These days, trade publishers spend significant time and money marketing to teachers. This activity not only boosts sales in the school/library channel, but creates a ripple effect as teachers head to bookstores for additional books and their students search for more by authors introduced in class.

Most publishers create free educational materials to aid teachers in incorporating their books into the curriculum. Examples include print and online teacher's guides, activity kits, worksheets and reading group information, all created by educators and tested with teachers; reply cards or other take-home elements to involve parents; posters with a teacher's guide or worksheets on the back; and paperback teacher's editions.

Most focus on a particular theme, with suggestions for interdisciplinary connections. Youth Marketing International, a consultancy specializing in sponsored educational programs, has developed many publishing-based projects—which can cost sponsors from $30,000 to $1 million—including a safety-related unit featuring DC Comics superheroes and a multicultural/social studies program starring Madeline. "Anything related to books or book characters is always relevant to teachers," said Roberta Nusim, YMI president and founder. "And teaching a lesson about safety using Superman is a lot more fun than dictating the 10 rules of crossing the street."

Teacher's editions (paperback titles with bound-in teacher's guides) are effective marketing tools. Simon & Schuster has created teacher's editions for Ready to Read Blue's Clues, Little Bill tie-ins, Aladdin Classics titles and Sharon Mills Draper books. S&S typically prints 10,000 to 30,000 per title, according to Suzanne Murphy, v-p of marketing for Simon & Schuster Children's Books.

While teachers continue to prefer printed over electronically delivered materials, publishers offer online supplementary information such as author biographies and reading group suggestions, as well as their entire roster of teacher's guides, including some not available in print. Random House's Teachers@Random attracts 50,000 unique vistors and 200,000 page views per month, according to Terry Borzumato, executive director, school and library marketing.

Publishers often promote their books by sending authors to schools, conventions or bookstore stops to which classrooms are invited; they distribute kits listing authors available, and their honoraria. Murphy of Simon & Schuster, which currently has nearly 300 in-school appearances scheduled, said, "It's a shot in the arm [to the authors] to get out there with the kids and the teachers. It's inspirational."

Book characters can also gain in-school exposure on products, such as lunchroom placemats or protective book covers, manufactured and distributed by outside companies. Publishers pay to advertise on these items; quantities for book covers can range from 100,000 to 500,000.

Simon & Schuster contracted with book cover distributor Walraven to promote Tales from the House of Bunnicula and will similarly market the Pendragon Quartet next year. Meanwhile, Scholastic is trying book covers for the first time, publicizing a number of its fantasy titles by Tamora Pierce and Katherine Roberts, according to paperback marketing manager Elizabeth Fithian.

Companies that sell supplemental educational products to teachers sometimes license book characters for use on their products, offering further opportunities for exposure. For example, Highsmith sells bookmarks, incentives and room decor featuring Curious George, Toot & Puddle and Goodnight Moon, among others, while DEMCO has an extensive line tied to Marc Brown's Arthur, as well as reading incentives linked to such properties as Harry Potter and Strega Nona.

Steinar Engebretsen, director of sales, marketing and product development for Trend Enterprises, which holds licenses for Garfield and Monopoly (both associated with children's tie-in publishing programs), explained that properties with an inherent educational value, like the math-intensive Monopoly, lend themselves to skill-building products such as flash cards and workbooks, while purely character licenses work better on incentives such as stickers and recognition awards. "If there's an element in the brand that truly serves a purpose, it will be accepted in the classroom," Engebretsen said.

Finally, most children's trade publishers send printed backlist catalogues to schools every two years or so. Simon & Schuster's catalogue lists 2,500 to 3,000 titles and goes to 30,000 schools and libraries. Random House sends three paperback catalogues, one each for grades K—3, 4—5 and 6—8, printing 100,000 of each. The catalogues have a thematic index up front to help teachers choose appropriate titles.

Distribution to Teachers

Trade publishers exhibit at teacher's conventions, including those sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the International Reading Association (IRA), and advertise in publications such as Teaching K-8, Creative Classroom and Mailbox Bookbag. They often offer free teacher's editions, posters or a classroom set of bookmarks as incentives. Random House, for example, has distributed Junie B. Jones hairbows and shoelaces at teacher's conventions; they had been created for the trade, and the extras were used to reach educators.

Publishers also distribute their materials through Educational Paperback Association distributors, jobbers and wholesalers, which sell to the school/ library market. These intermediaries work with publishers on promotions, such as offering a free-with-purchase classroom set of posters or binding teacher's guides into their catalogues.

Free subscription lists are another way of reaching teachers. Simon & Schuster has a 4,000-subscriber online mailing list for librarians and educators, to whom it sends author interviews and updates on current projects. It includes marketing messages and incentives, such as free advance reader's copies or activity guides for the first 50 who respond to an offer.

Subscribers to the Penguin Putnam Teachers Club receive "care packages" throughout the year, according to Lucy Del Priore, director of educational marketing. These include information on promotions and new titles, as well as materials like postcards, teacher's guides, bookmarks and posters, typically tied to a subject or event.

In all its in-school efforts, Penguin Putnam uses a thematic approach that allows it to cross-market its titles. "That's very key to this market," explained Del Priore. This fall, the house developed Around the World in 80 Books, a promotion in which a teacher's guide and posters highlighted 10 fall frontlist titles and a range of backlist titles about different cultures and geographic areas.

Simon & Schuster operates dedicated classroom fan clubs for its Henry and Mudge and Pinky and Rex series. It mails out four to five packets per year to 350—400 subscribing teachers; each includes a classroom's worth of membership cards; incentives such as stickers; and a week of activities. Murphy noted that both series' sales are getting stronger every year and credits some of that growth to the classroom fan clubs.

Random House maintains subscription newsletters tied to the Junie B. Jones and Magic Tree House series, driving teachers to online, downloadable classroom club worksheets, activity and teacher's guides, and take-home materials, according to Borzumato. All told, Random House reaches 20,000 newsletter subscribers per month.

Most publishers include educators-in-training in their efforts, for example sending teacher's editions to children's literature professors. "We try to get them in the early stages and build brand loyalty," said Del Priore.

All these channels cumulatively generate wide exposure among kids. Random House, for instance, inserted 100,000 Cat in the Hat Learning Library teacher's guides in a publication for grade 1—3 educators; if all are used, the program could result in 2.5 million student impressions. Borzumato stressed that in-school marketing is an ongoing strategy and that the overall effect matters more than the results of any single promotion. "We're getting to as many teachers as possible to make the greatest impact."

While publishers rarely highlight hot licensed titles in schools, some promote ongoing tie-in series with educational or pro-social messages, often with exposure-enhancing licensor support. When Simon & Schuster launched its Dora the Explorer books, Nickelodeon partnered with the American Library Association for a promotion consisting of on-air spots and more than 50,000 posters mailed to teachers and librarians. "We wanted to get the message out that our program is a vital and vibrant learning tool," said Margaret Milnes, Nickelodeon's director of book publishing, adding that licensees have shipped more than three million Dora books.

Book Clubs and Outreach

Book clubs and fairs accounted for 26% of all children's books sold in the first half of 2002, according to Ipsos BookTrends. They also generate awareness that can boost trade sales. "It's a significant percentage of our business that we budget for and rely on every year and expect to grow every year," said Alan Smagler, senior v-p/associate publisher, Simon & Schuster Children's Books. "And the exposure is fabulous."

Troll oversees five book-club catalogues for students in grades pre-K through 9, each including 32 pages for students and 14 for teachers. Each edition highlights a title with teacher-support materials, classroom activities, author interviews and the like. "[Publishers] realize they can seed the market for a new series and create a buzz for it through the clubs," said Wayne Friedman, Troll's senior v-p, book club marketing, explaining that a feature in a catalogue's student news section could reach as many as 100 million children.

"The school book clubs are an invaluable means of establishing a new author and building awareness of a specific title or series, because the kids are purchasing books for themselves," said Kim Probeyahn, associate director, subsidiary rights, Random House Children's Books. "There's no better publicity than kids recommending books to their friends."

Publishers also benefit indirectly from educational outreach programs created by television channels or stations, especially PBS affiliates, to support book-based programming. PBS station WGBH-Boston creates outreach materials for Marc Brown's Arthur that include print and Web components as well as CD-ROM or video, according to Mary Haggerty, WGBH's manager of educational outreach. Stations that participate in PBS's Ready to Learn service, as well as partners such as Reading Is Fundamental and the National Education Association, distribute the materials to local schools and preschools.

Haggerty noted that while WGBH's outreach does not include any direct efforts to sell books, it does mirror the show by encouraging reading. Efforts often include book lists (of Arthur titles and others) in printed and electronic materials and use books as the basis for activities.

Nelvana produces outreach materials, distributed by public stations' outreach departments, for its PBS Bookworm Bunch programming block. Three Bookworm programs—George Shrinks, Seven Little Monsters and The Berenstain Bears—are moving to five-day-a-week broadcasts in January and will benefit from expanded outreach initiatives. For each, Nelvana will provide 10,000 activity notebooks—containing teacher's guides, worksheets, a Web component and videos—to preschool teachers.

While PBS's outreach requirement spurred Nelvana to create these materials, the studio realized their benefit. "It's a way for us to extend the brand and enhance the value of the show in the classroom," said Irene Weibel, Nelvana's v-p of educational development.

Nickelodeon oversees school outreach activities for its new shows as well.

A Link to Trade Sales

Anecdotal evidence suggests publishers' marketing efforts have a positive effect on school/ library sales. Borzumato reported that when Random House started producing teacher's editions a few years go, orders of those titles in the school/library market came in six to eight months earlier than usual.

Publishers add elements, such as take-home book checklists, to their in-school efforts to help drive students and teachers into bookstores, as well as supporting stores' teacher's nights and other teacher-targeted efforts. They believe their educational initiatives help boost retail sales. Del Priore reported, for example, that when Penguin Putnam began highlighting Grosset & Dunlap's Who Was biographies in teacher's clubs, at conventions and in advertising, its trade sales reps started reporting strong sales, especially from teachers asking for the series in stores.

"We do [in-school marketing] to generate awareness and not necessarily trade sales," said Michael Jacobs, senior v-p of Scholastic's trade division. "But you're sowing the seeds for core backlist titles. There's no doubt that there's an impact, even if there's no order in hand."