SharedBook Launches Personalized Children’s Bookstore
By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 9/26/2008 10:23:00 AM
SharedBook announced today the launch of its first direct-to-consumer store, featuring classic children’s books that can be personalized. Visitors to www.KidsStore.SharedBook.com can personalize and purchase more than 80 titles, including The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and The Wind in the Willows. The personalization entails adding a dedication with text and photo in the front of the book, and for some books, personalizing the back cover. The interior text and images of each book remains unchanged. Among the publishers who have signed on are Bloomsbury, DK Publishing, HarperCollins, Random House and Sterling. The books range from $19.95 to $30, which includes free shipping.
Earlier this year, SharedBook (which launched in 2002) made Random House’s The Poky Little Puppy available as a personalized book. SharedBook CEO Caroline Vanderlip would not divulge sales figures on the book, but said Random House would not have featured 20 additional titles on SharedBook if they were not “pleased” with the results of the Poky Little Puppy deal.
Vanderlip said the store “will provide a whole new way to reach kids with classic titles loved by generations of young readers in a way that is both personal and interactive.” Melanie Cecka, publishing director of Bloomsbury and Walker Books for Young Readers, called the partnership with SharedBook “an exciting way to get our books into the hands of customers, with a personalized touch.”
SharedBook’s other partners include AllRecipes.com, DNC Parks & Resorts (Yosemite National Park), FuneralNet, Little League International and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, all of which offer their customers ways to make books using their content.
