College textbook publishers have a great need for freelance writers to develop curriculum components such as test questions, quiz questions, lecture outlines, instructor manuals and student study guides. My ebook Writing College Textbook Supplements, third edition, describes in detail how to create these ancillary materials, and how to get hired by college textbook publishers and also by the curriculum development companies that frequently handle the larger projects for the publishers.
This post covers the major college textbook publishers that have the greatest need for curriculum content creators/instructional designers. Changes occur frequently in the publishing world, so do a web search on a particular publisher or imprint if these more general web addresses don’t get you the results you need.
College Textbook Publishers and Imprints: United States
I list the parent American college textbook publisher and then the main individual imprints of those companies, where relevant. Visit the parent company website to see which imprints cover disciplines in which you are qualified to work, or to find the disciplines directly. See Chapter 3, “Getting Assignments,” in my ebook for all the details on how to get freelance writing projects with textbook publishers.
Note that Pearson Education, Cengage, and McGraw-Hill are the largest American college textbook publishers and thus present the greatest freelance opportunities for curriculum development jobs.
Cengage (formerly Thomson Learning)
- Brooks-Cole
- Course Technology
- Delmar
- Gale
- Heinle
- Schirmer
- South-Western
- Wadsworth
Jones and Bartlett Learning
MacMillan Learning
- Bedford/St. Martins
- W.H. Freeman
- Worth Publishers
McGraw-Hill Higher Education
McGraw-Hill higher education covers most academic subjects. Search the website by specific discipline. You’ll also find:
- Dushkin McGraw-Hill
- Irwin McGraw-Hill
- Primis Custom Publishing
Oxford University Press
Pearson Publishing
- Addison-Wesley
- Allyn & Bacon
- Benjamin Cummings
- Longman
- Merrill
- Prentice Hall
Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group
John Wiley and Sons
W. W. Norton Company
Curriculum Content Management Companies
Many of these publishers have moved away from directly hiring and managing freelance curriculum content creators/instructional designers. Instead, they now contract with curriculum content management companies to do this for them. Finding work with these companies is also covered in my ebook, and you can find a detailed list of them here.
Earn Well Creating Curriculum Content
- Prepare your résumé and sample materials
- Find editors eager to hire you
- Land that first curriculum development assignment
Get details on creating:
- Test and quiz questions
- Lecture outlines
- Instructor guides
- Student study guides
- And much more