Thank you for your interest in Secondary Solutions.  On this page, we hope to help you become aware of the advantages of becoming a Secondary Solutions dealer.  We have added many new retailers in the last few months and we sincerely hope that you will see how a partnership between Secondary Solutions and your school supply store will benefit both of us.  Here are some commonly asked questions:

1. I don't get many middle school or high school customers in my store.  Why should I carry Secondary Solutions materials?
2. What if I decide to carry Secondary Solutions products and they don't sell?
3. How does Secondary Solutions get the word out about their Literature and Writing Guides?
4. Your Literature Guides seem a little more expensive than some, but a little less expensive than others.  How do you justify your price point?
5. How are Secondary Solutions products different?

1.  Secondary teachers are always looking for new materials.  They often actually walk into stores, looking to see what is new out there, or what may make their life easier.  (As secondary teachers, we ourselves often visited stores, but usually went away empty-handed because of the inferior quality or poor focus of the products available in the store.)  Basically, store owners may not even realize how many of their customers are middle or high school teachers because they leave empty-handed.  Perhaps you could do some sort of simple survey as your teachers walk in just to see who your customer base is.  If there are secondary teachers, ask them WHY they came in, and what they would buy if it was available in the store.  So many secondary teachers turn to the Internet for materials because stores are not willing to take a chance and carry (and promote) secondary materials.  They would rather overlook the secondary side altogether, since it is so much easier to sell elementary products.  By carrying secondary materials, your customers will have a reason to come to your store.  It's that simple!      (Top of Page)

2.  We GUARANTEE our products will sell in your store.  If they don't sell, we will give you your money back.  Simply return the unsold books at any time (free of any stickers or other markings) and we will cheerfully refund your money.  We know that secondary teachers are buying—many stores are extremely successful in selling our products.  We have also seen a 300 percent increase in our sales over the last year—the customers ARE out there.  Once word gets around that there is a store in your area that they can drive to and get what they need, word will spread.    (Top of Page)

3.  We go to conferences to tell teachers, home-school parents, and others about our products.  We attend CATE (California Association of Teachers of English), NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English, and ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) and other conferences.  When teachers and others express an interest in owning our Literature and Writing Guides, we direct them to our retail stores to purchase them.  We also send out a monthly newsletter directing subscribers to purchase at a store in their area, and we use Edumart.com, but our biggest sales tactic is word-of-mouth.  We have also used Google, Yahoo, and MSN advertising.  A new advertising method we have recently implemented is, whenever we make a sale, we include several of our catalogs for the customer to share with his or her colleagues, so they, too, are made aware of our products.     (Top of Page)

4.  Our Literature and Writing Guides are written by teachers for teachers.  They are high-quality, NCTE standards- based and contain everything for the student and teacher in one fully reproducible Guide.  (This company was conceived because there was nothing available that covered the standards while teaching the literature.)  Because teachers only have to buy one Guide, (as opposed to a separate guide for teacher and student), our price point is actually lower than our competitors'.  Additionally, there are other "lit guide" companies with even higher price points, ranging as high as $39.95!  Most others do not even come close to the quality of those from Secondary Solutions, and none of them provide activities directly related to the content-standards, as do those from Secondary Solutions.  We ask our customers, why spend $15-$20 on something you may use once, or use for only one activity, when you can spend less than $25 on a Guide you can use over and over, that is chock-full of useable ideas, worksheets, and activities, while saving yourself as much as 250 hours of work outside your regular school day?     (Top of Page)

5.  Quality!   Content-standards-based.  Our Guides do not just contain a few ideas, but are loaded with actual useable reproducible worksheets.  We don't just give the teacher an idea, we have worked the idea out for them in worksheets they can give to their students.  Rather than telling a teacher that "Chapter Four contains good use of Irony," and expecting them to create activities to teach that skill, we have actually done the work for them and created worksheets and activities for them to use as they teach the skill.  The same with vocabulary from the novel.  They are not just looking up words and memorizing definitions for a test but getting regular practice using the vocabulary throughout the reading of the novel or play.  Our Literature Guides also provide three to five pages of ideas for pre-reading, post-reading, essay-writing and alternative assessment activities.     (Top of Page)

Other information you may be interested in:

We offer the standard 50% discount with no minimums to our dealers.  If you are not yet convinced that you should carry our products, why not purchase a few, see how well they move in your store, get feedback from your customers, and if they sell, order more?  If they don't sell, you have nothing to lose.  Just return them for a full refund.

We can also send you some of our catalogs to place on display in your store before you buy from us to see if there is any customer interest.  This will also tell you which of our titles will sell best in your area.

We offer store support, phone support, and email support, as needed.  We also offer free "window clings" for you to place at your front door to let potential customers know that Secondary Solutions products are available in your store.  Remember, word-of-mouth is your best salesperson.  Your elementary customers will pass the word on to your secondary customers, and soon, our products will be flying off your shelves!

Many of our Guides offer cross-curricular ideas, as well.  Some contain historical context or science extension activities, while some contain tolerance and/or character development activities.  All of our books have several pages of pre-reading, post-reading, essay-writing, and alternative assessment activities, each of which could be used in cross-curricular activities.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask!  We will get an answer to you within 24 hours.