By Carin Lamontagne, Senior Content Editor and Submissions Editor
You have the most amazing idea. It will revolutionize education. If only someone would publish it…
PCI Education welcomes submissions from teachers, students, parents, or anyone else with a true interest in improving the materials available for students with special needs. So how do you get your submission to us? And how can you improve your chances of having PCI (or any publisher) develop your submission for publication?
Before you send a submission to a publisher, do some research. First, find out whether the publisher accepts unsolicited manuscripts. PCI Education does; some other publishers do not. Then, determine what market the publisher serves. In the case of PCI, we serve students with special needs; specifically, students with learning disabilities or with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. Next, determine what types of products the publisher is putting out on the market. Check the publisher’s website or catalog for recent additions to the product line. For example, PCI has been focusing on core programs in the most recent years, although supplemental products continue to be a part of our line-up. Next, look for products that may compete with your submission. This is information PCI specifically requests from submitters, but it is a good idea to complete this research no matter which publisher you choose. If there are similar products on the market, focus on what makes yours different.
Once the research is done, find out what submission policies the publisher has established. These policies and the submission procedures will usually be posted on the publisher’s website; for PCI, look here: PCI Product Submissions Policy. Follow the instructions as closely as possible to increase your chances of success.
Finally, send your submission to the publisher for review. Depending on the submission, the publisher, the time of year, and a variety of other issues, review can take days, weeks, months, or even years. Many publishers have a “don’t call us; we’ll call you” policy, and you may not receive feedback unless they choose to accept your submission for publication. PCI informs authors when their submissions have been received, and we contact authors again when the decision to accept or reject has been made. Be aware that many publishers do not return submissions, retaining or discarding them after acceptance or rejection. PCI returns all rejected submissions that include adequate return postage.
We understand that people who work directly with students often have the best ideas for teaching those students, and we have seen submitted product ideas lead to successes in the classrooms. So if you have the next Cooking to Learn, or Academic Curriculum Framework, submit it for review. At PCI Education, we know that innovation comes from necessity. We take product submissions very seriously, and we strive to give each submission a full and fair review. We see our submitters as customers, partners, and resources; and we all share a common goal: providing solutions that help individuals with special needs and learning differences attain success in school, at home, and in the community.
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Carin Lamontagne is a Senior Content Editor and Submissions Editor with PCI Education. For over four years, she has been key in developing process for product submissions and has spent a great deal of her career at PCI working on the software development teams for products such as PCI Reading Program Software, Word Munchers, and Math Munchers.
Prior to her career with PCI Education, Carin enjoyed 10 years in consumer products and specialty retail management. Carin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Anthropology from Texas State University San Marcos.