The academic market is an opportune segment for publishers because
it uses books as a foundation for its existence. It includes, but is not
limited to schools, foundations, research organizations, professional
associations, libraries, students, and individual educators. This
marketplace impacts people of all ages, from preschoolers to
professionals. Regardless of grade, age, major, and choice of home,
public, or private education, people’s need for books is ubiquitous.
But, you say, “Public schools are closed, and no one is sure when
they will reopen. How can this be an opportune time to sell to them?”
The answer is to sell to the homeschool sub-segment of the academic
market.
There are over two million homeschooled students in the United
States, and the homeschooling trend is expanding as parents are looking
more closely at the quality of education their children are receiving,
as well as at the environment in which it is being administered.
Homeschooling is not one, homogenous market, but is a market
comprised of manageable segments, each with diverse buying needs. The
following is a partial list of several of these smaller, homeschool
market segments.
- Online Directories. There are online
directories that serve as homeschooling resource guides. They offer
newsletters, support groups, message boards, tips-of- the-week,
products, and online courses. Use these directories such as
Homeschool.com (www.homeschool.com) to bring exposure to you and your book, which will bring you one step closer to another sale.
- Publications. The media also serves this market segment. For example, there is the Home Education Magazine, the LINK Homeschool Newspaper www.homeschoolnewslink.com), and Homeschooling Today (www.homeschooltoday.com). Additionally, the Old Schoolhouse Magazine (www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com)
provides many ways to reach homeschooling families. It has a store, a
print magazine with a circulation of 40,000, and three websites,
including homeschoolblogger.com, which boasts 10 million page views.
- State, National, and International Associations.
There are many sales opportunities at state-level homeschool
associations. Most states have a parent-educator association, or a
homeschool association, network, or organization. Examples include:
Additionally, there are national homeschooling organizations such as the National Homeschool Association (
https://nationalhomeschoolassociation.com), the Association for Experiential Education (
www.aee.org).
You may be able to utilize NHA’s free email newsletter and discussion
list to spread the word about your books to homeschoolers, media
contacts, and education officials. He also used NHA’s list of support
groups and organizations as a resource for setting up personal
presentations, when appropriate.
Finally, there are also international homeschooling associations.
The following are a sampling of such organizations around the world:
- Book Fairs and Conventions. When the
market for trade shows and conventions reopens, homeschooling book fairs
and conventions will present excellent opportunities to sell books, and
they occur annually across the country. For example, the Homeschool
Fair (www.homeschoolfair.com ) occurs each Memorial Day in Ontario, California.
If you look diligently and strategically you may find a great
source of revenue in non-traditional segments of the academic market,
like homeschools. Remember to break the mass market down into manageable
sub-groups and keep looking for new places in which you can sell your
books.
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