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Getting readers into books

05.09.08 Tom Holman

Personalised books have come a long way. Gone are the days of children's names clumsily cut and pasted into generic template text, or poorly reproduced photographs on covers that take weeks to print. These days, custom-made books are as sharply designed and professional as their mass-market equivalents—tailored and ordered in seconds, printed in minutes and dispatched in days.

With digital technologies improving all the time and the desire for individualisation rising, these books have never been more popular or easier to produce. And in children's publishing, the genre took a big leap forward into the mainstream last year with HarperCollins' launch of personalised books featuring its Noddy character. With customers able to create characters with their child's hairstyle, skin tone and eye colour, readers could see their faces in books as well as their names, becoming part of the story rather than simply being an observer.

After what it says was a successful trial, HarperCollins will offer similar books around other brands, including pre-school properties Roary the Racing Car and Fifi and the Flowertots in time for Christmas. Personalisation brings with it a premium in price—the Noddy books cost £14.95 plus delivery costs, compared with around £2.99 for a typical mass-produced paperback but HarperCollins' brand and properties director, Claire Harding, thinks customers are happy with the offering. "We've found they're willing to pay extra for something so personal."

HarperCollins produces its books in partnership with Penwizard, a personalisation specialist that has grown at around 70% a year since it launched in 2004. M.d. Richard Adey agrees that putting readers into books is a great way of giving buyers more for their money. "There's an expectation now of something a bit more than the basic product. These books give buyers the feeling that they're getting greater effort and value in return for their money." Other brand owners are taking note, he adds. "It [personalised publishing] is creating a lot of interest, and publishers are all trying to work out where the opportunities are."

The Noddy books are printed on Hewlett Packard's Indigo Digital Press, and the company's country manager for the UK and Ireland, Robert Stabler, says digital printing has made personalising books much easier. He explains that there was initially scepticism among publishers about the quality and cost of early digital presses, but Stabler says the technology has advanced hugely. "If I gave you one Noddy book that had been digitally printed and one that had been offset, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference."

Print on demand means publishers can be more creative and ambitious than ever, he says. "It's opened up a whole new world of potential for small, niche publishers in particular."
Customised children's stories are certainly prime territory for independents, even if they don't have access to the latest technology. "It's the perfect home business," says Ruth Porteus, co-founder of one of many home-based personalised start-ups in the UK, Storybook Stars. "You don't need a lot of space or money up front, and it's great for stay-at-home mums."

Storybook Stars franchises 10 template books from an American firm and inserts sheets into them personalised with a child's details. It has sold around 10,000 books since it launched five years ago, and while the bulk are for children's Christmas or birthday presents, Porteus believes around one in five end up with adults as a jokey gift. As with most personalised specialists, word of mouth is crucial. People whose children have received a copy at Christmas often return to her website in January to buy books for others, Porteus adds.

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Independents are also at the fore in the expansion of personalisation into adult genres. Set up in 2006, U Star Novels integrates readers into a choice of romantic stories, customised according to personal tastes and interests. Co-founder Jon Reader says sales so far number several thousand, peaking around Christmas and Valentine's Day. "We've not had a single return yet. There's an excellent market there." The company is now looking to expand and has just launched a same-sex series.

Fellow indie Duncan Baird is behind UK at Home, a glossy hardback that gives buyers the option of personalising the front cover with their own photo. The project follows similar books in the US by photographer Rick Smolan, who says one in five buyers has chosen to customise their books—a figure way above his original estimate of 3%. He attributes the success to the ease of uploading digital photos and the prestige of having your "own" book on your coffee table. "Many people are as excited about having their name and credit in the book as they are by the photo on the cover."

Smolan spent several years fine-tuning the complex technology that turns each book into a unique product. Similar hard work goes into Interact Publishing's My Football Year, a diary of various football clubs' seasons that can be customised by fans. Director Terry Pratt says some customers have chosen to completely rewrite their book's template text, and thinks the process of personalisation is an important part of the appeal. The books sell through the publisher's website and media partners as well as via the trade. Interact is now planning other spin-off titles.

In common with all other personalisation specialists, Interact says customer satisfaction is very high and returns very low.

Kieran Brooks is one recipient of a personalised copy of My Football Year. "The experience of personalising the book was very enjoyable. And it provides value for money," she says.

The power of the web
The web is a key tool for selling personalised books, with Adey saying most of Penwizard's customers found out about its service by searching the net for original gifts, but not necessarily for books. And when sales are made online, publishers can find out a lot more about their customer than when they buy through a bookshop. "We can track all our sales and monitor the impact of every advertising campaign," adds Adey. 

The use of online material to create personalised books, such as companies that turn blogs into print books, is an intriguing reversal of the march towards the web that some fear will decimate publishing. US-based web-to-print specialist SharedBook.com offers customised memorial books and travel books with obituary and travel websites Legacy.com and ProfessionalTravelGuide.com respectively, as well as offering a service to turn blogs into print books. C.e.o Caroline Vanderlip sees the web as an opportunity, not a threat. "Print is not going away, but the internet has spawned a generation of people who want to be in control of what they read. They still want the printed word, but they want it their way."  They also want it quickly, she adds, and to people used to getting instantaneous information online, publishing's long lead times will seem increasingly unacceptable. "People don't want to wait a year or two before they can get their book—they want it now."

Vanderlip sees customisation becoming increasingly popular in practical areas of non-fiction where people demand information specific to their needs. With so much information on the web available for free, people will become more reluctant to buy a book for a couple of pages of material that is relevant to them, but a book tailored to their interests or requirements is much more likely to appeal.

This is something that is currently taxing the minds of travel publishers in particular. Dorling Kindersley now offers travel guides customised with the attractions 
individuals specify that they want to see, while Lonely Planet sells downloadable guidebook chapters so that travellers can pinpoint the information relevant to them. Both also produce custom-made guides for corporate clients.

At Lonely Planet, business development manager Ushma Patel sees the tailoring of content becoming even more popular as print technologies advance further. And rather than cannibalising trade sales, these customised books are drawing in new buyers, says Dunstan Bentley, key accounts manager at Dorling Kindersley. "I don't think it impacts on the trade in any way—we're giving new life to old books and creating extra sales."

Personalisation is not without its headaches, and some publishers are wary of chopping and changing their content on a book-by-book basis. However, Vanderlip warns that their anxieties about use of copyright shouldn't blind them to the opportunities of personalisation. "Publishers copyright concerns are absolutely legitimate. But we're in a world where you have to make a leap forward or someone else will do it for you."

Doing it by the book
Five genres with books that make their buyers the stars:

Children’s: My Noddy Book.
Publisher: HarperCollins.
Personalisation: Choice of three 24-page stories featuring an avatar with a child’s characteristics. Story customised with child’s name and 
a message from the buyer.
Price: £14.95 plus £2 p&p.
www.mynoddybook.co.uk

Sport: My Football Year.
Publisher: Interact Publishing.
Personalisation: Fans use a website to compile a story book of their club’s season, editing match reports, rating players, choosing pictures and designing pages.
Price: £19.99 including p&p.
www.myfootballyear.com

Adult fiction: Romance novels.
Publisher: U Star Novels.
Personalisation: Paperback novels with characters tailored to the results of a customer questionnaire. A “U Star Lovin-o-meter” helps buyers achieve a suitable level of raciness.
Price: £26.95 including p&p.
www.ustarnovels.com

Travel: D K Travel.
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley.
Personalisation: Travellers choose the attractions they want to include in their tailored guide and upload their own cover photo. Choice of several dozen destinations are due to be added.
Price: £10 including p&p for a bound book, £2.50 for a PDF to download and print.
www.traveldk.com

Photography: UK at Home.
Publisher: Duncan Baird.
Personalisation: Buyers upload a photo for the cover of a hardback featuring photos and commentary about UK homes and its people.
Price: £23.99 plus £5.95 p&p.
www.ukathome.co.uk

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