HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is one of the world’s three largest educational publishers. It provides classroom content, professional training resources and services, and technology solutions for school district leaders and classroom teachers around the country and internationally.
The Challenge. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt wanted to establish a market-competitive publishing imprint to support its professional development services for educators. This new imprint would become recognized as a credible and preeminent publisher of original research focused on improving student achievement. The imprint would extend the corporate brand into new markets. HMH engaged Boulder Bookworks to build this imprint from the ground up, and requested our team serve as key management leaders.
The Plan. We mapped out a strategy to publish works based on cutting-edge educational research. With careful acquisition and rigorous peer review for all content, our goal was to publish twenty books and professional development resources per year. The imprint would support Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s primary mission to deliver professional learning services to school districts around the country while also building credibility for them with originally researched works.
The Process. We teamed with professional development specialists to learn what was needed in the field. We worked with other department heads to integrate best practices across all divisions as we identified prospective authors and content. We created a peer review board, built dedicated editorial and production teams, and managed the budget to meet corporate expectations for growth. Timely delivery of training resources was critical, so we also assumed management of inventory replenishment and fulfillment logistics.
The Results. We developed new resources for key educator practices, while keeping pace with the direction and growth of the company’s professional learning services. Rigorously vetted content and brand-extending design became part of every published work. Using our trusted network of manufacturers, supply never lagged behind demand. New thought leaders became published authors, which elevated their authority and recognition in the field.
