An Insider’s Guide to Selling Your Books to Schools and Educators

Breaking into the education market can transform your publishing business—but many independent publishers and author-publishers don’t know where to start. On today’s episode of “Inside Independent Publishing (with IBPA),” Teacher Created Materials Publisher, Trade Division Kyra Ostendorf pulls back the curtain on how books actually get into schools and classrooms, revealing the strategies, positioning, and industry know-how to turn your titles into trusted classroom resources. If you’re ready to unlock a powerful new revenue stream and get your books directly into the hands of students, this episode shows you how. PARTICIPANTS Kyra Ostendorf is Publisher, Trade Division at Teacher Created Materials, where she leads Free Spirit Publishing, Shell Education, and Curiosity Unlocked Books. With leadership experience spanning educational publishing, curriculum development, and early childhood education, she previously served as Vice President of Education at Kaplan Early Learning Company and as Acquiring Editor at Redleaf Press, where she helped grow the publishing portfolio by more than 200 titles. Kyra holds an M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education from the University of Minnesota and a B.A. from Macalester College. Independent Book Publishers Association is the largest trade association for independent publishers in the United States. As the IBPA Director of Membership & Member Services, Christopher Locke assists the 4,000 members as they travel along their publishing journeys. Major projects include managing the member benefits to curate the most advantageous services for independent publishers and author publishers; managing the Innovative Voices Program that supports publishers from marginalized communities; and hosting the IBPA podcast, “Inside Independent Publishing (with IBPA).” He’s also passionate about indie publishing, because he’s an author publisher himself, having published two novels so far in his YA trilogy, The Enlightenment Adventures . LINKS Learn more about the many benefits of becoming a member of Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) here: Follow IBPA on: Facebook – X – Instagram - Learn more about Teacher Created Materials at Follow Teacher Created Materials on: Facebook - LinkedIn - Instagram - X - This episode is presented by Marquis. Learn more at

You can listen to An Insider’s Guide to Selling Your Books to Schools and Educators online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

An Insider’s Guide to Selling Your Books to Schools and Educators is an episode from Inside Independent Publishing (with IBPA) by Independent Book Publishers Association.

This episode is 00:36:18 long.

This episode was published on Apr 30, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Inside Independent Publishing (with IBPA) when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.