SharedBook and Random House Partner on Personalized Books

By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 1/22/2008 1:06:00 PM

SharedBook Inc., a “reverse publishing” site that allows users to create books from website content, has announced an agreement with Random House to give readers the ability to create personalized versions of books using its web site. Golden Books’s classic The Poky Little Puppy will be the first book available for personalization.

For $25, consumers can add a custom dedication to the book and upload a personal photo to the front of the book. The book is then printed on-demand as a laminated hardcover and shipped. Amazon sells an un-customized version of The Poky Little Puppy for $4.99.

This is the first time SharedBook, which launched in 2002, has partnered with a traditional book publisher. Its 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. SharedBook CEO Caroline Vanderlip said Random House plans to add additional titles and customization elements later this year. It launched the partnership with Poky because the book is celebrating its 65th anniversary.

When SharedBook makes a sale, it remits Random House’s share back to them immediately (Vanderlip would not divulge what the split is), and customers sign a user agreement saying that the books they make are not for resale.

Vanderlip said she is talking with other publishers—“both small and quite large”—about similar partnerships. “This market is starting to really experiment and look at their content in a different way,” she said. “We’ve only found recently that they’re very receptive to what possibilities exist in customization and personalization. Book publishers are looking for ways to protect and to monetize their copyrighted content. In the experimentation they’re doing, they’re starting to look at ways to do just that.”

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