While Prestwick House is known for secondary ELA resources, we’ve wanted to expand into the primary grades for a number of years. In 2008, we launched a catalogue brand focused on grades 3-6, the Middle Grades Bookcenter. This catalogue brand was moderately successful, but worked exclusively as a third-party book resale company. Reviewing the finances, we decided to launch a new flagship propriety flagship product that would give us higher profit margins and a large product launch to give us a foothold into the space.
Moving forward with developing the product would be a challenge as our editorial staff was much more comfortable writing for a higher grade level, so we used our knowledge of what works in developing a vocabulary program, and developed a spec sheet to find a partner to help write and develop a new product. My role was providing upfront specifications, evaluating the early drafts, providing editorial feedback, and eventually selling the program. While our team needed to do some significant work to the program to bring it up to our quality level, the program has gone on to sell more than 170,000 copies across the country and remains a best seller.
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