Not Business As Usual
May 7th, 2009
Dominique Raccah
Sourcebooks, Inc.

Not Business As Usual
A progress report in 7 parts

1. Benefits of category leadership

Not the “long tail”

“Natural Monopoly”

Implications

A. Compete harder in fewer categories

B. Publish authors, not books

C. Greater need for partnership between
authors and publishers

Sourcebooks Author Toolkit

2. Content continuum as a
strategic opportunity

“We have moved from a world where
things are sold to a world where things
are bought”
-Sam Bowers

Unbundling the publishing process

Trademark/ Licensing &
Accounting;
Copyright protection Administration Positioning
Royalties
Content
Cultural Filter
Development
Copyedit and
Physical & Digital
Proofread
Warehousing
Content Design
Physical Distribution
Creation of content
Digital Distribution portable files
Printing/
Author Branding
Manufacturing
Niche community
Trade Shows
building
PR, Marketing
Creative Partner
and Advertising Retail Marketing eCommerce
and Sales Administration

Your customers (and you) are becoming
better buyers

3. Digital update

Content – any way you want it

Content continuum is a niche strategy

?
$0.99 - $4.99 $5.99 $12.99 $19.95 $$$
$4.99
25,001 25,001 Complete Baby Name Baby Name
iPhone Best Baby Best Baby Book of Treasury Consulting
apps Names Names Baby Names
ebook MM

?
$$$
Baby Name
Consulting
$19.95
Baby Name
Treasury
$12.99
Complete
Book of
$5.99
Baby Names
25,001
Best Baby
Names
$4.99 MM
25,001
Best Baby
$0.99 -
Names
$4.99
ebook
iPhone
apps

iPhone apps

Currently digital = ebooks
and
ebooks are another format(s)

enhanced ebooks
or
enhanced digital books

Issues
1. Downloading another platform?
2. DRM?
3. Pricing?
4. Multiplying formats

Most exciting aspect
Creating new approaches to content
- Integrating brick and mortar retailers and
their websites

Most exciting aspect
Creating new approaches to content
- New approaches to showcasing a specific
author

Most exciting aspect
Creating new approaches to content
- Deeper relationship with all types of
customers

Most exciting aspect
Creating new approaches to content
- Expansion in our vision of who a customer
can be

Tremendous opportunities for partnerships

The world just got a lot BIGGER

4. Implications from sales and marketing

• In-person sales conference – gone
• Online catalogs
• Online ARCs
• Restructuring marketing spending to
better support bookseller partners

5. From production to content delivery

Moved all Production to:
VP, Director of Technology
VP, Director of Technology
and Content Delivery

Moving to complete XML workflow

6. Inventory Management

Can we create a zero inventory model?
if not…
Can we create a viable ultra-low
inventory model?

7. Building a more flexible organization

Creating a real DNA for change

Change culture: proactive, led,
optimistic, possibility-driven

Not Business As Usual
A work in progress

Get in touch
Email: dominique@sourcebooks.com
Twitter: dmcnr
LinkedIn Group: Ebooks, Digital
Books and Digital Content Publishing
Network
www.sourcebooks.com