Sourcebooks has unveiled a new Web site, and along with a publisher blog, a shopping cart, submission guidelines, and other typical features, the site also has a section that expands the site’s breadth far beyond Sourcebooks titles. A campaign called Books Change Lives resides on Sourcebooks.com and allows anyone to write in books that have “changed their life.” The campaign is co- sponsored by Sourcebooks, indie publishing online magazine Shelf Unbound, and Bethanne Patrick’s Friday Reads.
The campaign includes book recommendations from well-known authors including Emma Donoghue, as well as celebrities in other fields, from singer Rosanne Cash to writer/director Judd Apatow. But anyone is welcome to submit a title, and, if they wish, a brief explanation about how it changed their life. Books Change Lives went live Wednesday.
Prior to the launch, site administrators solicited entries from about 30 writers, and it is continuing to seek out more authors to participate.
Books in the Harry Potter series, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the Bible are popular, although there is a wide range on the site. Donoghue said, "The Narnia books ... opened my eyes to the power of the imagination”; Cash cited The Diary of Anne Frank; and Apatow mentioned Ladies & Gentlemen by Lennie Bruce.
Sourcebooks, Friday Reads, and Shelf Unbound are all promoting the campaign.
In October, Scholastic launched a similar site where celebrities and non-celebrities can build profiles based on the five books that were most influential in their lives.
