Posted by: Publicity on May 13, 2010
Sourcebooks Founder and CEO Dominique Raccah Receives the Chicago Book Clinic’s Sue Nisson Distinguished Service Award
(Chicago-May 14, 2010) – Sourcebooks Founder and CEO Dominique Raccah is the 2010 recipient of the Sue Nisson Distinguished Service Award, which is the Chicago Book Clinic’s highest award. Previous winners include prize-winning author and radio personality Studs Terkel, renowned poet Gwendolyn Brooks, legendary bookseller Carl Kroch, and award-winning newspaper columnist Bob Greene. The award was presented during the organization’s President’s Night on May 13 at Rosewood Banquets in Rosemont, IL.
President Elect of the Chicago Book Clinic Eric Platou says the Sue Nisson Distinguished Service Award recognizes an individual who has been successful in the publishing industry, but more importantly, has shown a new path and willingness to share their success and knowledge with others. “The success of Sourcebooks alone has shown that Dominique has not only understood how to compete in the publishing industry, but also how to pursue the changes and challenges our industry faces,” Platou said. “Dominique’s willingness to discuss and share these strategies with other publishers and professionals in our industry so that they too have the opportunity to pursue similar successful outcomes makes her a perfect choice for the Sue Nisson Distinguished Service Award.”
Posted by: Publicity on Nov 04, 2009
Sourcebooks Hopes to Make Poetry Speak More Broadly Online
Following the success of their line of Poetry Speaks books, Sourcebooks is moving to dominate--and more importantly grow--the poetry "vertical" with their PoetrySpeaks.com web site.
While the beta version of the site has just launched, it represents over five years of development work and an estimated $250,000 of investment from Sourcebooks. As ceo Dominique Raccah says, "When I did Poetry Speaks [the book] I honestly didn't know if I was going to sell 2,000, 20,000 or 200,000 copies. What I see as an entrepreneur is that engagement drives sales. And if we get people excited and participating, we'll find a way to monetize. I know other people have said that, but I've actually done it with poetry. The response we're getting to the site is bigger than anything I've ever gotten in my career. We ought to be smart enough to take that excitement and create a set of viable revenue streams for poets and poetry publishers."
Those initial revenue paths are built around the idea of "iTunes for poetry," with brief samples to entice sales of individual poetry readings, at 99 cents for audio and text poems, and $1.99 for video versions. They are lining up a retail partner to sell books and CDs (and eventually ebooks and DVDs), which Raccah expects to announce soon, and they will also promote and sell tickets to poetry slams, readings and online performances...
Posted by: Publicity on Nov 04, 2009
PoetrySpeaks: That cha-ching you hear is the launch of a poetry site
Posted in Books by Jonathan Messinger on November 4th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Poets talk about community more than just about anyone else. Go to a slam or open mike and you'll hear countless folks at the mike thanking the community or passing the hat to support the community. There's no setup here: It's actually one of the things that makes the scene here an inviting one. But it's funny that that community has never really extended itself online.
Naperville's Sourcebooks has launched the most complete poetry social-networking site we've seen to date in PoetrySpeaks.com. Users can log on, create a profile and upload their own poetry (written or recorded). There's also plenty of poetry on there to browse and listen to. It's not just user-generated content, either: I just clicked on Emily Dickinson's face. You can preview recordings of famous and not-so-famous poems, and buy them for 99 cents a pop (though text versions are free), all of which means the site aims to turn a profit.
READ MORE AT TIME OUT CHICAGO
Posted by: Publicity on Nov 04, 2009
PoetrySpeaks.com was launched yesterday by Sourcebooks, which has published the successful Poetry Speaks book series for nearly a decade. The new website is designed to serve as a social networking venue for poets and poetry lovers, as well as a business and marketing engine for poets and poetry presses.
"We believe that PoetrySpeaks.com can solve some of the challenges the poets themselves face in getting their work, their message, and themselves in front of readers," said Dominique Raccah, CEO and publisher of Sourcebooks. "We wanted a site that helps connect poetry readers (and potential poetry readers) and poets. And we wanted to begin developing a new business model for poetry."
Three potential sources of revenue are in place, with several others in development. PoetrySpeaks.com will sell individual poems in different formats (audio, video or text); books, e-books, DVDs and CDs; and tickets to online performances, slams and readings.
READ MORE AT SHELF AWARENESS
Posted by: Publicity on Nov 04, 2009
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6705223.html
Sourcebooks PoetrySpeaks to Sell Poems by the Work
By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 11/3/2009 3:23:00 PM
Having carved a successful niche for her company in the poetry market with Sourcebooks' Poetry Speaks series by combining books and CDs, Dominique Raccah believes she can help poets and poetry publishers make money over the Internet through the company's newly launched PoetrySpeaks.com <http://www.poetryspeaks.com/> . The Web site features three different sections, PS Voices, SpokenWord and YourMic, designed to create an online community that will let poets manage their own information page, provide a channel for published and unpublished poets to download material, and to sell both print and digital works. "We want to bring poetry to as broad a group of consumers as possible," said Raccah.
Raccah believes that a key to the success of the Poetry Speaks print line is that it makes poetry less intimidating to readers by adding the audio component and she hopes that by combining different elements online people will feel a connection to the works--and will want to buy poems they like. PoetrySpeaks.com will sell individual poems for 99 cents for an audio or print download, $1.49 for a combination of text and audio and $1.99 for video. Raccah is also looking for a retail partner to sell print books as well as DVDs and CDs as well as to help promote--and possibly hold--performances by poets. Raccah said Sourcebooks has identified 13 revenue streams, but is starting with ones customers are the most comfortable with, patterned after the iTunes model.
FOR FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE
Posted by: Publicity on Nov 04, 2009
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/11/03/is-poetry-on-the-net-something-people-will-get/
Dominique Raccah, a longtime publisher, thinks there is good money to be made in poetry. And no, she's not kidding.
Ms. Raccah has launched a trial version of PoetrySpeaks.com, which she says has been five years in the making. Poets can post their own poems, videos and performances, while readers can sample poetry that stretches from Alfred Lord Tennyson reading "The Charge of the Light Brigade" to Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai reading "Making Guacamole." Categories include Top Rated Poets, Most Viewed Poems and Poetry Animation.
Ms. Raccah knows the poetry landscape. She founded Sourcebooks Inc., an independent publisher based in Naperville, Ill., back in 1987. Today Sourcebooks issues an estimated 300 new titles annually and has a backlist of approximately 1,750.
Earlier works include the poetry anthology "Poetry Speaks: Hear Great Poets Read Their Work from Tennyson to Plath," edited by Elise Paschen and Rebekah Presson Mosby, which has sold 190,000 copies in various editions since it was published in 2001, and "Poetry Speaks to Children," edited by Ms. Paschen, which has sold approximately 170,000 copies since it was published 2005. Both works come with CDs on which famous poets can be heard reading their work. A third volume in the series, "Hip Hop Speaks to Children," edited by Nikki Giovanni, has sold 55,000 copies since being published in 2008.
FOR FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE
Posted by: Publicity on Nov 04, 2009
Sourcebooks Launches PoetrySpeaks.com:
Develops New Business & Marketing Model, Connects New Audiences to Poets & Poetry
November 4, 2009-Almost a decade ago, Sourcebooks published what would be a groundbreaking book and the first in its poetry series, Poetry Speaks, which came with 3 audio CDs where you could hear great poets read their own work. It was remarkably successful, reaching the New York Times bestsellers list, and selling over 190,000 copies over two editions. Today, there is a family of bestselling Poetry Speaks titles, all of which have broken new ground and offered something unique to readers.
Five years ago, Dominique Raccah, CEO and publisher of Sourcebooks, started to visualize what the future of poetry might look like if you could create a website that brought poets and readers together in a broader way. Since then, Sourcebooks has been creating and developing PoetrySpeaks.com, which goes live today.
The connections people make with poems tend to be uniquely personal and often visceral. The mission behind PoetrySpeaks.com is to create a place where people can discover and experience a poem that touches, moves, or inspires them and to make that experience visceral.
Posted by: Publicity on Mar 16, 2009
Sourcebooks is teaming up with Books Are Fun/Imagine Nation Books to promote a new children's series due out next month. This week, Sourcebooks, together with BAF, will send 125,000 Horrid Henry stories into schools across the country. The promotion will feature one story (each book has four stories), and at the back of each chapter book, kids can go to http://www.jabberwockykids.com/and fill in their information to receive a free poster, and read another Horrid Henry story. More...
Posted by: Publicity on Mar 16, 2009
March 16, 2009-Teachers beware! Hide your pencils and check your chair! HORRID HENRY is coming to a school near you!
HORRID HENRY is a publishing phenomenon-the world's most mischievous child has spawned a bestselling book series with sales of over 12 million copies in the UK alone, a TV show, and the love of children around the world. HORRID HENRY has been translated into 27 languages and has received incredible praise from the press, librarians, book sellers, parents, and most importantly, kids!
And now...
Horrid Henry invades the U.S.!
This week, Sourcebooks, in partnership with Books Are Fun/Imagine Nation Books, will send 125,000 HORRID HENRY stories into schools across the country. At the back of each chapter book, kids (with the help of an adult) can go to http://www.jabberwockykids.com/ and fill in their information to receive a free poster, and read another Horrid Henry story.
According to Publishers Weekly, HORRID HENRY "will engage even the most reluctant readers." These stories are laugh-out loud funny, which keeps kids interested, and are loved by both boys and girls.
Posted by: Publicity on Dec 17, 2008
Sourcebooks acquires Tennessee publisher
By Anna Marie Kukec | Daily Herald Staff
Despite a tough economy and cutbacks in the publishing industry, Naperville-based Sourcebooks Inc. has acquired another independent book publisher and eyes more expansion next year.
Nashville, Tenn.-based Cumberland House, known for the "Why a Daughter Needs a Dad" series that has sold more than 3 million copies, signed the deal on Friday. The companies declined to discuss the terms of the acquisition.
