Located just a baseball’s throw – well, 30 miles – west of Chicago, Sourcebooks scored a double home run with the Chicago Cubs’s historic 2016 World Series win, which ended the ball club’s 108-year world championship drought. Not only was it a victory for the Naperville-based company’s staffers who have long rooted for this home team, but Sourcebooks Jabberwocky earlier this year signed a deal with MLB to publish the first-ever, league-authorized World Series activity book for kids. And on November 15, less than two weeks after the Cubs’ victory over the Cleveland Indians, copies of Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series Champions: The Big Book of Activities will reach the shelves of bookstores and other retail outlets across the country.
The publisher’s game plan for the book was in place long before the first World Series pitch was thrown – with multiple contingencies. Author Peg Connery-Boyd (founder of Hawk’s Nest, a publisher of regional sports activity books under license from MLB, which partnered with Sourcebooks earlier this year to develop additional titles in the genre) wrote separate book content featuring four teams after the division series finished. The production department then created complete interior content for two books, one on the Cubs and one on the Indians, after the championship contenders were decided.
“Once we narrowed it down to two teams and had the content for two complete books laid out, we worked very closely with MLB to get the content approved – under tight deadlines,” said Kelly Barrales-Saylor, nonfiction editorial director for Sourcebooks Jabberwocky. “Of course, virtually everyone at MLB was traveling, covering the World Series, but they were fantastic, and approved the content quickly. It was, all around, a great team effort.”
Barrales-Saylor also praises John Donnelly, Sourcebooks’ senior print buyer, for his efforts in the final innings – literally – as well as for his good humor and loyalty to the home team. “When it got down to the final four teams, John was continually looking at the brackets,” she said. “He’d give us the odds for every playoff game, which was really fun. I haven’t been able to pin him down, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he gave the printer the okay to print the Cubs version of the book before the end of the seventh World Series game – which obviously came down to the very last second!”
The editor noted that, though Sourcebooks is focusing its marketing efforts on the Cubs’ no-longer-beleaguered local fan base, the publisher anticipates that enthusiasm for the team has reached a high pitch across the country. “The great thing is, since the Cubs are one of the original baseball clubs, they have generations of fans all over the country,” she said. “And the fact that they’ve waited so long for this win just adds to the excitement.”
Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series Champions: The Big Book of Activities by Peg Connery-Boyd. Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, $12.99 Nov. ISBN 978-1-4926-5021-8
