“I wish for my daughter to be a big voice in a room, even when completely silent. I wish for my daughter to peer over the walls that divide people and to defend those who cannot defend themselves. I wish for my daughter to know that stasis is a choice, and to instead choose continual evolution. And mostly I wish for my daughter to be in charge of her own damn self.” —Todd

​“I wish that they will understand that they have the potential to do anything they put their mind to. We are as smart, as strong, and as willful as any man, and each woman deserves the right to show that off however she chooses.” —Rachel

“My hope is that all young women feel empowered to boldly go where no woman has gone before! To wear what they want, say what they want, do what they want, and be whoever they want to be.” —Stephanie

“For my daughter, I wish for a world of opportunities that know no limits around the areas she loves. I’d like there to be no societal bias around what’s normal and for her to DREAM BIG to follow anything she is passionate about in life.” —Mike

“I wish for young women everywhere to know that they are EQUAL and VALUED. I wish for them to stand up for themselves, others, and for doing what is RIGHT. I want them to know that their relationships with others do not define them, and that they can do whatever they set their minds to doing.” —Amy

“I wish for young women everywhere to have freedom and control over their minds, bodies, and spirits and to dream as big as they can.” —Sara

​“A safe clean planet on which to raise our kids, build creative purposeful lives, live in harmony and self-expression, and never have to wear panty hose, ever.” —Deb

“It is my hope that young women will be free to follow their passions. No longer is something “just for boys” or “just for girls”. Young women should be free to pursue whatever they wish whether it be sports, politics, business or something they create on their own.” —Shane

“I want my daughters and all young women to know their worth in this world; that they don’t have to sacrifice a career for a family…or vice versa. With a little confidence and bravery, truly anything is possible. And never forget that your success is not measured by any standard other than your own happiness.” —Jenna

“My wish for my daughter is that she lives boldly and with conviction; that she not shrink any part of herself for the easement of others. I hope she grows up in a world where the idea that a lady ought to be demure and reserved… is unheard of. I want her to know, not just in her head, but also in her heart and soul that there is truly only one criteria for womanhood—to identify that way. We named her Aria; to remind her that she should find great use for her voice in this world and that in doing so, she should not be afraid to be LOUD.” —Chrystal

“I wish for my daughter, and young women everywhere, to be kind to others and especially ourselves when it comes to body image. Young girls are constantly being hit with what it means to have the perfect body, and too often that message comes directly from their mothers or other women in their life. My hope is that the mothers of my generation can stop perpetuating body dissatisfaction and change the conversation with messages of love and acceptance, so that our daughters can grow up in a world where there is no idealized body image.” —Heather

“I wish for equality to become so ingrained that there is no need for A Day Without Women.” —Liz

“My 9-year-old daughter is a strong and intelligent young woman. What I wish for her is to lead a long, healthy, fun, happy and fulfilling life. I raise her not to expect opportunity to come to her but for her to create her own opportunities and to knock down any doors that stand in her way. I hope she can one day use her success to offer opportunities to those less fortunate.” —Michael

​“A future in which women are not afraid of their own success—and have no fear in occupying the space they rightly deserve and belong.” —Jillian

After taking some time to let loose, and engage in some friendly competition, Publisher and CEO Dominique Raccah spoke on what it takes to create a company like this, and while she was addressing the employees, she was really talking to the entire Sourcebooks family. All of the authors who write such wonderful books, our bookselling partners who help to connect readers with the right books for them, our media partners who share their love of these books, and of course the readers. We wouldn’t be here without the readers. Here’s what she said:

“Wow. Twenty-nine years.

Sourcebooks as a book publishing company simply should not exist. Whoever has a copy of “The Rules of Publishing” would tell you that. You think that’s not an actual thing, but sometimes our industry believes that there are “rules.” We ran into them again and again, and we still do.

My book review of “The Rules of Publishing” is short but sweet, “Let’s create something amazing.” 

Innovation is how we got here. It’s the cornerstone of who we are and who we’ll become next. As you all probably saw, we won the BISG Industry Innovation Award last week, and when I got up on stage I talked about how innovation is iterative, is about the customer experience, and is about having the right mindset.

What I didn’t talk about is what innovation looks like.  For that I would have needed pictures because it looks like all of you. It looks like the great big ideas and the small improvements to processes that let us pursue those ideas. Each and every one of you has a daily impact on the work we do, how we innovate and the success we create.

There are so many places in the company’s history where we did something that other people thought was crazy. We put CD’s in books, we published not one but TWO New York Times bestselling children’s poetry collections, we built a whole personalized website from the ground up. But we did it to create something amazing—connecting authors to readers in new ways.

Sourcebooks would not be the company that it is today without you and your dedication to the idea that books change lives. YOU have changed my life, and all I can say is thank you! Thank you for your ideas, for your hard work, for your dedication. It has been a great year and I cannot wait to create an even bigger future.”

​Thank YOU!

If you want a whirlwind of a life, then I recommend working as a salesperson for a book publisher’s gift division. Not only is it an amazing job, but twice a year, we have gift show season. For six to eight weeks in January/February and June to August, every customer you might want to see goes to all of the major gift shows to see what’s new—which means you get to spend six to eight weeks traveling around the country, showing off all the great books and gift products they’ll love.

​Such was my life for the past three weeks, attending as many gift shows as I could and meeting as many customers and readers as possible! 

​First stop:

Atlanta boasts the largest gift show and gift mart in the country.  If you are a gift customer or a supplier and you aren’t there, you are missing out. Trust me when I say I was there (Tuesday through Sunday)!

​Featured in the RPM Gifts and Greetings Showroom, my reps and I met with hundreds of people and talked books, wrote orders, and discussed future opportunities and titles.

…and touched base at the Sports Licensing and Tailgate Show. ​

This was a new show for my coworker, Peter Vanaria, and me, where we launched our new line of MLB activity books to a new type of customer—sporting goods stores!

​But while in Vegas, I made sure to visit our rep group California Marketing Association at one of the fast-growing gift marts, the Las Vegas Market.

Liz Otte

​National Accounts Manager—Gift and Regional