SLJ Chats with Lookybook Founder Craig Frazier
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Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 04/02/2008
Lookybook.com bills itself as "the world's longest bookshelf" and a "test track" for picture books—all for free. Before buying or committing to a picture book, parents, teachers, and librarians can view the work in its entirety using the site's whimsical "page-turning" tool. The site was cofounded by former Random House Children's Book publisher Craig Virden and children's illustrator Craig Frazier, best known for his delightful "Stanley" series (Chronicle). SLJ spoke to Frazier about Lookybook's fledgling online book publishing trend—and what it portends for the future of children's publishing.How do you get permission to publish these books on the Web?
We get permission from the rights holders, which are the publishers. We have in the last eight months conducted an outreach to every 
major publisher, and we continue to on a regular basis to request publishers' involvement.
What are the publishers' concerns?
Their concerns have to do with understanding where technology is going to go. With those that are concerned, I think there's just a built-in reservation about what technology means and whether it's going to be interrupting the rights of the books. These are the same concerns going on in the music business over digital rights. There's some kind of a [fear] that the ultimate control and destiny of that book is going to go into other hands. Those that have signed on with us don't believe that that's an issue.
So what's your response to anyone who says "he's giving away the store"?
For many of these books, you can't be "giving away" the book because you can't find the book anyway. Any sale we inspire is essentially found money. It goes back to a very simple premise—that when we're shopping, whether it's in a retail situation or an online situation—we like to see what we're going to buy. And publishers up until now have never resisted the fact that you can go into a bookstore and your child can virtually destroy a book and you can walk out without paying for it. So there doesn't seem to me to be a reasonable reservation that you couldn't look at some small, reduced version/facsimile of a book online to decide if you want to buy it.
There are 250 books on the site now. How many would you like to have?
We plan to have 1,000 books by the end of the summer. What we're introducing, as of today, is "New Book Wednesdays." Every Wednesday there will be a minimum of 10 new books that will come up on the Web site. Some are brand new books. Laura Vaccaro Seeger's First the Egg (Roaring Brook, 2008) is on there, and a number of [other new] books. What's interesting is it was very heartening that we're putting up books that I read to my [own] kids: There's a Caldecott book, Rain Makes Apple Sauce (Holiday House, 1985). That's a perfect example of a book I think you'd have a hard time finding in a bookstore.
I don't see any way you can make money here.
We make a commission on a sale of the book so we want to be involved in that, of course. Down the road there will probably be some kind of advertising on the site, and when we ultimately determine how we can create sales for publishers, we'll have some kind of subscription fee for publishers to have books on the site.
Would this work with a Kindle?
I really do not foresee, at any time in the near future, that picture books are going to be e-books, downloadable books. It's a tactile experience, curling up [to read] with your kid in a bed. There's nothing wonderful about turning the pages on a laptop. As beautifully as we do it on our site, there is absolutely no intention to displace that experience. I've had two children; and kids want to turn their own pages, want to be responsible for tearing the pages! They want that book to be their book. I have to say to those who think [Web publication] is going to replace that: "You're putting 1 percent worry in front of 99 percent opportunity."
