Naperville publisher starts online romance bookclub
BY SANDRA GUY sguy@suntimes.com April 9, 2012 4:18PM
Updated: May 19, 2012 8:02AM
Naperville-based Sourcebooks, the nation’s largest woman-owned book publisher, is making its name again for its social media savvy — this time, launching an online book club Monday focused on its romance titles.
The book club, at DiscoveraNewLove.com, costs $9.99 for every six months and offers members downloadable e-books from romance categories such as contemporary, paranormal, historical and a “wild card” thrown in for fun, said Deb Werksman, editorial manager for Sourcebooks.
“Readers can choose their favorite categories, and we will treat them to something new on a monthly basis, sometimes even before the new books are available to the public,” Werksman said.
Club members also may read best-selling authors such as Georgette Heyer, Grace Burrowes, Catherine Mann and Carolyn Brown in the monthly mixtures of books.
Book club members may write comments and use “live” chat to talk with many of the romance-book authors.
Featured titles for April include “One Hot Cowboy Wedding,” by Carolyn Brown; “Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal,” by Grace Burrowes; and “Mariana,” by Susanna Kearsley.
The e-books are being offered without so-called digital rights management so they may be lent and moved from different kinds of e-readers, such as from an iPad to an Amazon Kindle to a Barnes & Noble Nook.
“Discover a New Love is a new model built directly in response to what we’ve heard from authors, agents and readers,” said Dominique Raccah, chief executive officer, publisher and founder of Sourcebooks. Raccah started the company 25 years ago by self-publishing a $165 resource book for the banking industry, and has become known for leading the industry in developing apps, digital interactivity and social-media features for books.
For example, Sourcebooks offered sequential portions of “iDrakula,” a modern spin on the vampire myth Dracula, by download on iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch apps two years ago; issued the popular app “Most Popular Baby Names,” developed interactivity for SAT and ACT testing at Score.com, and publishes the largest number of hardcover books accompanied by audio.
