Writing for the Educational Market: Informational Books for Kids

“This is an outstanding book. Laura has distilled her impressive knowledge of writing for the children’s educational market into a clear, step-by-step manual that is invaluable. Each time I consulted it, she amazed me with her candor and straightforward instruction. Laura is the kind of teacher we all wish we had at least once in our lives: a steady, reassuring presence who encourages us to do our best and equips us with the tools to achieve it.” — Robert Lerose, Amazon review

One of the ways I keep afloat as a writer is by writing work-for-hire books for the educational market. This is a market I would not have known existed if I hadn’t heard two editors speak about it at an SCBWI conference back in 1999. Since then, I’ve written more than 110 books for this market. I’ve taught online classes and in-person classes on writing for this market over the years, and I finally put together a book on the topic. It’s basically my class in workbook form. Here’s the Table of Contents of the book, to give you a feel for its scope.

• Lesson One: The Trade Market vs. the Educational Market
• Lesson Two: Finding Publishers and Catalogs
• Lesson Three: Open Up Those Catalogs!
• Lesson Four: Topics You Hope to Write About
• Lesson Five: Writing for Different Age Ranges
• Lesson Six: The Introductory Packet
• Lesson Seven: The Cover Letter
• Lesson Eight: The Rest of the Introductory Packet
• Lesson Nine: Writing Clips or Samples
• Lesson Ten: Writing Samples from Scratch
• Lesson Eleven: Proposals
• Lesson Twelve: Get Feedback on Your Cover Letter
• Lesson Thirteen: Analyzing a Series
• Lesson Fourteen: Series Guidelines
• Lesson Fifteen: Readability Statistics
• Lesson Sixteen: Working With an Editor
• Lesson Seventeen: Researching Your Book
• Lesson Eighteen: Photo Research, Expert Consultants, Indices, and Permissions
• Lesson Twenty: Fiction for Hire
• Lesson Twenty-One: Money and Contracts
• Lesson Twenty-Two: Schedules and Goals
• ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

And here’s an excerpt from Chapter One, which will give you a taste of the voice and approach of this book.  

The Difference Between Trade Publishing and Educational Publishing

The educational market is the group of books published mainly for school libraries to buy. Here’s a brief overview. 

Ages:
K-12 – Books for very young kids, preschool ages, are often written by reading specialists or written in-house by editors. And high school students often read adult nonfiction books. So, the vast majority of educational market books are written for the 1st-9th grade market, with 4^th-8^th grade being the sweet spot. Still, publishers do hire freelance writers for books for kindergarteners all the way up through high school students.

Reading Level:
Standard books – These are books that have a reading level that matches the age of the audience. A book written about a state might be written at the 4th-grade level, and the main audience is 4th graders.
High/Low books – These books are written for kids who are not reading at grade level.  They might be reading below grade level for many reasons: they are English language learners (ELL, formerly known as ESL), they might have learning disabilities, or they might just hate to read and don’t get enough practice at it. For instance, my skateboarding book for Steck-Vaughn is for 7^th– or 8^th-grade students but was written at strict 2nd-grade level. It has a design and cover and dimensions (known as the trim size) of a book for older kids, but the language is extremely simple. That’s because 7^th graders wouldn’t be caught dead reading a book that LOOKED like it was written at a 2^nd-grade reading level. Other high/lows are not as precise, like my outdoor recreation books for Capstone Books listed here. They are written at about the 5th-grade level and are considered appropriate for about 4th- through 9th-graders.

Topics:
Standard curriculum topics – Social studies and science are very common topics. There are not as many math books published (other than textbooks, and that’s not what we’re talking about), and literature is not written much on assignment.  So, the great majority of books are social studies and science.  Books on landforms, periods of history, animals, scientific processes…every level and topic within those two subjects is covered, it seems.
Other topics – Biographies are huge for all age ranges, even down to first and second grade.  Careers are a popular topic, both for career planning and also just for awareness of different jobs as “community helpers.” I did a few books like this one for K-2 (kindergarten through second grade) for Picture Window Books that were considered “career books,” because they dealt with jobs, identifying different workers by the shoes they wore, or the gloves or the jackets they wore.

Social skills themes are big, too, like self-esteem. Social issues and controversial topics, like euthanasia and divorce, are also heavily covered.

High-interest topics (high/lows) are often written strictly to get reluctant readers to read. Sometimes these titles seem like tabloid-style books, but the same rigorous research goes into them that goes into the more standard books. Publishers simply play up the fantastic aspects in order to lure kids into reading.

Tone:
The tone of educational books has historically been very straightforward. They typically use active language, but are not overly dramatic. Clarity takes priority over “fun” writing. You can’t be ambiguous. Some educational publishers use (or at least incorporate in sidebars, etc.) some fun facts and punchier writing. Over the past 10 years, educational books have changed a lot. Publishers do still publish straightforward books, but they increasingly incorporate good design, fun illustrations, and a more contemporary voice. They are books that look fun or interesting to read, whether you have to write a report on a topic or not. Most educational market books are 3rd-person, but some lend themselves to a more personal, 2nd-person point of view. Some even use humor and fun formats to appeal to kids.

Format:
More than 99% of books from educational publishers are PUBLISHED IN SERIES. Some publishers do a very few stand-alone titles (that’s what it’s called when it’s one book, not a series), but this is the rare exception. Series books are very similar in format and style, differing only in content/topic (lots more on this later).

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRADE AND EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHERS
So, what’s the difference between trade and educational publishers?
Here is the main, #1, most important difference between the two kinds of publishers:  For a trade publisher, a writer writes the manuscript she loves and tries to sell it.  For an educational publisher, a writer identifies publishers he would like to write for and tries to get assignments to write books.

Let’s look at that more closely.
For a trade publisher, a writer writes the manuscript she loves and tries to sell it. She chooses the age range, the angle of approach, the tone, etc. She then tries to sell the manuscript to a publisher who will in turn try to sell it to bookstores, libraries, and schools.

For an educational publisher, a writer identifies publishers he would like to write for. He approaches those publishers with an introductory packet and convinces them he is a professional, competent writer. An educational publisher assigns the writer to write a certain book on a particular topic for a definite age range. The publisher provides series guidelines to the writer, and he writes the book according to what the publisher has asked for. He writes the book in a way that it will not stand out on its own but will fit perfectly into the series the publisher has conceived. The publisher sells the book mainly to schools, and also to public libraries.

That’s the biggest difference right there. Here’s a chart to help you see the other differences.

So now you know what the educational market is. Is this a kind of writing that sounds like something you might like? If it’s a market you want to pursue, you can check out my textbook here. There is also some great info online at Evelyn Christensen’s terrific website. Enjoy!

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