Sourcebooks, Inc., is an independent

book publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

located in Naperville,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

. The company publishes books,

ebooks An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

, and digital products, and is one of the 20 largest publishers in the United States.

History

The company was founded in 1987 by Dominique Raccah as a business and finance publisher. Raccah cashed in $17,000 from her retirement fund to start the press. The company expanded into other categories of trade publishing. As of 2010, they had 54 apps in development. By 2015, the publisher had 120 employees, working on a diverse list of adult, children's, and young adult books, in addition to its rapidly expanding

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manag ...

businesses. As of 2010, they were the largest woman-owned book publisher in the United States. In 2013, the publisher launched a personalized book engine with its "Put Me In The Story" application and website. It added brands such as

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000 ...

, the Berenstain Bears, and Hello Kitty, in addition to authors and illustrators such as

Nancy Tillman Nancy Tillman (born 1954) is an American author and illustrator of children's books. Tillman's picture books focus on the love parents have for their children with animals. Her books ''On the Night You Were Born'', ''Wherever You Are, My Love Will ...

. Later additions to Put Me In The Story included

Curious George Curious George is a fictional monkey who is the title character of a series of popular children's picture books written by Margret and H. A. Rey. Various media, including films and TV shows, have been based upon the original book series. Geo ...

and characters from

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

, among others. In 2013, Sourcebooks acquired motivational and inspirational book publisher Simple Truths. The company reported a 20% gain in sales in 2014, with particular gains from its Sourcebooks Jabberwocky children's imprint and Sourcebooks Fire young adult imprint. The results also included sales of more than two million picture books by Marianne Richmond. In December 2016, Raccah was named book publishing's "Person of the Year" by ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'', a book publishing trade magazine. In February 2017,

reported NPD

BookScan BookScan is a data provider for the book publishing industry that compiles point of sale data for book sales, owned by The NPD Group in the United States and the Nielsen Company in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, South ...

data showing Sourcebooks as the 18th-largest trade publisher in America. Sourcebooks published 385 titles in 2017 and was the 14th-largest trade publisher in the U.S. In 2018, Sourcebooks acquired mystery imprint

Poisoned Pen Press Poisoned Pen Press is a publisher of mystery fiction based in Scottsdale, Arizona, US. Poisoned Pen Press typically publishes thirty-six new hardcover mysteries per year, thirty-six new large type editions of those hardcovers, and between thirty a ...

. The following year,

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertelsmann announced the completion of its purchase ...

acquired 45% of Sourcebooks, with the company forming a new management board that included Penguin Random House executives.

Imprints

* Sourcebooks (adult nonfiction) * Sourcebooks Landmark (fiction) * Sourcebooks Casablanca (romance fiction) * Cumberland House (gift, cookbooks, and history) * Simple Truths (business, leadership, motivation, and inspiration) * Sourcebooks Fire (young adult) * Sourcebooks Kids **Sourcebooks Wonderland (specialized) **Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (children) **Sourcebooks Young Readers (middle grades) **Sourcebooks eXplore (nonfiction) *

(mystery)

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.sourcebooks.com Companies based in Naperville, Illinois Publishing companies established in 1987 Book publishing companies based in Illinois