As Content Integration Officer, I continued to manage the professional development content for the Members Only area of the IRA website and Engage, but also took on acquiring and editing featured professional development books with high-profile authors.
During the 2011-2012 fiscal year, I acquired and developed three new books for IRA with popular literacy authors and negotiated a five-book, co-publication arrangement with Solution Tree publishers for a series of grade-level books on the Common Core State Standards.
To successfully develop books for IRA, I observed trends in the field, approached authors to write on trending topics, and worked with the authors to acquire and develop these bestselling books. On each of my book projects, I handled contract negotiations, served as the project editor for the book, wrote cover copy, product page web content, and marketing copy. I worked with marketing on appropriate marketing strategies and audiences for that book. I also promoted the books through content marketing including blogs, videos, podcasts, and professional book discussion groups on IRA’s social media site and the main IRA website.
When the Common Core State Standards were introduced classroom teachers across the country were looking for resources on how to implement them in their classrooms. I recognized that the topic of text complexity would be of particular concern to teachers. Knowing that teachers would be looking for an in-depth, accessible resource on text complexity, I approached the authors, Fisher, Frey, & Lapp, to write a book for IRA. We worked on an accelerated schedule to publish the book in order to make it the first book of its kind available on the market. It broke IRA records for first-year sales and became one of the hottest books in the literacy field–ranking #1 and #2 at various times in the categories of Literacy and Reading Skills on Amazon.com.
In addition to handling the acquisition, I served as the project editor for the book. I also wrote cover copy, acquired promotional quotes, wrote product copy for the website, and worked with the authors on various social media promotions.
In conjunction with the release of the book, I booked Fisher, Frey & Lapp to conduct one of the Teaching Edge sessions at the IRA Convention. The session filled its 1700 seats and turned many people away. The demand for the book at the convention was unprecedented. It sold out of the large inventory brought for the show, was restocked mid-week, and sold out again.
This unique book grew from a Members Only column I asked Lori to write. When I launched Members Only, one of our key target audiences for member acquisition was new teachers. I invited Lori to write a monthly tips column that would give new teachers classroom-ready tips and resources on core literacy topics to help them develop their classroom practice. Lori is a very creative author who understands how to write super-practical professional development resources for classroom teachers.
The column became popular not only with new teachers but with teachers of all grade levels and years of experience. As the year-long column began to near its completion, I began to work with Lori to expand the column into a book. Extra resources, reproducibles, and a new chapter were added to develop the new book. The book became IRA’s #2 bestseller of the year, behind only Text Complexity.
I worked with Lori on the content development and editing of the original column, collaborated with her on ideas for the expanded content, served as the project editor for the book, wrote copy for the product page of the website and for promotions, and worked with Lori to promote the book on social media.
Click here to review the Google sample files for the book including the covers and a sample chapter. You can alsoview information about the bookon ILA’s website. It is still going strong five years after it was first published.
This unique book offers wisdom, lessons, and personal stories by this icon of the literacy field.
I acquired this book after working with Regie on a column for the Members Only area on the IRA website. I negotiated the contract, worked with Regie on content development for the book, served as the book’s project editor, wrote website and promotional copy, and worked with marketing to position and market the book.
In order to offer a complete solution for teachers implementing the Common Core State Standards, IRA really needed to publish a grade-level series of books that addressed grade-specific issues of the Common Core. Competitors in the field were preparing their own grade-level solutions. However, the Executive Director had reduced the number of new books to be published in 2012. In order to provide our audiences with a comprehensive solution for the Common Core, I negotiated with another publisher, Solution Tree, to co-publish/co-brand their five-book series written by two of the authors of Text Complexity.
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