Write your own story and publish it. Having your own book is no longer a utopia. You don’t need to be a celebrity to be the “protagonist” of a play. As part of the change in consumption habits that is observed in the local and global market, the consumer demands products that go beyond their monetary value, but instead looks for those that contain an emotional meaning. In that context, More and more people are turning to personalized, exclusive texts that reflect a specific moment in their lives and experiences..
a business niche. “Books do not escape this reality. We live in a global context, in which we need, more and more, to feel special and loved. We begin to see that it is essential to stop to create moments that we will treasure from now on; that our children, nephews or special people feel that we stopped to think about them”, describes Carlos Gimenez Vetere, CEO of One Minetta Group. “In general, this type of book is bought to give away on special occasions or simply because you like to have the book with your name on it in the library. They are products that do not arise from a mass production process, so it adds the value of having a work with a special edition and, furthermore, made just for one person. They are in demand, because of what is special, in their edition, not only in our country, but throughout the world”, adds Adrian Scottdirector of Editorial Olivia.
In this area, the most developed markets for the offer of “personalized gifts” are the United States and Europe, due to the characteristics of more sophisticated consumption. However, a very strong growth of this item is observed in Mexico, Brazil and Latin America in general.
If an X-ray of the business is carried out, the industry has two large groups of clients: children and adults. “This is without distinction to the topics to be addressed, because there are some that can include adults and children at the same time, for example: the classics or literary references are points that can touch both audiences,” adds Giménez Vetere.
public. “Children’s books, in general, demand current themes, stories that speak of emotions, feelings, diversityScott adds. In the case of Editorial Olivia, he publishes works that mainly contain content that supports the Rights of women, children, diversity (in all its aspects), animal protection, and the environment. “Additionally, in a children’s book the illustrations They are of fundamental importance and are decisive in the reader of this type of book to buy it. For this reason, we give great importance to the artists and illustrators who accompany our texts.. When we have all that, we move on to the stage of personalizing the book”, adds Scotto.
Personalized editorial products are not a creation of these times, as they have existed as a concept for more than 30 years. But what was new was the exponential growth of all digital printing and “on demand” technology, which allows the development of innovative editions, with high degrees of individualization, not only in texts, but also in relation to graphic elements. ANDThis places the segment in a higher category, called “personalized gifts”. It is a global market with a dimension of US$ 25,000 million and with a projected growth of 9% per year.
Attractive. The size and growth of this industry seduced some international investment funds that are leveraging the momentum of the leading companies in the sector. Most of the big players in the sector are Wonderbly, from the United Kingdom, recently acquired by the Graphite’s Capital fund, which sells approximately one million books per year, and the Spanish company MiCuento, another of the relevant companies in the market. Both companies were created less than ten years ago and in this short time they have already acquired worldwide relevance.
A point to highlight is that the personalized books of Plicme and Editorial Olivia are texts by authors from Argentina and their illustrations by artists are also local. “Each book is printed in our country, turning them into a product 100% made in our market, with international publishing quality.Scott says.
Finally, as in other areas of the economy, the pandemic accelerated the processes of “online” projects and home distribution, not only locally, but also globally. “For us, it represented a time of preparation for a project that we have been developing for three years, with the launch of the ‘Mi Astralito’ collection (in November 2020) and which led to a much more complex and solid platform that we incorporated into October 2021, together with the rebranding of the concept, under the Plickme brand”, details Giménez Vetere. Scotto agrees: “Oddly enough, it was a driving force behind the online purchase of books, not only personalized ones, but also those for reading in general, which were sold almost exclusively through operations in web stores with home delivery”.
Personalized books gain prominence. And they write their own history in the business world.
Marcelo Alfano
by Marcelo Alfano