By Dennis Abrams | @DennisAbrams2
Dow Jones Business News reports—via Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at the Wall Street Journal—that Barnes & Noble, “which is fighting to boost store traffic, is launching a program that lets parents personalize books by inserting the names and photos of their children into starring roles in some of the country’s leading children’s titles.”
Many in publishing won’t be surprised to learn that this is the ‘Put Me In the Story‘ line from Dominique Raccah’s Sourcebooks, based near Chicago. Raccah has been building franchise partnerships for the collection for some time. The program now offers Put Me In the Story editions on themes of Star Wars, Disney, Elmo & Sesame Street, Marvel’s The Avengers, Peanuts, Nickelodeon programming, Hello Kitty, and Lemony Snicket, as well as less specifically branded options.
The store announced a partnership with the personalized books program, featuring more than 100 of the series’ titles, including You! by Sandra Magsamen and I Love You So by Marianne Richmond.
The average cost of each personalized title will be, on average, $29.99, according to the report.
“We are incredibly excited to partner with ‘Put Me In The Story’and bring Barnes & Noble customers the added offering of personalizing some of their favorite books,” said Mary Amicucci, Chief Merchandising Officer at Barnes & Noble Inc., adding “It’s one of many reasons to come into our stores.”
Consumers will not be able to experience immediate gratification when personalizing their books at most B&N locations. Instead, after checking out an in-store display, they’ll buy a book and be given a voucher that they can then redeem at BN.com/putmeinthestory. If a customer’s local store doesn’t feature the display, they’ll be able to purchase books directly from the website.
Dominique Raccah
Quoted in the report, Sourcebooks’ Raccah said, “At Put Me In The Story we create personalized books from some of the best books and authors, and starring some of your very favorite characters”—referring to some of the brand-franchised editions.
“We’re thrilled that now Barnes & Noble booklovers will have the chance to tell their unique stories through our bestselling personalized books available at many Barnes & Noble stores and online.
“We’ve been publishing personalized books for three years via ‘Put Me In the Story.’ We’re at the very beginning. You’re going to see titles aimed at adults as well.”
Porter Anderson contributed additional reporting to this story.