I started, the head of the board told me that the CEO [Tom Yamamoto] was no longer with the company, and things weren’t looking right as far as finances were concerned,” she recalls. “Three weeks later we had to file for bankruptcy.”
Zakarin says she is pleased with the arrangementand that the transition has been fluid. “Part of the beauty of having Dalmatian buy us is that they really loved Piggy Toes and Intervisual products and wanted to maintain the integrity of that,” she says. Both Intervisual and Piggy Toes focus on novelty and interactive children’s books, with Piggy Toes aimed at children up to six, and Intervisual for older readers.
“Looking at Intervisual and their product line and their incredible library of content, it seemed like a natural match to fit into Dalmatian Publishing Group,” says Mary Counts, president of both Intervisual and Whitman Publishing (another Anderson unit), who was recently named to the position at Intervisual; Rich Hilicki, previously president of Creative Edge (Dalmatian’s value book channel business unit), has taken the role of president at Dalmatian Press.
Counts cites the hugely successful Ten Little Ladybugs (which utilizes “disappearing” die-cuts to teach counting, along with several other Piggy Toes titles using the same format) and a line of Magic Ribbon books as particularly popular products. “We think there is a lot of opportunity in the U.S. and internationally that we’ve not tapped into yet,” she says, adding that Dalmatian has seen double-digit sales increases in children’s book sales since acquiring Intervisual. (Dalmatian, as a private company, does not disclose sales figures.) “I think our trend is very positive,” Counts notes. “It’s been a really tough market in the last six to nine months, so it’s good to see that Intervisual’s product line has stayed strong.”
At Intervisual and Piggy Toes, Zakarin says she tries to push the envelope—gently—by experimenting with new formats, such as in Gracie’s Gallery, an August picture book by Kelly Houle that makes use of a flip-up Mylar mirror to demonstrate “anamorphic” art. When readers manipulate the mirror, the title character’s scribbles on each page change into recognizable images ([click here]www.graciesgallery.com/gracie_open.png to see an example). She also cites the June concept book Little Feet Like..., which features touch-and-feel surfaces that are large enough for babies’ feet, as an innovative twist on a familiar format.
In December, Intervisual will launch four interactive titles—Sharks, Big Cats, Snakes and Wolves—which Zakarin calls “our answer to the Ology books.” The informational books have elaborate pop-ups and flaps, and each title features an eye-catching acrylic “eye” on the cover. “I don’t want to be a copycat publisher,” Zakarin adds, “but I want to be somebody who looks at trends and what the market likes.” Intervisual is also launching a fall line of five scrapbook-style memory books, containing flaps, photo frames and stickers.
In the past two years, Zakarin has seen several advantages arise under ownership by Dalmatian, citing accounting, warehousing and distribution. “We weren’t in stores like Wal-Mart or Costco before. With the support of Dalmatian, we’ve been able to expand distribution in both the domestic and international marketplace.”
Those mass retail accounts are comfortable territory for the Dalmatian Press imprint, which mainly publishes coloring and activity books. A “slight majority” of those titles are based on licensed properties, according to the imprint’s publisher, Brandon Reed, who notes that around 70% of Dalmatian Press’s business is through mass accounts, including Wal-Mart, Kmart and Toys ‘R’ Us, and warehouse clubs such as Costco, Sam’s Club and BJ’s, with the other 30% attributed to the trade and independent retailers. Dalmatian has two imprints of its own—Spirit Press, aimed at the Christian market, and Sonrisas, which publishes books in Spanish as well as bilingual titles.
Recently, Dalmatian has been revamping another area of focus—publishing the classics. Dalmatian’s Great Classics for Children program started seven years ago, the brainchild of editor Kathryn Knight. According to Knight, the goal was to provide faithful adaptations of the text for the target age group (7–12), while remaining true to the spirit of the original classic stories. The 28 hardcovers in the line range from Treasure Island and Oliver Twist to Heidi and Moby Dick.
This summer, Dalmatian took those classics a step further, with the launch of illustrated 9x12 versions; these editions will be available solely in club channels. At present, six of the company’s classics (Black Beauty, Treasure Island, Little Women, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Anne of Green Gables and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) are available in the new format. “If these do as well as expected then we will continue converting our other 22 titles, four or six at a time with the new illustrations,” says Reed.
Dalmatian’s new illustrations for the new classics will also be used in a line of My First Touch and Feel and Sparkle classics for Piggy Toes. “As a child, I was lucky,” says Zakarin. “My mom would read classics and explain them to me. But how do you tell the story of the Wizard of Oz to a four- or five-year-old? If you look at some of the classics, they’re really kind of scary.” The forthcoming editions, aimed at readers ages three to six, will offer abridged stories in seven spreads, each containing illustrations with touch and feel or glitter elements. “You and I may read it and say, ‘Okay, it’s good, but it doesn’t exactly tell everything,’ ” Zakarin says. “My hope is to whet a child’s appetite enough that there’re going to want to read the expanded version when they get older.”
For his part, Reed finds that Dalmatian Press has benefited from Intervisual’s strength with independent bookstores, as well as in other areas. “Probably the most noticeable, aside from indie bookstores, would be international sales,” he says. “That’s something that they’ve been successful at for quite a while. It’s probably one of the areas where I’ve seen more growth.”
Despite having parent and sister outfits in Tennessee and Georgia, Intervisual’s Zakarin says she and her California-based team feel very connected to the rest of the Dalmatian family. “I see my counterparts about three or four times a week—we all videoconference—and you really feel like you’re part of things,” she says. “I like to think of us as the beloved cousin who lives out of town.”
